Question:
This is a phenomenon I have heard of but not something I have experienced with my own pets.
I also see it among humans: people who eat @ McDonald's evryday & are lean & healthy-looking.
Yet nutritionists constantly state that bad nutrition is harmful, & in my own life, I have found over & over again that bad food=bad results: weight gain, acne, bladder infections, mental symptoms, abdominal pain, etc.
So what's the deal?
I know there are people who think that eating/feeding natural food to pets is a waste. It really is much more expensive but it has always seemed to me that it is best.
I am not trying to start a fight. I would just like to hear why people do what they do. I promise not to start fighting.


Answer:
Up until about last week, I always ate junk food. I loved it...I would eat it everyday if I could. But all of a sudden, I made a choice to not fill my body with that kind of junk. I have always been lean no matter what I ate so it was great when I could eat as much junk as I could.
I guess it just depends on the person/pet. I have known people who smoked for over 50 years and never developed lung cancer yet some of the healthiest people I have known have developed cancer.


Answer:
Don't you think we have dealt with/argued about this very same topic enough??? I know that I'm pretty sick of reading about it...and others are as well.


Answer:
Sorry. I am only asking people who want to contribute. This is a legitimate question.


Answer:
I agree Suzoo,
It dosent seem to mater what others want to contribute as if we dont agree completly with you it turns into a full on debate and argument and were then told how were abusing our pets for not feeding what meets your standards.
With that I wont comment again on pet food/nutrition and I apologize to moderators as im not trying to nitpick, start an argument or anything like that.


Answer:
This is an important question that has huge bearing on animal health & I promised not to go into attack mode. Oh well, I guess some people don't want to discuss serious pet health issues & would rather engage in small talk. I never joined this board for the small talk.
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Homeopathically, one can speak of suppression, which is when the body conceals its unwell state under a healthy-looking facade. Eruptions may then occur @ times of stress, etc. I have found this for myself.


Answer:
In defense of the members here, which you have put down once more, they choose to not discuss "serious pet health issues" with you. This is getting really old Neuro and you have been warned about taking cheap shots and making sarcastic comments such as the one in your above thread. Shame on me for thinking that maybe you were trying to be respectful this time around. You will have one more chance to follow forum policy, otherwise, you will have to find another forum's members to disrespect.
Now, back to the topic at hand. I have seen numerous pets do VERY well on lower quality pet food, including two dogs that we owned when I was younger. They were both large breed dogs (irish setter cross and lab cross) and lived to be 16 years old. On the other hand, I have seen young dogs (4-5 years old) develop cancer despite being fed very high quality food. I can't explain it and I doubt that many could. My personal reasons for feeding what I do is because I trust the quality of the food I buy and choose not to feed by-products (even though cats and dogs eat them in the wild). If I weren't as fortunate financially, I would be feeding lower quality food, I fully admit that. When I was at university, the cats got Nutro because that's all I could justify at the time. Personal reasons are just that, let's not criticize people's decisions.


Answer:
Neuro....I also like to discuss serious pet health issues but I realize that not everyone does and that is why I visit several message boards and have also joined some of the yahoo egroup discussions. There are 2 really great canine nutrition egroups on yahoo(and its free to join) that you would probably really enjoy. I can post the links if your interested. Let me know


Answer:
I actually don't see put downs, sarcasm, criticism, or disrespect in Neuro's posts in this thread.... but maybe that's because I'm used to her style of conversation, which, like mine, is blunt and persistent.
I've fed various quality food to my cats throughout their lives. I think they got Purina most of the time, until a few years ago when they started getting Iams. They have been generally quite healthy except Maddie who has FIV. She had Fatty Liver Syndrome which we were able to cure by force-feeding her Purina CNM and vitamins as per vet's orders. The Fatty Liver Syndrome might have been less severe if her body had fewer toxins in it from the lower quality food, and certainly if we had not let her get so fat she wouldn't have had the syndrome at all, but this was from ignorance. Maddie has suffered from skin allergies and blemishes for many years. Don't know how much of this has to do with diet and how much has to do with the poor state of her immune system.
I think some animals, like some people, are just lucky and are able to live well with lower quality food.
But now that Maddie is showing signs of doing poorly in her old age, I'm going to read the threads about quality food and look into switching her over to better quality for her last few years, hoping to make them more and better.


Answer:
Let's not forget just because a pet looks and appears healthy on the outside does not necessarily mean they are healthy on the inside. It is very possible low quality food catches up to an animal without warning and when you least suspect it, you are dealing with a very sick animal.
Yes, there are animals that are fed low quality diets and are in physically sound health. Why is this? Could be many factors involved but I think it is primarily due to genetics. I think if you fed a genetically superior animal low quality food, the animal would be able to maintain physical health whereas an animal that is not as genetically superior but fed low quality food may feel the side affects from it. These are all hypothetical answers.
With that said, this topic has been beaten to death, (not only on this forum but another well known forum where the thread was closed) and many people have voiced their opinion as far as why they choose the food they do for their pets. It is a very legitimate question but to me there is no point discussing the same topic over and over again.