Pet Food Manufacturers Comparison Chart
Dairy Ingredients in Pet Foods (Colostrum, Milk, Whey, Cheese, Yogurt)
Rationale for Dentatreat™
Rationale For Equine Diet™ and Supplements
Probiotic Supplementation
Biotic pH- and pH+
Rationale For Nutritious Oils
Clinical Veterinary Nutrition
Omega-3 Spectrum Dry
Vitamin Basics DSM
Oxidation: The Unspoken Danger in Processed Pet Foods
The Truth About Pet Foods
Rationale for Archetype Diets
Wyscin and Other Raw Food Safety Innovations at Wysong
Wysong's Master Key To Health
Does America Owe an Apology to its Pets
How to Apologize to Your Pet
Welcome - Wysong Pet Health and Nutrition
The Safety of Vitamins and Minerals in Pet Foods
Vitamin C in Pet Foods
Vitamin D in Pet Foods
Vitamin K in Pet Foods
Salt in Pet Foods
Yeast in Pet Foods
Methionine in Cat Foods
Montmorillonite Clay in Pet Foods
Mung Bean Sprouts in Pet Foods
Probiotics and Enzymes in Pet Foods
Proteinates in Pet Foods
The Soy in Pet Foods Myth
Taurine in Cat Foods
Turmeric in Pet Foods
Kelp in Pet Foods
Lecithin in Pet Foods
Limestone in Pet Foods
Meats in Pet Foods
Methionine in Pet Foods
Enterococcus Faecium in Pet Foods
Fish Oil in Pet Foods
Flax Seeds in Pet Foods
Fruits and Vegetables in Pet Foods
Garlic in Pet Foods
Poultry (Chicken) Giblets in Pet Foods
Grape Seed Extract in Pet Foods
Guar Gum in Canned Pet Foods
Corn and Soy in Pet Foods
Di Calcium Phosphate (DCP) in Pet Foods
Digests in Pet Foods
Ecklonia Cava in Pet Foods
Wysong Pet Food Ingredients Explained
Animal Plasma in Pet Foods
Artichoke in Pet Foods
Aspergillus in Pet Foods
Black Pepper in Pet Foods
Bugs, Mice and Grass as Pet Food Ingredients
Carageenan in Pet Foods
Chitin in Pet Foods
Citric Acid in Pet Foods
'Real Chicken' in Pet Foods
Fluff, Puff, and Smoke in the Pet Food Industry
Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Pets
Pet Foods and Bird Flu
High Protein Pet Foods and Kidney Disease
Dog and Cat Urinary Problems
Wysong Prevention and Therapy Guide
Allergen Free Pet Foods
Cold-Processed Canned Pet Food
Pet Foods Developed by Vets, Breeders, etc.
Grain Free Pet Food
Pet Foods Without Added Vitamins and Minerals
Tapioca in Pet Food
Are Meat By-Products in Pet Foods Bad?
Why Feed Any Processed Pet Foods?
Animal Testing and Pet Food Feeding Trials
Pet Nutrition is a Serious Health Matter
Large Breed Puppy Foods
Can Pets Consume Raw Bones?
Should Pets be Vegetarians?
Should Pets be Vegans?
Euthanized Pets as a Pet Food Ingredient
Rodents as Pet Food Ingredients
Rabbit vs. No Rabbit in Pet Foods
Breed Specific Pet Foods
22 Pet Food Fallacies
GMO Ingredients in Pet Foods
Diet Guides for Pet Health Conditions
How Important is Caloric Content in Pet Food?
The Pet Food Ingredient Game
Can Pet Health be Simple?
What are the Healthier Grains?
Raw Pet Food Deceptions Exposed
The 'Food Allergies Are Cured...' Myth
The Challenge of Properly Diagnosing Pet Food Ingredient Allergies
The 'Don't Feed Your Pet Table Scraps' Myth
The 'Don't Feed Your Pet Bones' Myth
The 'Exotic Pet Food Ingredients Mean Good Nutrition' Myth
Pet Food Toxins
Why You Should Not Rely On Pet Food Ranking and Pledges
The "Order of Pet Food Ingredients" Myth
Should You Feed Raw To Your Pet?
The Case Against Raw Frozen Pet Foods
Does 'Organic Pet Food' Mean Healthy?
Wysong Pet Foods Preservation Methods
Why are Wysong Pet Food Bags Small?
Reusing Wysong Pet Food Packaging
Why Does Wysong Make Formulation And Ingredient Changes?
Why Wysong Pet Foods Are Not Always Uniform
Wysong Pet Food Can Linings
The 100% Complete Pet Food Myth
The Real Problem in Pet Feeding
Does Your Pet Need a % of Something?
How to Rotate Wysong Pet Diets
Why Intermittent and Varied Pet Feeding
Pet Foods for Both Canine and Feline
Combining Raw Foods and Wysong Pet Diets
Fresh and Raw Pet Diets
Wysong Feeding Recommendations for Finicky Cats
How to Use Wysong Human Supplements for Pets
Dry Matter Analysis of Wysong Dry Diets
Dry Matter Analysis of Wysong Supplements
Wysong Pet Foods Processing Methods
Dry Matter Analysis of Wysong True Non-Thermal™ Raw and Canned Diets
Archetype Diet Differences
Archetype Special Features
Rx Diet Regulations
Pet Inoculant Uses
What Wysong Pet Diets to Begin With?
How to Transition to Wysong Pet Foods
Wysong Pet Foods Feeding Amount Guidelines
Wysong Pet Food Quality Control
Rationale for Feline Diets
Special Wysong Pet Food Features
About Wysong Healthy & Holistic Pet Food
Wysong as a Holistic Company
Comparing Pet Foods Based Upon What Matters
How To Choose Healthy Pet Foods
Ingredient Sourcing
Wysong Media
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The 'Food Allergies Are Cured...' MythFood sensitivities and allergies are increasing problems. Many pet owners have animals tested to determine which ingredients cause allergic reactions. Once the laboratory report comes back, they then seek a food that does not contain the incriminated ingredient. Manu-facturers cheerfully respond with new varieties of supposedly hypoallergenic foods.
The results of such an approach, however, are disappointing. The reason is that pet foods are not made up of singular ingredients. They are also not made up of the same things that laboratories use to test for aller-gies.
Pet foods can be comprised of as many as fifty different ingredients, all processed under rigorous conditions, including high temperature and hundreds of pounds per square inch of pressure. With such food "tor-ture," the molecular makeup of the food changes. The starting materials are transformed into different ingredients. Fifty starting ingredients trans-form into hundreds of food fractions and chemical novelties.
Allergy testing laboratories use protein isolates. This is not the same as the end product of processing. Beef, chicken, corn and soy in a pet food are not the "beef," "chicken," "corn" or "soy" used in a laboratory.
Consider this quote from a recent study regarding allergies: "...Diagnosis requires dietary elimination-challenge trials and cannot be made on the basis of clinical signs, routine clinicopathological data, serum antigen-specific IgE assay, gastroscope food sensitivity testing or gastrointestinal biopsy..." Guliford, W. Grant, et al. Food Sensitivity in Cats with Chronic Idopathic Gatrointestinal Problems. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 15 (1), 7-13, 2008. In other words, there is no way to determine the tolerance to a food by merely evaluating an ingredient label.
Therefore, the only way to test an animal for sensitivity or allergy to a commercial pet food is to actually feed the food over a period of time to observe results.*
Attempting to treat allergies by removing an allergen - usually impossible to do - solves only part of the problem. Focus needs to be redi-rected to feeding foods which will enhance immune system health and prevent allergic reaction. Additionally, no food should be fed day in and day out. Variety is not only key to nutrition but also to prevention of toxicity and allergy.
* Wysong Health Letter, "Food Allergies," 1998; 12(5):1-2. J Vet Intern Med, 2001;15(1):7-13. J Am Vet Med Assoc, 1993;203(2):259-62. J Am Vet Med Assoc, 1992;200(5):677-80. J Am Vet Med Assoc, 1991;198(2):245-50. John H. Boyles, Jr., M.D., Board Certified in Otolaryngology and Environmental Medicine
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