Fish-Included Dog Foods: Made in China!

Throughout the years of constant research in animal health, especially concerning a dog’s health, Omega 3 has been shown to have good effects on our canine friends. Omega 3 is found in most fish and this is why most companies tend to include fish as part of dog foods and raw diets. The term fish-included dog foods is used for marketing purposes, but also for proper nutrition for dogs. However, there can be big exceptions since not all manufacturers of dog food have the same kind of standards in procedures and processing.

Fish-Included Dog Foods

So we ask: will fish-included dog foods be safe for our pooches? And most importantly, where does the fish come from and how is it processed?

This is the shocking truth: most fish-included dog foods come from China. Yes, the one and only China. Even if they caught and imported fish from other countries in the West, China is still the base of operations for processing these kinds of dog foods, and then ship to the rest of the world. And as we are all aware, China has a not-so-good reputation when it comes to qualities of processed foods and adding preservatives, so one has to be very alert.

Most fish are caught from New Zealand, and some are imported from Canada, Alaska and other countries. These countries pay China to process their foods. There is a YouTube video (http://youtu.be/_cJOeEQPxuQ) that shows the big difference between fish that is purely processed in New Zealand and fish that was imported from New Zealand but processed from China. The Chinese-processed one is very pale compared to the New Zealand-processed one. Also, most of the fish there contain STTP (Sodium Tripolyphosphate) which is a known chemical pesticide in most countries.

To be as safe as possible, you should just stay away from dog food kibble that has fish in it, as it could surely be manufactured in China. Not all Chinese factories have high standards in sanitation and food processing; this most probably includes diseased or ‘double dead’ animals, and even bits of plastic and hair! Now that is just truly gross.

So what is the best solution? It is simple: just stay away from dog food products that have fish in it, as much as possible, because you never know what kind of factory it has gone through or how it was processed by the workers.

In general, a dog needs about 100 to 150 milligrams of Omega 3 every day but there are better ways to provide this vital oil than feeding fish-included dog foods.  There are food supplements out there that can be good for your dog’s health, such as Nordic Naturals Omega 3. Its dosage depends on how big your dog is. Just cut in half and give it to your canine buddy every day or every other day. You can also feed your dog some Omega 3 that is of human grade. And another caution: you should also watch what kind of fish you are eating yourself, as these could have come from China as well.

Personally, I won’t knowingly let our dogs ingest ANYTHING from China until they clean up their attitude and act. And, they show no sign of doing either any time soon.

What are you opinions of this subject? Please leave comments below.