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Commercial dog food has only been around since the 1930s when cereal companies were trying to find something to do with their rejected grain their wheat and rice and corn that failed USDA inspection, usually because of mold. They discovered that the meat industry faced the same problem. Leftover meat not fit for human consumption, usually because the livestock was diseased.

This gave birth to the idea of mixing the rejects together, calling it "pet food", and making big profits off of it. Smart advertising planted this term in the public's mind, but your dog was never intended to get his nutrition from a bag or can, especially filled with this stuff. It's not "dog food" -- it's an artificial diet created for the benefit of the grain and meat industries and the pet food corporations.

Virtually all-artificial diets are heavily based on grains and cereals. But dogs are not cows. A dog has a short straight digestive tract meant to digest meat and protein. Grains and cereals are carbohydrates that require a longer digestive tract. Think of a cow's several stomachs and its long winding digestive tract.

Even worse, many dogs are allergic to so much grain and cereal. They develop chronic digestive problems, or itchy skin characterized by foot licking or face-rubbing. You might never think to associate these skin problems with the grains and cereals in your dog's artificial diet. Finally, the quality of these grains and cereals is terrible. Virtually every pet food company uses grains and cereals that cannot pass USDA inspection.

*Cooking for Your Dog*

An all-natural home-cooked diet is the right food you have a dog with chronic, long-term problems. If your Golden Retriever is really a mess, forget the commercial foods completely and put him on one of the homemade diets. There are several, and one of the best is the natural diet. However, many of them rely too heavily on starches potatoes, grains and beans so be careful. You're trying to move toward a meat-based diet for your dog.

All the homemade diets depend on raw meat so don't be afraid of feeding it this way. However, when your animals are in poor condition or ill, feeding raw foods in such situation is critical as they contain enzymes, bacteria. If you doubt that vegetables are 'alive', consider this if you plant a raw potato, it will grow and reproduce. If you plant a cooked one, it will rot in the ground. Raw foods are 'alive' in some way that cooked foods are not.