[Eileen S]

I religiously read ingredient lists on pet foods and treats. I’ve tried keeping up with home cooking, but really, supplementation is all I’m good for. My most recent ingredient debacle is finding stuff WITHOUT Rosemary! No oil or herbal inclusion as it can set off more seizures in a dog already suffering from seizures! More pet products are going to Rosemary as a preservative. They were using Vitamin E & Tocopherols & I’m not all that thrilled with canola oils as the fat content. But I do digress. It is hard on my vision to squint the print at the stores & see all the ingredients. Sometimes I still miss things, come home in better light only to find the suspect ingredients after buying a product I cannot use. On line, the frequency of not listing ALL ingredients is rampant. Then there is the problem of finding the parent company and the actual manufacturing location of the parent company for the products. Take for instance the Whimzees or Whimz people, Paragon Products. My dogs love the chewies. But every listing of their products has them made in Holland. They are then distributed from Wilmington, DE, the UK, Holland, or other places. Distribution: what exactly does that mean? The ingredients listed on my box look fine, none of the additives I have to currently watch for. Who is Paragon Pet Products? I stopped feeding grains when wheat was the big issue in that decision when China added melamine to make wheat cheaper by the ton. And oh by the way, kill off animals (dogs primarily) and their own people, who ate products with that in it. Then what did we do with the tainted dog food? Rumor has it we gave it to our cattle! One, cattle don’t need meat by products. Two, that puts the melamine into our food chain, doesn’t it? I could really use a filter that would work on with a search engine on food ingredients. I may be wishing for the impossible. Because, as I have experienced, same company has a range of treats for example. Depending on the flavor or consistency (hard versus soft) any will have rosemary as a preservative and several will not , as least not have it listed. So what is a pet parent to do?

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