Green Acres Kennel Shop

Only you can decide what to feed your pet. Listed below are our criteria for selecting a pet food.

Good nutrition, based on fresh, wholesome food, is the foundation of good health. This basic principle applies whether we are a human being or an animal. While many people worry about what they feed themselves and their family, these same people often incorrectly assume that all pet food is equal. Based on the aggressive and confusing marketing practices of pet food companies, people erroneously presume they are feeding their pet a quality food at a reasonable price, when in fact they may be unknowingly doing the exact opposite.

When it comes to pet food, the consumer's motto definitely should be "buyer beware." The pet food industry has done a great job of promulgating several myths about their products which many people sadly accept as fact. I encourage you to take the time to learn about these myths so that you can make an informed decision when choosing food for your furry friends.

The list of ingredients is the most important part of the labeling on any package of pet food. By law, all ingredients must be listed in order, by weight. This portion of the label must indicate if the food is preserved and if so, how. All ingredients on the list are defined by AAFCO. Listed below are some of the ingredient definitions you need to know.

The feeding directions on a package of pet food tell you how much you need to feed the average pet in order for them to get an adequate amount of nutrition. This number is usually given as a range, and it is usually best to start at the low end of the range if you do not want to overfeed your pet. The amount you need to feed your pet is a critical piece of information.

Pet food is an expense and many people wish to make sure they are buying a food that fits there budget. Unfortunately, many people erroneously assume that the cheaper the cost per pound, the better the value. This is not the case.

by Kate Dutra, 4MAY12

Change - not a word that many pet food manufacturers wanted to hear, but definite music to our dogs’ ears and overall heath. The change that we are referring to is dietary rotation. When we first began discussing dietary rotation several years ago, many of our pet food manufacturers were livid! Today however, largely to meet consumer demand, many pet food manufacturers now are producing diets within their food lines that are designed for convenient rotation.

For years, the pet food companies have been successfully convincing many of us that changing our pet’s diet will result in digestive upset. And if you ever did try to switch foods, they were quite often proven correct and you would never make that mistake again! But when you step back and think about it from a canine evolutionary standpoint, does it even make sense? Dogs are scavengers. In its feral state a dog’s gastrointestinal tracts should be equipped to handle a variety of different foods in rapid succession – there is nobody providing a slow transition to a new diet.

By Kate Dutra

For several years I bought into the idea that it was not healthy for my dogs to switch foods, and that once I found a good, high quality brand that they liked, I should just stick with it. This is what the pet food companies and some of the experts were saying and after all, I had a dog that was living proof of the disaster that can occur when foods get switched. A long haired dog with diarrhea – what a mess! So, I threw common sense out the window, and year after year my dogs were fed the same thing day in and day out.

This article is a chart of the various dry and frozen foods we sell at Green Acres. It lists the foods in alphabetical order, indicates the price as of the last time the chart was updated (8NOV11), the amount of  food to feed a 50lbs dog, how much it costs per day to feed that 50lbs dog, and the main ingredients in the food. It makes a great way to easily compare foods.

Because of California Natural's healthy, natural ingredients and the fact that they use so few ingredients in their formulas, California Natural pet foods have always been one of our first recommendations for pets that have food allergy or intolerance issues. Their foods are limited to 3 central ingredients. For example the Chicken Meal and Rice formula includes; chicken meal, brown rice, rice and sunflower oil. A pet food can't be much simpler.