here is the problem with most (most, not ALL) commercial petfoods.   Just look at the labels and you will start to understand.   For cats, as I mentioned earlier, they are carnivours.  The eat meat and cannot process complex or even simple carbohydrates.  Most cat foods contain high amounts of carbohydrates.  Why?  Simply put it adds bulk, nothing more.  Become efficient at reading the ingredient list on lables.   They are not always truthful, but you will get an idea pretty quickly if kitty really needs this food.  Most cats live just fine (and better!) with canned tuna in water, or canned chicken in water that you'd use to make a sandwich.   With that i'd suggest highly "greens", most pet food stores carry "cat grass" you grow in a pot on your counter for them.

Dogs may eat out of the trash, that doesn't mean its good for them.   Yes dogs are nature's "Pick up crew"......... sort of.   They do scavenge, but as for clean up comittee, any zoologist will tell you, thats hyenas who've adapted themselves and their stomachs to even eat the worst rotten food and survive.   Domesticated working and house dogs are so removed from nature they can't actually exist as scavengers.  Have a dog with a "tender tummy" and you'll begin to see it for what it is.  In effect, we've bred the stomach out of them.

The number one dog food additive that will shorten the length of the life of your dog, ask your vet, is CORN.  Check your label.   Why is corn so bad?   Three reasons:

1:  Corn is not digested in any way by a dog, it passes right through.  Eat some corn on the cob and watch in the bathroom a day later.  This is not speculation, its fact.

2.  Corn has absolutely NO nutritional value to a dog.  It is used for bulk to make volume in the bag or can, thats all.  This is "space" that should be filled with the protein and amino acids they need.

3:  The BIG one.  Pay attention.  85 percent of all dogs are ALLERGIC to corn.  You can wipe out, in one stroke, bad dog breath, dental problems, soft gum disease, skin allergies, loss of hair, weakness and "wet dog smell"........... simply be erradicating corn from their diet, period.

Corn is used by many manufacturers simply because its plentiful, cheap (dirt cheap), and gives enormous volume to a bag of food.   Though there are other alternatives, why they arent used is a mystery, because most of them too, are also inexpensive.  Rice, Oatmeal, and barley.

If your dog has any of the above, especially balding patches, or occassional skin "hotspots" I highly recommend changing to a food with no corn in it and watch the miracle happen.

However, again touting the best ways to feed an animal, is sometimes unrealistic.   The best advice is to give your pet the BEST food you can possibly AFFORD.  Touting one brand over another "BUY PEDIGREE!"........ or "ONLY HOME COOKED!" is not really helping anyone.  In one forum someone begged the populace to use "Hills science diet", as any other food was sacrelidge.   I hated to inform him and do the legwork to get him the site, but he was advising people to use a food that was cited several times for using meat from rendering plants that included euthanized housepets.

People are touting foods or suggesting them, simply because they are "not on the list".  Yet some they are suggesting use the cheapest ingredients known, and some that are absolutely horrible for your pet.  I wouldn't feel comfortable now advocating ANY pet food at all.