The research of over 1,000 dog owners in the UK* revealed that two thirds of dogs suffer from some sort of health issue such as allergies, dental or stomach problems.
Despite this, over 60% of owners aren’t aware that poor nutrition is the leading cause of these issues, which can be greatly improved by feeding a quality diet.
The research has highlighted the lack of understanding of what really goes into our dogs’ food, with owners paying little or no attention to what is on the label of their current dog food or knowing what is nutritious for their furry friend.
Let’s look at some of those controversial ingredients:
- Maize or Corn. Many canine nutritionists claim these carbohydrates are harder for the dog to digest and is therefore more likely to lead to food intolerance or allergies.
- Maize Gluten is a by-product of maize processing and can be used to top-up the protein levels of dog foods, usually as an alternative to more expensive meat-proteins. Unfortunately, maize gluten protein is not as easy for dogs to deal with as protein from meat sources and as a result it can lead to health issues like skin problems and hyperactivity.
- Derivatives of Vegetable Origin results from the treatment of vegetable products. Like cereals, vegetables and legumes. It can refer to an extremely wide range of ingredients, from some of the best to some of the worst. Although it does not necessarily refer to a bad ingredient, it could and there's no way of knowing. It's vagueness also allows for changes in the recipe from one batch to another depending on what vegetable products are available at the time. Because it is impossible to know what 'derivatives of vegetable origin' refers to, it is usually best to assume the worst and treat it with caution. Especially if your dog is prone to dietary intolerance.
All the FourFriends range contain high quality human grade meat and at least 87% of the protein is from a meat or fish source. You will also find Aloe Vera extract in all our foods to promote good intestinal health.
FourFriends contains fruit and herbal extracts from grapes, rosemary, turmeric, citrus fruit and cloves. These are natural sources of strong antioxidants. Antioxidants are widely regarded as being useful to prevent or delay some types of cell damage.
There are no added ‘fillers’ such as cereal and all the foods are gluten free. We have ranges for specific intolerances such as ‘Sensi’ which is perfect for dogs of all sizes who have varying metabolisms and particularly sensitive stomachs.
The FourFriends Dog Range can be found here
*Research by The Leadership Factor conducted in April 2017 with 1,021 respondents.