About 20 years ago, when I was a child, if someone raised cats or dogs and said they only ate cat and dog food, that was simply a luxury. Their cats and dogs became much more "noble" . Because domestic pets at that time still relied on household leftovers as their main rations, some wealthy families would feed their cats rice mixed with chicken liver, but this was generally not the norm.

It has only been in the past 10 years in China that pet food has become a necessity for families to raise pets. So is pet food really a more "noble" feeding choice? If you look back at the development history of pet food, you will find that this is not the case at all. Let’s take a look at the history of pet food.

　1. 1860s

Tracing the origin of pet food back to 1860. At that time, an American named James Spratt got inspiration from sailors' dry food biscuits. He mixed wheat flour, beets and beef to bake small biscuits and made the world's first dog food. However, this kind of dog food is expensive and not something ordinary families can afford. It is almost "exclusively for nobles."

　2. Early 20th century

Until the early 20th century, with the development of canning technology, canned wet pet food became popular. Since animal offal and horse meat (yes, horse meat) as raw materials are very cheap, canned wet food quickly seized the market, and the market share once reached more than 90%.

3. World War II

However, World War II changed the landscape of the pet food market. During the war, the metal tin used in the production of cans became a controlled material, and the canned wet food industry was devastated.

When animal lovers discovered that as many as 50,000 horses were slaughtered every year for the production of canned pets, they became even more outraged and launched a massive boycott.

Pet food manufacturers are also not allowed to let pet food return to the "dry food era", but the dry food raw materials at that time were still mainly animal waste, ground and shaped, and dried in ovens.

Although canned raw materials are no longer in short supply after the war, people have become accustomed to simple and fast dry pet food, and wet food has never become the mainstream in the market.

　4. 1956

1956 was an important year. The most common puffed pet food was launched and quickly occupied the market with its low price and convenience. For more than 60 years, puffed pet food has been the mainstream of the market. In recent years, wet food, raw meat food, and freeze-dried food have begun to develop.However, due to various factors such as price, it is always only a supporting role in the market.

Having written this, you should have discovered that in the development of pet food to the present, various forms have alternated and repeated, and finally settled on puffed biscuits. Low cost and convenience are the main driving factors.

To put it bluntly, pet food is not only not "luxury" or "noble", but strictly speaking, it is essentially a convenience food, nothing more.

Since it is a convenience food, pet food must make some compromises.

From a nutritional point of view, no matter how good the formula, no matter how advanced the technology, no matter how comprehensive the nutrition of pet food is, it cannot be the best food for animals.

Otherwise, why haven’t military “compressed biscuits” and various weird meal replacements become the mainstream of human food?

Having written so much, I am definitely not against pet food.

On the contrary, I believe that pet food is the best solution for the vast majority of shit collectors at this stage. After all, many people still rely on takeaways and convenience foods for a living, and they do not have the conditions to prepare special meals or nutritious meals for their pets. It is better for pets to eat pet food than to eat human leftovers.

Looking at the essence through the phenomenon, pet food is just a convenient and cost-effective pet food solution. It is not noble, nor is it the most nutritious and delicious pet food.

If you ask me how to choose pet food, it can be summed up in one sentence: choose the most suitable one at a price you can afford. Whether it’s 10 yuan per pound or hundreds of yuan per pound, there are relatively nutritionally balanced pet foods to choose from.

Whether it is human food or pet food, nutrition, low price, and convenience are like the three anchor points that form a triangle. Deliberately changing the position of one anchor point will inevitably affect the other positions.

Therefore, there is no best pet food, only the one that suits you best.