If you feed canned dog food, both regular and those advertised as BPA free, you should read the results of this new study from the University of Missouri (Koestel, Z.L., et al, 2016). Dogs come in contact with bisphenol A or BPA through their food, skin and possibly by inhaling it. This study focused on the BPA used to line dog food cans.

Why do you care about BPA? Well, BPA is an endocrine disrupter chemical (EDC), which means it can replace the normal hormones in a dog’s body. Unlike natural hormones, EDCs act indiscriminately and erratically, disrupting critical functions and organs.

University of Missouri researchers found that even short-term feeding of canned food, even BPA free dog foods, increased BPA concentrations in dogs!
These BPA concentrations affected the dogs’ intestinal microflora and metabolisms in as little as two weeks on canned food.

Although we still have a lot to learn about the effects of BPA on people and dogs, researchers are confident that exposure to BPA either in utero or soon after birth alters epigenetic programming, resulting in longterm effects that are often expressed later in life (vom Saal FS et al., 2007). Even low doses of BPA early in life cause effects that persist into adulthood, long after the puppy’s exposure has ended. This prenatal and neonatal exposure to BPA results in changes in many organs, such as the prostate, breast, testes, mammary glands, body size, brain structure and chemistry, and behavior. In addition, exposure to even low doses of BPA in adulthood can cause substantial behavioral and reproductive problems in both males and females.

Do you know the four things everyone should feed their dog, with one more for golden retrievers?