Easy-to-Digest Natural Ingredients in Dog Food

My dog Pony suffered an attack of acute pancreatitis back in January of 2006. In order to keep her from having another potentially deadly attack, I need to feed her a mostly bland diet based on dog food (not people food). Her dog food needs to have ingredients that she can easily digest. Dogs suffering from renal failure or have sensitive stomachs also need easy-to-digest ingredients.

Although most bags, cans, and pouches of commercial dog food state that they are "natural," a quick look at their ingredients shows that they are anything but. They are full of meat by-products and artificial colorings. A steady diet of any brand found at my local grocery store quickly gets Pony vomiting.

What Does Natural Really Mean?

The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) defines natural as:

A feed or ingredient derived solely from plant, animal or mined sources, either in its unprocessed state or having been subjected to physical processing, heat processing, rendering, purification extraction, hydrolysis, enzymolysis or fermentation, but not having been produced by or subject to a chemically synthetic process and not containing any additives or processing aids that are chemically synthetic except in amounts as might occur unavoidably in good manufacturing practices.

No, I don't know what it means, either. This is why you have to look at the ingredients listed on the dog food label rather than go by what the front of the package says. Pay the most attention to the first five ingredients, because they constitute most of the percentage of the actual food content.

The Good Guys

Unless the dog food is vegetarian, the first ingredient should be either water or a specifically named meat. "Meat" can mean a blend of just about any animal part. The easiest to digest meats are chicken, turkey, duck or other poultry. The next easiest to digest is lamb. But even beef or fish is easier to digest than poultry meal or poultry meal by-products.

If the dog is eating vegetarian food, the first ingredient should be soybean meal. My dog Pony sometimes eats vegetarian foods and she loves soy -- even tofu straight from the carton.

Barley and brown rice are gentle, yet nutritious, grains for dogs. For dogs on chronic renal failure diets, they need white rice instead of brown because of phosphorus contents.

Wheat is generally better for a dog than wheat flour, wheat bran or wheat starch, according to The Whole Dog Journal. However, if a dog has a known history of wheat allergies, stay away from wheat.

The best preservatives for dog food are Vitamins C and E, which may be listed as "mixed-tocopherols."

As a whole, canned foods are easier to digest than hard foods, especially for dogs with bad teeth. However, feeding only canned food to a large dog will be expensive, because a good percentage of canned food is water.

References

"Top Dog Foods for Total Wellness." The Whole Dog Journal. 2009.

"Guide to Feeding Your Dog." The Whole Dog Journal. 2010.

Pet MD. " What is Natural Pet Food, Really ?" T. J. Dunn, Jr., DVM. http://www.petmd.com/dog/nutrition/evr_dg_what_is_natural_pet_food

Windy Hollow Vet. "Chronic Renal Failure Diet -- Dogs." http://www.windyhollowvet.com/Document/info/ChronicRenalFailureDiet.pdf

Author's personal experience.