How to Select Quality Food for Your Dog

Due to being the proud owner of two growing puppies, I became interested in dog nutrition and I thought I would share what I have learned with all of you so you can get the best for your pooch that your budget allows. And, best of all, buying your dog food according to some of the stuff discussed here means you'll likely have to deal with fewer recall issues, if at all! All you gotta do is know what you're feeding your dog. Awesome, huh?

(Note: please keep in mind that I'll be writing about dog food offered in the United States, but I will also be explaining what is good and what is bad about the food so that you can take what you learn here and buy whatever premium dog food is offered in your respective country.

Also, this will be rather lengthy but I hope you can bear with me. If you want to skip through the explanation for now, there will be a summary at the end and you can come back and read it at your leisure.)

The first thing you'll probably think of is "Science Diet is vet recommended so it must be the best food available, correct?

Wrong.

As you can probably guess, the dog food companies endorse vets which allows them to be able to pay for vet school; in turn, they are sort of obligated to "recommend" and sell the product of the sponsoree in their vet clinics. So, although Science Diet is vet recommended, it's pretty much low in nutritional value. Why?

Let's take a look at the ingredients.

This is the Science Diet Adult Original dry dog formula:

"Chicken, Ground Whole Grain Corn, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Ground Whole Grain Wheat, Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Corn Gluten Meal, Brewers Rice, Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Oil, Dried Egg Product, Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride, Iodized Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), DL-Methionine, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract. "

Props to anyone who can actually pronounce some of the things in there. The first red flag for this food is that the second ingredient is corn. Why is corn bad? Because corn, just like in humans, has very little nutritional value and is basically a filler product. By placing corn higher up in the ingredients list, the food companies are making more money because the dogs have to eat more of it since they are getting very little meat.

What is grain sorghum anyway? Chicken by-product meal means feet, beak, claws, wings, eyes - the whole thing.

So, within the first five ingredients, only one is a true meat source (the chicken listed first) while the proceeding three are grains (which are fillers) and the last is the equivalent of chicken garbage.

Let's look at another popular food, Iams.

This is their Adult Lamb Meal & Rice formula:

"Lamb Meal, Brewers Rice, Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Corn Grits, Chicken By-Product Meal, Ground Whole Grain Barley, Chicken Fat (Preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Beet Pulp (Sugar Removed), Fish Meal, Natural Chicken Flavor, Dried Egg Product, Potassium Chloride, Brewers Dried Yeast, Salt, Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate (Source of Vitamin B1), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement (Source of Vitamin B2), Inositol, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Source of Vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Fish Oil (Preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Choline Chloride, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate), Monosodium Phosphate, DL-Methionine, Rosemary Extract "

Again, a ton of things most of us can't even pronounce. One positive thing, is the first ingredient is "Lamb meal." Yet, looking at the next six ingredients, they are grain fillers, and again, chicken garbage.

Pet food companies are producing these food with all these fillers so that your pet won't get full by eating a moderate amount, and will continue to eat because he is hungry - therefore making YOU, the honest pet owner, buy more food so Fido isn't hungry. It's all a scam, really, if you think about the true spirit of the word.

So, to summon the first part up.. we don't want grain to be within the first three ingredients AT ALL! And if it's going to be within the first five ingredients, there should only be one grain filler listed.

To give a fair analysis, let's go with another popular pet food product, Purina.

I'll list the Purina Beneful dog food which is supposed to be extra healthy for your dog.

Ingredients:

"Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), rice flour, beef, soy flour, sugar, sorbitol, tricalcium phosphate, water, salt, phosphoric acid, animal digest, potassium chloride, dicalcium phosphate, sorbic acid (a preservative), L-Lysine monohydrochloride, dried peas, dried carrots, calcium carbonate, calcium propionate (a preservative), choline chloride, added color (Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 2), DL-Methionine, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, Vitamin A supplement, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin B-12 supplement, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, copper sulfate, biotin, garlic oil, thiamine hydrochloride, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, sodium selenite."

No, no, no! There is ABSOLUTELY NO MEAT listed AT ALL within the first five products and pretty much makes this dog food worst you can possibly buy for your dog.

A filler is the first product! Which means your dog is going to eat a lot of food, and I mean a lot of it. The second ingredient gets a little closer to meat, but is still beaks and legs, et cetera. The rest is either fat or grain along with our friends that we can't pronounce.

Don't believe me? Well I'll give you the "recommended feeding schedule" for my dog, a 45 lb. German Shepherd. I can't remember exactly, and since it isn't listed on their website, I'll just have to estimate. When I was unfortunate to feed this food, I want to say that it was anywhere between three to three 1/2 cups per feeding. That's hugely cost ineffective.

So now you're probably wondering, "Well, what DO I look for?" Fortunately I can tell you.

Since we've learned that we want to keep grain to a minimum and meat to a maximum, lets look at some premium dog food.

Staring off with Canidae's All Life Stages formula. While I wouldn't personally feed this to my dog since it's fairly expensive for what quality you get, it is a huge set up from any of the above kibble. Let's take a look at why:

Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Brown Rice, White Rice, Lamb Meal, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Herring Meal, Flax Seed, Sun Cured Alfalfa Meal, Sunflower Oil, Chicken, Lecithin, Monocalcium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Linoleic Acid, Rosemary Extract, Sage Extract, Dried Enterococcus Faecium, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae Fermentation Extract, Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Extract, Inulin (from Chicory root), Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Fermentation Solubles, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Mixed Tocopherols (source of Vitamin E), Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Cobalt Amino Acid Chelate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (source of B2), Beta Carotene, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, D-Biotin, Sodium Selenite, Papaya, Vitamin B12 Supplement.

Taking a look at the first six ingredients, four are REAL meats (Chicken, Turkey, Lamb, and Fish). The other two are fillers, but the most important thing is all of the meats. Again, there's a lot of the stuff that you can't pronounce but the most important thing is all the meat. Since the first few ingredients are usually watered down, it's vitally important to get as much meat as possible.

**** Since this is getting rather lengthy, I'll just end it here and start summarizing my main points. The above kibble is good enough to show what I mean as compared to the others. **

HOW TO SELECT A GOOD, WHOLESOME KIBBLE FOR YOUR DOG (OR CAT!)
- Try to get as many meats as you can within the first five or six ingredients.
- Try to eliminate as many fillers as you can within the first five or six ingredients.
- Try to select a dog food that has ingredients that you can actually pronounce.
- It is never a good thing to have a filler within the first two ingredients, ever. Your dog will simply go through this food like he's famished.
- If your dog has allergies (and even if they don't), then it's a good idea to go with a "Holistic" kibble. This means, grains will be kept to a minimum seeing as most allergies in pets are triggered by reactions to grains and things of that nature.
- And, the best part about it, the less grains you have, the less chances your kibble has at being recalled!

WELL, WHAT ABOUT MY PUPPY?
Research is emerging that feeding your puppy adult food is probably the best way to go. I encourage you to Google this for yourself, and draw your own conclusions. It has been noted that puppy food causes puppies to mature faster than their bodies would normally allow for, and therefore, they will eventually outgrow their own body. This leads to increased potential for things like paralysis and hip or elbow dysplasia later in life. Like I said, research it yourself and draw your own conclusion. Also, keep in mind, in the wild, wolf pups eat the same thing that grown adults do.

WILL THIS WORK FOR MY CAT/KITTEN AS WELL?
Yes

IS THERE ANY OTHER ALTERNATIVE TO KIBBLE?
Well, I would leave the canned food alone from any brand because it is mostly water, and a lot of it. The only true "natural" food for dogs is raw. Yes, raw meat. Your dogs will absolutely fluorish from it, and just about any dog will readily accept raw meat. See, while dogs have evolved over thousands of years of domestication, their digestive tract hasn't. Their stomaches are still very acidic, readily capable of digesting raw meat. Most of the suggested raw meat to feed your dog is offal, so if you can't handle handling organs, then I wouldn't recommend this diet for you.

But, as you can imagine, this can get very expensive which is why I don't feed raw. But if you would like more information, just google "raw dog food" or "BARF diet" and you can come up with some websites that actually give you a day by day schedule of what to feed your dog on a raw diet.

This goes without saying but please note that I am, of course, NOT a veterinarian so I can't recommend what's best for your pet. And really, he can't either, when it comes to nutrition lol. I'm just merely trying to give you suggestions! So, just read over the material here, google it for yourself, and draw your own conclusion. Thanks!