With clever advertising, colorful bags, and multiple aisles of different brands, choosing the right food for your dog can be a confusing and daunting task. However, a number of key factors that contribute to making the right choice can be found on the dog food label.
The first thing to remember when selecting a food for your dog is to completely ignore the bright, colorful pictures on the front of the bags! Many dog food bags are designed to attract the attention of people looking for them, using adorable images of dogs and attractive colors to give the impression that the contents of the bag are as wonderful as the exterior design. In many cases, however, this is not the case, and in fact, this is often an indication of the exact opposite! Although people are often fooled by cute pictures, clever slogans, and perfectly shaped and colored food nuggets, the reality is that the most important aspect of any dog food is its nutritional content, not clever packaging design or labels. nuggets that look delicious. .
One of the best indicators of the quality of a particular brand of dog food is the ingredient list, and by far the most important ingredient to look for is the first one listed! Typically, the first ingredient comprises 70-80% of the total content of the food and the first three ingredients combined make up 90-95% of the food. Dogs are naturally carnivorous and as such require some form of meat as their main staple food for optimal health.
Therefore, it is always better to choose a food that uses some type of meat as the first ingredient. The best foods will list meats as the first three ingredients, and others will list one or more “fillers,” or digestible content that adds little or no nutritional value to the food. Almost all dog food manufacturers use some type of filler in their food, such as corn or wheat, and the general rule of thumb is that the highest quality foods will have the fewest fillers.
Dog foods can basically be divided into three separate categories based on the nutritional content and quality of the ingredients used: Super Premium, Premium, and Generic. Super Premium foods are often made by smaller companies and are generally only available in specialty pet stores. They use the highest quality ingredients and have an exceptional nutritional balance that can possibly add years to a dog’s life! Some Super Premium brands include Royal Canin, Blue Buffalo, and Artemis. Premium foods use good quality ingredients and generally have a proper nutritional balance. Some premium brands include Iams, Science Diet, and Nutro. With the exception of Iams, Premium brands can generally only be sold in pet stores. Generic foods are usually the least expensive and easiest to find (these are the ones found in grocery stores, Walmart, etc.). They use the least expensive ingredients, and some brands change ingredients frequently, based on meat market prices (this can be very damaging to a dog’s digestive system, especially in sensitive breeds). Some generic brands include Pedigree, Alpo, and Beneful.
When choosing a food for your dog, it’s important to understand what each brand offers in terms of nutrition and quality. With a quick glance at the ingredient label, you can often make a fairly accurate assessment of the quality of any given brand and make the right choice for you and your dog!
