The Basics of Choosing the Best Food for Your Dog
Choosing the best food for your dog can be a daunting task. Just trying to decipher the information on bags of dog food can be confusing. You want to provide your dog with the best food for them, but how do you know what to choose?
The first thing to remember is that dogs are meat eaters by nature. So you want to choose a food that is primarily a meat based product. Plants and grains are harder for dogs to digest and offer less nutrition.
To start, look at the first five ingredients on the packaging. Dog food manufactures are required to list items in order of weight. The first item on the list will be the one with the greatest volume in the food. Choose a food that lists the first item as a meat source. Chicken, beef and lamb are the most common meat sources you will find. If you have a choice between chicken and chicken meal, choose chicken meal. There is less water content in chicken meal, thus providing your dog with more nutritional content. Whenever possible avoid products with meat by-products or unspecified meat in the ingredient list.
It is preferable to see at least two meat sources in the first five ingredients. From there you will be looking for as few grains as possible. Grains are filler items and not easy for your dog to digest. Finding a food with no grains is nearly impossible, so just try to limit the number of ingredients that are grains. If you have a choice, whole grains are preferred, as are whole fruits and vegetables and brown rice. Ingredients to avoid include corn products, wheat products, beet pulp and molasses.
Choosing a dog food requires a bit of up front research. Once you have found a food that provides the best overall nutrition give it a go. Chances are your dog will love it and your extra effort will be rewarded with a happy, healthy and playful pet.
