I’ve been researching dog food lately, and I’m going to share a simple test for determining whether your dog food is any good. But first, I’ll start with my newest pet peeve…
This is a great food. Grain-free and plenty of meat.
Which Dog Food? Answer the Dang Question!
It bugs me when I hit the computer to research something and I end up visiting websites that encourage me to do my own research. When I Google “Best Stapler,” I’m not looking for encouragement to “ask yourself what you are really looking for in a stapler.” I just want to see: “It’s the PaperJaw 3000.” Search for “Best Dog Food” and you will find lots of websites that go on about the attributes of good dog food, but they never tell you what to buy! I’m not going to do that. If you’re interested in my opinion, I’ll give it to you — see the pictures for the foods I use and recommend, and click on them for more info.
Most Dog Food is Nasty
I believe that most supermarket dog food is made out of bad stuff. The ingredient list for Kibbles ‘n Bits, for example, includes corn syrup. I feel sorry for dogs that are being fed sugar as part of their daily diet, and I would expect that whatever money their owners are saving on dog food, they will end up spending at the vet. In short, I believe it only makes sense to consider so-called “super premium” brands, and so I’m only looking at those. Fair-warning: good dog food is significantly more expensive than bad dog food, but the bag lasts longer because you’ll use less per serving, and you’ll end up saving money on vet bills.
My favorite dog food: anything from Orijen.
Variety is Bad: Common Nonsense
How did we all get convinced that we should buy one dog food and stick with it for years and years? I think it’s nonsense. When fueled with constant variety, dogs enjoy rock-solid digestive systems and happily handle whatever quality foods you throw at them. In contrast, if you make your dog eat the same thing every day, month-in and month-out, of course he’s going to get diarrhea if you suddenly change foods. But the problem is not that you switched foods; it’s that you don’t switch enough. I change foods every time I buy a bag. I don’t bother with that gradual blending business either, and my guys are consistently fine with it. (Note: if your dog has been eating the same food for years, his digestive system probably isn’t so rock-solid anymore, so in that case you should introduce new foods gradually at first.)
A Simple Test for Quality: Your food should have a meat or fish followed by the word “meal” before any non-meat ingredient appears in the list. Leave a comment and let us know if your dog food passes the test.
Other Stuff I Learned
After reading a good book on the subject and studying several websites, as well as talking to my vet and a leading veterinary neurologist at MSPCA/Angell, I’ve settled on the following beliefs. Everything here is “in my opinion.”
- Grain-free foods make sense. Wolves don’t eat corn, wheat, and rice, so your dog shouldn’t either. By the way, I noticed that my dogs both scratched a fair amount before I removed grains from their diet; now they rarely do.
- Raw dog foods are in fashion now, but they are too risky. Raw ground meat can contain scary bacteria, so you’re rolling the dice every time you handle them. Too, that same bacteria can survive in your dog’s waste, so the risk lingers.
- Read the ingredient list and look for meat. Ingredients appear in order by weight, and anything that appears after “salt” can be ignored, since it’s present in very small amount.
Natura's EVO line is grain-free and a great choice.
- Speaking of ingredients, with kibble, the word “meal,” (as in “chicken meal,” “bison meal,” “salmon meal”) is a good thing. Since ingredients are listed in order of weight, and since all ingredients are ultimately dried into meal in the process of creating the kibble, weighing them wet (before they are meal) is an easy way to make them appear artificially higher in the ingredient list.
- A Simple Test for Quality: Your food should have a meat or fish followed by the word “meal” before any non-meat ingredient appears in the list. In the table below, notice that Orijen passes the test with item #2 (“chicken meal”) appearing before any non-meat ingredient, and Kibbles ‘n Bits fails the test right off the bat with corn as its #1 ingredient. Does your dog food pass the test? Leave us a comment and let us know!
- Add meat and vegetables to your dogs diet. Apples, cooked broccoli, chicken, roast beef — all great. Whatever leftover meat or vegetables you have around; consider throwing it in there. But first, familiarize yourself with the list of foods that are poisonous to canines.
- Canned pumpkin is a high-fber ingredient that is widely recommended as a good thing to add to your dog’s meal. I use it a lot.
- Feed less. I’m puzzled by the suggested serving amounts I see on the dog food bags — they are too high by a lot. If I followed them, my dogs would be fat. The best foods are more nutritious and calorie dense, so you need less.
- Don’t free feed. If your dog isn’t eating all the food you leave for him right away, something’s off, and it’s possible that he’s bored with the food, or the quality isn’t good enough. See “Common Nonsense” above, and in any case, if he doesn’t eat it in 5 minutes, pick it up.
The Top Ten Ingredients from Two Very Different Dog Foods
Does Your Dog Food Pass the Test?
Good dog foods pass the test (see item #5 above.) Does your dog food pass or fail? Leave a comment and let us know!
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Good stuff Doug:
I’ve gotten in with the Innova low fat stuff and confess I haven’t moved. Harry’s retriever instinct ensures that he never goes hungry….
Hey Doug-
Eukanuba passed the test. Chicken and chicken meal were the first two ingredients. Maybe that explains why 14 year old Tucker can jump up on the couch again!
Sue
We feed our dog pasta with butter and cheese every day. If its good enough for my kids, its good enough for the dog. Actually, you’ve inspired me to go back to the meat based foods. Be aware that my dog scratches a lot and the dog-skin doctor at Tufts suggested that 95% of allergies are food based and generated from proteins.
I agree with most of your opinions. I would add that food that is mostly grain is the cause of a lot of dog, as well as human, disease. I certainly agree with varying the type of food. If they can eat dog poop, I would think they could tolerate a change to “fish” from “chicken”.
Your comment in #9 makes no sense…if a dog doesn’t eat everything right away…my dog never has. He won’t even eat a piece of cooked steak right away.
Finally, where do you get your dog food?
Great info Greg — thanks. I don’t say “LOL” much, but the “fish to chicken” line really did make me. Oh, and let me say to my vast sea of readers that I have witnessed Greg’s dog — who is as sweet and well-behaved as dogs get — walk away from steaks offered to him on the ground. It’s abnormal and surreal, and so I invite you to ignore Greg’s assertion that it is evidence of something. I get my dog foods at Sniff Dawg in Sherborn, MA and Pet World in Natick.
Feeding good food has been paramount to me in feeding my dogs for the past 25 years. It all began back in 1984 when my Lab, Lina, whom I had dutifully been feeing a “premium” kibble of the time (Science Diet) came down with floating lameness and involuntary peeing. I took her to a naturopathic vet (a genius no longer with us) and he told me get her off the commercial dog kibble and to cook for my dogs. So I did. I began feeding using Dr. Pitcairn’s approach– ground beef and brown rice or oats and veggies and a supplement he called Healthy Powder. Her lameness and peeing stopped almost immediately, and I never looked back.
From time to time I doubted myself and “bought into” the myth that somehow corporate America led by vets with 2 hours (if that) of nutritional training should determine what goes into my dogs’ bodies. Kibble is certainly more convenient. But home-preparing food–especially if you do your homework– is perhaps better. At least, it has seemed to work well for my dogs.
My current dog, Roxie,– after one of my kibble spells, and super-premium kibble spells– came down with pancreatitis and had to be hospitalized. I searched for a decent kibble with a low enough fat content and couldn’t find one. So I was forced back to making meals for her where I could totally control the ingredients and quantities. I have also tried raw feeding, but her sensitive digestion cannot handle it (even though philosophically/intellectually the raw, primal approach makes the most sense to me).
I now once a month cook up a mess of (home) ground boneless, skinless chicken breasts, a small amount of grass-fed liver, pumpkin, organic white potatoes, whole eggs (including the shells), and a variety of veggies (green beans, peas, yellow squash, yams, etc.). I mush it all together and cook it up as a meat loaf and give her a measured portion for each meal. This has worked well. I also supplement with wild salmon oil and some extra ground eggshell for the calcium, digestive enzymes, and a dollop of organic yoghurt.
It takes work. I admit it. I make a month’s worth at a time and it takes me several hours and I freeze it in batches and dole it out over that month. But my dog is worth it to me. And I know what she’s eating and I also know that the food is fresh and hasn’t been over-processed (which the manufacturers of heat-treated, machine-extruded kibble cannot say for themselves). Most Americans (humans) are so used to eating over-processed foods themselves, that they think nothing of feeding their pets the same way. Call me radical, but I steer away from processed food for me and my dog.
One other thing. Unless you home-prepare food or buy a super-premium kibble from a really reputable and conscious small manufacturer, not only don’t you know WHAT is in your dog food, but you also don’t know WHO might be in your kibble. I have written about this very issue in my blog (http://housepetality-petsitting.com/do-know-who-your-pets-food/)
Here’s an excerpt:
“If you feed your dog or cat run-of-the mill kibble– even if it says “premium”– there’s a very good chance you are feeding your dog or cat the ground-up, rendered remains of other dogs and cats who were euthanized in animal shelters!!!”
Here’s a quote from a blog specializing in pet food issues has to say:
“Pet foods and treats that contain the ingredients by-product meal, meat meal (not a specific meat meal such as chicken meal), meat and bone meal, animal fat, and animal digest (emphasis mine) could contain a euthanized dog or cat. This is fact, not speculation.”
Truth About Petfood(http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/the-worst-horrors-of-pet-food-on-video.html)
There’s also a video on my blog. If that doesn’t turn you off of run-of-the-mill kibble, nothing will.
For those with Newfoundlands out there. Be sure that the food has taurine in it. My vet gave me a research paper from the Univ. of CA, Davis (2003 I think) that showed Newfs need taurine in their diet. If not, they are more prone to certain medical issues. You can buy taurine supplements if needed, but most good dog food brands for large dogs have taurine in the ingredients. My dog eat California Natural, but Nutri and I believe even Science Diet has taurine in their food for large dogs now.
I give my cat pumpkin in his diet also!
I switched to a grain-free diet because of my dog’s constant scratching and things have improved but he still scratches. This article prompted me to look more closely at the ingredient list and I realized that the protein (chicken) was not the first ingredient. I’m going to try one of the dog foods you recommended. Also, How often do you put canned pumpkin in the food?
Great article with much that I agree with. Check out “The Whole Dog Journal” for yearly information on dog foods and how they are rated and why. There are no advertisers in the Journal so the ratings have some teeth! My tollers have done well on Castor and Polluck Dog Food(only sold at Petco), except for some scratching, so a switch to Natural Balance (sold at Petco and Pet World), with bison or deer and vegetables did the trick. Very limited ingrediants, so it makes checking the ingrediant list much more managable. And its true. Less food is needed with a top quality product and there is never a morsel left in their dishes. The dogs also get a carrot for dessert or some green beans, which ever is available. Thanks for the article…a necessary reaon for debate. There’s a lot of crap out there…just read the ingrediants list. Thanks, Doug.
Some months I use pumpkin a lot, others not at all. It’s easier to find around the holidays. Also, be sure to get 100% pumpkin with nothing added, as opposed to pie fillings that have sugar added.
Here’s a link to an article I just came upon by a holistic vet. It goes a bit beyond the simple ingredient list and shows other ways to analyze the quality of the pet food.
http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/02/03/choosing-a-healthy-dog-food-for-your-pet.aspx
AUNT LUCY’S ARTISAN FOOD! AWESOME… This is a dehydrated food that is meat, vegetable, herbs and fruit only.
Lola, my rescue dog had many digestive problems that included a habit of eliminating in her crate (probably kept in there too long as a puppy) and then eating it to get rid of the evidence. I tried many of the “premium” foods and stools just got softer. After an incident of swallowing plastic requiring vet care, and prescription food, I went to my local holistic supplier. Omar (The magnificent) recommended Aunt Lucy’s immediately. No lapse time feeding it to her, and Boom she is as regular as any dog.
This food smells delicious, as it is only herbs, meat, potatoes, and fruit. He has me add a dollop of pumpkin, and a dollop of yogurt (preferably greek). Can’t say enough about the transformation. I sense for her teeth and her looking for some crunch we will be adding some dry food to the mix at some point.
Hope this helps someone else who may have experienced similar problem.
I was told by a pet food vendor that varying the pet food reduces the chance of allergies. I feed 2 totally different dog foods night and morning and I vary both of those foods. I also cook for my dog at times. I avoid all dog foods that don’t say where they are made after so many chinese corporate vendors have substituted poisonous ingredients for real ingredients in many items including baby formula sold in china. I’m not so worried about grains as my dog is more likely to graze than I am. I cook for her too including sometimes pressure cooking chicken bones until they are soft. She also gets table scraps. Variety isn’t just about better health, its also about quality of life.