Do you know how to choose a dog food?
By price? Because it says its premium? Because your vet recommended it? If you answered yes to any of these, you might want to think again.
Did you know that the most expensive foods in your pet store are not necessarily the best ones? In fact they might not even be very good. Now you can be sure that the really cheap ones are not even worth looking at. No one can make high quality dog food for super cheap prices. To find a high quality dog food you may have to look farther than the grocery or pet store.
You might see pictures of steak, chicken, fresh vegetables, and grain on a bag of dog food and think that they actually contain these ingredients. Read the ingredients; you might be in for a rude awakening.
So how do you find a high quality dog food?
You are going to have to break down and read the ingredients. When you find one that fits the bill, give it a try for a month or two. If after 12 weeks your canine is itching like crazy, licking his paws, having digestive stress, it is time to try another dog food.
Here are dog food ingredients that you should look for in a dog food:
The Good
- Whole fresh meat or single-source meat meal (e.g. chicken meal rather than poultry meal)
- A whole meat source as one of the first two ingredients (e.g. lamb or lamb meal)
Unprocessed grains and vegetables
The Bad:
- Generic fats or proteins like animal fat or meat meal
- Artificial preservatives
- Artificial Colors
- Sweeteners
- Salt
The Ugly:
- By-products (things like lungs, kidneys, brains, bone, blood, stomachs and intestines) YUCK!
