Sienna Brick Road

Editors note: Siennabrickroad welcomes the following article by R. Hudon at For Healthy Dogs.com

Choosing the right kind of food for your dog can be quite confusing with the multitude of choices that are available today. The dog food industry is a huge market targeting over 60 million customers in the U.S alone. Unfortunately, with a market this big this only leaves room for a larger amount of lower quality products to try to avoid. Without knowing exactly what you should be looking for, it can be very difficult to determine which is the right food for your dog and which foods you should stay away from.

•The first and most obvious thing to look for is the price of the dog food. If the price is really cheap, then there is a reason for it. If it was made with good quality products the company couldn’t afford to sell their product so cheap. This is the first red flag you should look for. This could mean the food is made with animal by-products instead of real meat because it is so much cheaper to use. Animal by-products are basically anything but meat. This can include necks, feathers, feet, hooves, claws, undeveloped eggs, and animal waste. Now don’t get the wrong idea and think that every high priced dog food you see must be made from good quality products. You still have to read the labels, but in most cases price is a good indication of the time and quality they put into their product.

•Reading labels is the most important step in choosing a dog food. If you think you don’t know what to look for, you would be surprised what you will find if you actually read the list of ingredients.
In fact, right in the list of ingredients of some large commercial dog foods I have actually seen them list ‘animal waste’ as an ingredient. Yet on the front of the bag they boast that their product is made from high-quality protein including real chicken. They aren’t lying, one of the ingredients listed was chicken, but they are not going to advertise the rest of the ingredients on the front of the package in big, bright,eye-catching letters which is why you HAVE to read the ingredients! If you haven’t yet, go take a look at the ingredient list in your current brand of dog food. You may be shocked to see what your dog has been eating.

•Now besides looking for obvious unwanted products in the ingredient list, make sure the type of meat is listed on the package. If it says anything like, “Meat Meal” or “Meat and Bone Meal” stay far, far away.

•Do not buy anything with the ingredients ‘Corn gluten meal’ or ‘Wheat gluten meal’. This is often used as a filler and because it’s not digestible, all it does for your dog is cause him to produce more waste. Nobody wants that.

•Avoid any products that have chemical additives and artificial preservatives. The most common ones used being BHA (Butylated Hydroxyanisole), BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene), and Ethoxyquin. These have been known to cause a number of health problems in dogs such as allergies, dry skin, liver disease, cancer and general poor health.

•Never buy dog food at large, commercial grocery stores. You will not find good quality food there. The best place to find a good quality dog food is at a speciality pet store or online. Here you can find a great selection of top quality foods for your dog online.

There are many things to consider when thinking about the what kind of dog food to buy but if you know what to avoid, you are on the right path to keeping your dog healthy and happy.