Is There Really Such A Thing As...

Meeka

Is there really such a thing as the best dog food?
So many I see have so many artifical colours and preservatives in them.That stuff isn't good for a dog.I think the best way you can feed your dog,knowing EXACTLY what they are eating is if you made their food at home from scratch.Is there any food out there that doesn't contain all those artificial colours and preservatives??I feed my dog Canned Chum,
Ingredients:
Meat including chicken,beef,lamb,and pork (WAIT isn't pork bad for dogs??)vegetables,vegetable protein,gelling agents,vegetable fibre,vitamins and minerals,;colours.
Typical Analysis:
Crude Protein:5.50%
Crude Fat:5.00%
Crude Fibre (Max) 2.00%
Salt (Sodium Chloride)0.30%
I don't know whether anybody is with me on this but do you see my point?More likely than not the stuff on the side of the can is only half the stuff that is put into it!!
Tara

oliwa

No, there isn't an ideal dog food. Dogs are as individual as humans. What is healthy and optimal for one dog is not necessarily the same for all dogs. Compound that with the fact the AAFCO doesn't know for sure what constitutes a well balanced diet.

Feeding you dog from scratch can be a great alternative, provided you understand what your dog needs in terms of nutrition and most people do not.

On a separate note, that food you posted is incredibly low in protein for a food with any protein source...I've seen dog treats with no meat have higher protein than 5.5%.

Mikey

Ditto Oliwa especially on the part about low protein. Any dog food must meet AAFCO standards and that's a MINIMUM of 22% protein. However that's for dry food. Is that a nutrional analysis of a wet food? Could you tell us what brand that is?

I think there are 'better' dog foods-but there aren't any GREAT dog foods imho. Best bet is to look for all recognizable ingredients, no harmful ingredients (yes their are dog foods with ingredients in them that dogs shouldn't have) and stay away from meat meals-choose a food with the least amount of meat meals in it (like chicken instead of chicken meal).

Also stay away from any ingredient list that has something like a grain listed in several forms -for example-corn meal, corn husk, corn etc. They've broken it down in the ingredients so it's further down the list, thus implying that meat is higher in quantity (ingredients must be listed by highest to lowest quantity) but really if you put that all together-the corn meal, corn husk, corn -as one quantity-as it really does exist in the food-then there is more corn then meat in your food. It's a common consumer trick.
Make sure meat, a real meat, is the first ingredient

I'd say familiarize yourself with the AAFCO and FDA websites, and do your research before choosing a food. And don't just choose one because it's sold in the vet office-that means they sponsor the clinic, not that the vet likes them.

Criosphynx

the op called it "canned chum" so i appears to be a wet food.


even the best canned food are low percentages because of all the water.

Yuki

I don't think there's one "best" food. We use Pedigree because we have to for my fiancee's older golden retriever- all other foods have left her weak and lethargic, or worse, dangerously ill. Pedigree leaves her healthy and active- almost like a puppy again! We don't know why Pedigree works so well with her, but it does, so we use it. It seems to have perked up the other dogs as well.

My mom's little Pomeranian chihuahua mix thrives best on Iams, so we like that one for her.

As far as homemade food goes, it's pretty hard to mess up rice, so that's about as far as we go with it. I know how to work with human food just fine, but since I have little training/experience with making dog food, I wouldn't know. We use plain white rice for times when our dogs have sensitive stomachs, such as after surgery or when they get a virus, and every once in a while we'll mix a bit in with their dog food as a treat. My fiancee likes to give table scraps to his dogs, but I strictly prohibit such behavior with my dog- I just don't trust us to know all there is to know about a dog's digestive system. I know the basics, but I'd rather just trust Pedigree- I know it works, it doesn't make them sick, keeps them energetic and happy, and they love it.

joesmailer

Yea I agree, every dog will have his or her unique requirements. It's up to you to help find what food works best with their coat, digestion, energy, breath, and of course taste!

JeannieB

There are more & more foods out there that ARE preservative free, colorant free, grain free. There's no doubt about it that articifial ingredients can cause problems.
In the UK the pet food manufacturers follow the National Research Council guidelines as well as the AAFCO standards.
In the UK there are a number of healthy NATURAL hypoallergenic diets that don't cost a fortune and produce brilliant results. Take a look at Fish4Dogs, I think they are also available internationally.

Dawnben

Its the corn is pedagree that is sugar found in 3 different forms in pedagree that gives your dog energy although could you live a healthy life on corn and meat byproducts. Iams is not much better. Try to avoid corn they do something called splitting where they call corn 3 different names. It means that your dog food can be over 50 % corn (not a healthy diet) byproducts and rendered meats can be very bad also plus they preserve the food with something that causes cancer in humans Look up rendered meat in dog food and see what you think. The first time I did it I got sick to my stomach. Costco has a brand named Kirkland that is priced about the same as what you are spending. Real meat and no fillers or byproducts and is preserver naturally. I know I sound extreme but it makes me mad that the dog food companies with there adds about how much they care about our pets cant care if they are adding such bad things to our pets food. There is an article called( whats in dog food ) you can look up, I was shocked.

valentinosamoyeds

I have attended so many dog food seminars. Over the years I have tried to feed "the best" foods. I see grooming clients all the time and the only thing I can say is I have used Wellness, BARF diets, eagle pack, abady, OMAs pride, andd so many other foods. Just use what works because all dogs are different. I find the pet food industry is catering to the owners more than the dogs these days. know what I mean?

Dawnben

check out HALO dog food I was quite impressed with it. I cook for my dogs because of all the things that are wrong with dog food,but if I had to choose one out there this would be it. Also if you want to cook for your pets they have recipes on the site under resources. They give you complete recipes that are like their food. I have never seen a dog food company that will give
you a recipe for their food. I was looking for a food that did not use fish meal in it because I did not want ethxyquin in my pet food ,this was the only one I could find that uses whole fish. No meal of any kind in any of their foods. Check it out