Dog Food Choices

Ready to chow down!

You might be overwhelmed with all of the dog food choices on the market today.  Grain free, high protein, weight control, senior...just to name a few.  Where to start?  Here are 5 tips for important things to look for and/or avoid.

1. A specifically named meat should be the first on the ingredient list.  This means that named meat is the main ingredient in your food.  Look for something like "lamb", "chicken" or "beef".  Also avoid any food with animal by-products.  Animal by-products are unwanted and unused animal parts.  These are not healthy for your dog to eat.

2. Grain vs grain free is up for debate.  I choose to feed grain free because my dogs have skin allergies and I like to think removing the grain helps.  If you want to feed food with grain you should find ones with certain grains such as barley, millet, brown rice or rolled oats.  These are best for dogs.  Other grains can be less healthy and simply being used as filler in the food.  Corn is a common filler and should be avoided.

3. Avoid any artificial coloring.  Your dog doesn't care what color his food is.  Those pretty colors are for you, and can do harm to your dog.  Plain old brown kibble is normal and far healthier.

4. Choose food without artificial sweetners added.

5. Look into the preservatives.  Try to find foods without the chemicals BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin used as preservatives.