Garlic / Onion Powder
Garlic and onion are known to be extremely toxic to dogs.
Allium family members can cause hemolytic anemia. Even in small amounts, they can result in the pets death.
But wait, arent we talking about the dog food ingredients here? Why would anyone use garlic and onion?
And in powder form, nonetheless which can be up to 8 times more potent than fresh vegetables.
Is it surprising that some dog food manufacturers use onion and garlic powder as flavor enhancers? It sure was for us.
Dont panic these are always lower on the ingredient list and unlikely to hurt your dog.
American Kennel Club claims that super tiny amounts might even be beneficial.
However, bear in mind that onion/garlic toxicity occurs at various levels, depending on the dogs size, breed, age, and general health.
So, before feeding your dog a food with garlic or onion powder, it might be good to talk to your vet first. Or avoid it altogether.
Dog Food Ingredients Explained
Its important to think of dog food as more than just a collection of random ingredients. Dog food is a collection of vital, life-sustaining nutrients. Just like humans, dogs need the proper nutrients in order to thrive. This is especially true if theyre super active. So, any conscientious pet owner should want to be fully aware of the nutritional value of their dogs food ingredients. However, interpreting nutritional value can prove quite a task with some package labels. But, with the right insight, you can determine the difference between good and bad dog food ingredients.
What Are The Ingredients To Look For In Dog Food
There are a few key ingredients to look for in dog food, including:
- Real meat that isnt overly processed and from a reputable source. Meat is the most crucial ingredient in a dog’s diet. It provides the protein needed to build muscle and support the dog’s body function. The type of meat your dog eats can make a big difference to their health. Our research shows that meat should be 70 – 80% of a dogs diet.
- Nutrients and minerals that your dog needs to stay fit. These usually come from fruits and vegetables, which provide antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fibre that can contribute to overall health and well-being. Some of the most common fruits and vegetables used in dog food include apples, broccoli, cranberries, and carrots.
We go the extra mile and include:
- Eggs – contain riboflavin and selenium to boost healthy brain development.
- Cranberries – filled with Vitamin C and antioxidants, which have been shown to reduce chronic inflammation in dogs.
- Seaweed – which brings a shine to your dogs coat with DHA.
Also Check: Can Humans Eat Dog Food In An Emergency
Avoid Too Much Corn And Rice
Corn and rice are often used as a filler in dog food. According to PetMD, however, your carnivorous pet should not have a carbohydrate-rich diet, as dog food low in protein has been linked to dogs becoming obese. Foods with high levels of either of rice or corn can also cause chronic conditions in your dog like gas, bloating, and diarrhea.
What Is The Best Dog Food In The Supermarket
- Nutro Ultra Large Breed Adult Chicken.
- Nutro Wholesome Essentials Healthy Weight Lamb & Rice Recipe.
- Purina Pro Plan Focus Adult Sensitive Skin & Stomach Salmon & Rice Formula.
- Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Gastrointestinal Moderate Calorie.
- WholeHearted Lamb & Brown Rice Recipe with Whole Grains.
- VICTOR Hi-Pro Plus Formula.
Also Check: Nature’s Logic Dry Dog Food
What Is The Best Thing To Feed My Dog
Dr Leigh from Your Vet Online advises that it is important to ensure your dogs food is both complete and balanced for its stage of life, and if it has any medical issues. It is entirely acceptable to feed your dog a pure kibble diet. Or you can mix their diet up with some cooked or raw meat, fish, vegetables and rice.
Pet Food: The Good The Bad And The Healthy
You pay close attention to what you and your family eat. You avoid processed foods, pay a premium for organic groceries and read labels religiously. But are you as persnickety when it comes to the diets of your cats and dogs?
For many pet parents, the answer is no. Their pets eat what is plucked from the grocery shelf and put in front of them. But careless dietary choices can expose pets to many of the same problems their parents experience if they arent thoughtful about what goes in their bodies: Heart disease, cancer, obesity, circulatory and digestion issues, diabetes, exposure to toxins and overall poor health.
Since pets and their health are at the heart of everything PetSafe does, we are pleased to provide some basic information on the importance of pet nutrition and how to go about ensuring your cats and dogs are eating as well as the rest of the family. Our automatic dog and cat feeders make caring for your pets convenient and hassle-free, and can control portion size, but its up to you to make sure the feeders are filled with goodness.
Lets consider why pet food may be a good or bad choice for your pet, starting with the good.
The Good
Automatic feeders can make feeding your pets even more convenient. Even with a busy schedule, you won’t have to worry if your pet has had their breakfast or dinner.
Convenience
Nutritionally Complete and Balanced
Labeled List of Ingredients and Recommended Feeding Guidelines
The Bad
Chemicals & Preservatives
Read Also: Changing Puppy Food Too Quickly Symptoms
What Ingredients Should I Watch For In Dog Food
Quick Tip: Look at the basic four: protein, fat, fiber, and water. Many states have regulations requiring the minimum amount of nutrients a pet food must contain, as well as the maximum amount of moisture and crude fiber. Dog food labels must display the percentage of crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, and water.
Questionable Ingredient: Propylene Glycol
Propylene glycol is a food moistening agent. It is typically found in wet or semi-moist dog food and treats. PG is a component of antifreeze, although one slightly less frowned upon than ethylene glycol , which is PGs exceptionally poisonous counterpart. Rumour has it that PG is not toxic for dogs as they are unable to absorb it, but we dare say that serving dog-friendly antifreeze to your pup will hardly bring you any consolation.
Also Check: Best Dog Food For Yorkies 2020
How To Identify The Bad Ingredients Dog Food Manufacturers Dont Want You To Know About
Theres little regulation in the area of Dog foods, so reading Dog food labels may be a chore for most people. Oftentimes you find that the front of the dog food bag has some good looking freshly cut fruits and vegetables, and sometimes comes in an impressive product name like Beneful, which can buy you over believing that you are getting something really great for your Frenchie, but when you flip over and study the ingredients, youll be shocked at what your best friend is eating. In this piece, I am not particularly taking any specific dog food as a case in point, but I may give a couple of examples.
To understand the French Bulldog food labels and find out the bad ingredients included, you have to look beyond the list and look at the source of the ingredients listed on the label, fat or oil.
Look for the first source of the fat or oil, it usually appears in the ingredient list, and can be either vegetable or animal fat. These are good, but there is also the bad part of both. Take note of anything that is stated before the first source of the fat or oil because this is where you will mostly find the main ingredient of the food. Any other item that comes after that is usually in smaller quantity, just to add some flavors, and may be used as preservatives as well, or in order to add some dietary benefits such as probiotics, vitamins, and minerals.
Lets compare too dog foods here to better understand what we are talking about:
1. Beneful Original Formula
Brewers Rice / Wheat Middlings
Both of these ingredients are often seen on dog food labels, though usually further down the ingredient list.
Brewers rice is simply a collection of small pieces of white rice that didnt make it into human food.
Wheat middlings is a of wheat flour milling.
Both of these are considered inferior grains. But, for that to be true, white rice and wheat flour themselves would have to be inferior.
The truth is that both brewers rice and wheat middlings add specific nutrients to dog food. This is especially true for fiber, carbs, and certain vitamins, especially B-vitamins.
You dont want them to be among the first ingredients, though, because there are better options. But the ingredients themselves help round up the nutritional value of the food.
Recommended Reading: Purina Pro Plan Canned Puppy Food
Determination Of Elements In Icp
The determination of aluminum , antimony , arsenic , barium , beryllium , boron , cadmium , chromium , cobalt , iron , lead , mercury , nickel , selenium , tin , uranium , and vanadium was performed by optical emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma , at the Multiuser Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Bromatology of the Department of Nutrition and Animal Production of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the University of Sao Paulo, PirassunungaBrazil.
The emission line wavelengths of each element were: As193,759 Sb206,833 Se196,090 Hg184,950 A1167,081 B249,773 Ba455,403 Be234,861 Cd226.502 Co238,892 Cr205.552 Fe238,204 Ni231,604 Pb220,353 Sn189,989 U263,553 and V292,402. Operational conditions are presented in Table .
Table 3 Operational conditions of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry with axial configuration.
Bad Ingredients In Dog Food
You want the best food for your dog, but that’s not easy when marketing and economics get in the way of what’s healthful for your pet. Learn what dog food ingredients to avoid in dog food so that you can feed your pet the high quality they deserve.
These bad ingredients in dog food are some of the worst offenders in pet food. While all of these ingredients are legal to put in dog food in Canada, they’ve been outlawed in many countries, and are just not worth the risk.
Check your dog food ingredient label to make sure it’s not harbouring one of these common, but potentially harmful dog food ingredients. You might even want to check your food, as some of these ingredients can be found in people’s food as well. Instead, choose one of the healthy alternatives suggested.
Watch out for these 24 Bad Ingredients in Your Dog’s Food:
Read Also: Royal Canin Puppy Dry Dog Food
Bad Food Ingredients For Dogs
This post may contain affiliate links. We are compensated for referring customers to our affiliate partners.
When it comes to choosing dog food, its vital to know what ingredients you should avoid. Although many dogs will hoover up almost anything that you put beneath their noses, that doesnt mean that they should be eating any old food. In addition, dont simply assume that all human food can be shared with your canine buddy. Here are the key ingredients that should always try to exclude when selecting dog food, along with explanations that will help you understand the risks.
A Comparative Analysis Of Dog Food Ingredients
Now, lets look at our earlier nutrients, fat and oil, and try to juxtapose these two. In Beneful, the first fat source is animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols . And you can see that BEEF is after the fat source, not in front of it. That means that this food is made mostly of ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols .On the other hand, in Fromm the first fat source is Salmon Oil, that tells us this food is made mostly of Salmon, Salmon Meal, Brown Rice, Sweet Potato, Pearled Barley, Potato, Oatmeal, White Rice, Whole Dried Egg, Salmon Oil .
Having said, lets again reveal another trick that dog food manufacturers play on all of us that has to do with using fillers to coat ingredients so that you dont really decipher the actual amount of a bad ingredient was used for particular dog food.
Now, for this purpose, I am picking Corn as an ingredient in dog food. Mind you, I will leave out the debate about how good or bad is corn in dog foods . But, I can categorically tell you, its not so wonderful.
Dog food companies are the only ones who claim that corn is great for pets. But really, corn is a protein source, and it could very well be the reason Fido does not smell great, and always is itching, full of allergies, shedding and miserable- even though you just put on Flea Medication and gave him a Benedryl.
Also Check: How Much Food To Feed Your Dog
Ingredients To Avoid In Pet Food
Nutrition is complicated. Just like in human nutrition, there are different ingredients in dog and cat food that can either help or hurt your pet. These are 5 ingredients that you should avoid in pet food.
Carbohydrates listed as the first ingredient.
While dogs and cats can eat and digest carbohydrates, they should not be the first listed ingredients. To ensure proper growth and metabolism, dogs and cats need more protein in their diet than carbohydrates or fibre. Other than nutritional benefits, animal protein is also just more tasty to pets!
Meat by-product meals
Meat by-product meals are the ground, dried leftovers from the meat rendering plants. These by-product meals include things like bones, cartilage, feathers and viscera. These ingredients arenât nearly as digestible to dogs and cats as as whole meat meals like chicken or fish meal. It is often cheaper to use these meat meals and allows pet food companies to cut corners and save money, while sacrificing a quality product.
This is not to say all meat by-products are bad. Certain ingredients like liver, heart or gizzard are healthy organ meats that provide pets with nutritional benefits like iron and B vitamins. Digestible organ by-products such as these are also great for promoting sustainability, as it promotes the usage of rendered products that would otherwise go to waste!
High starch grains
Artificial colours, sweeteners and flavours
Certain preservatives
View Sources
References
Try Kabo
What To Look For In The Label Of Pet Foods
When selecting what to feed your pup, its best to look at the label. Here are the stuff you should carefully consider:
1. Meat First Ingredient The label organizes the ingredients in a descending order based on volume. So the first listed ingredient will always be the one that makes up the most weight. But be careful! Some may list an animal meat source as a first ingredient but the next few ones will be made up of low-quality fillers.
Also, fresh meat is a premium kind of meat ingredient but its made up of 75% water. Without that water weight, that meat will probably be far down the list. Unless, the brand specifically states that the meat makes up a big percentage of the diet, or the fresh meat is followed by other meats.
A named meat meal which has more concentrated protein is a good animal ingredient. As long as the animal the meat comes from is identified in the label, then it should be fine.
2. Nutritional Value The guaranteed analysis section of your dogs food states the calculated values of each guaranteed nutrient in the recipe. This is where you can see the levels of protein, moisture, fat, and so on that the recipe contains.
Choose a formulation that provides the amount of protein your pup needs for his specific lifestyle. For example, performance canines will need a high amount of protein compared to non-active pups.
Recommended Reading: Diamond Puppy Food Tractor Supply
Bha / Bht / Ethoxyquin
BHA and BHT are synthetic antioxidants. They are mainly used as preservatives in food and cosmetics. Who said lipsticks werent edible?
According to the FDA, both BHA and BHT are permitted for human consumption.
Unfortunately, there is some evidence that both preservatives are carcinogenic.
According to one study report, BHA is reasonably expected to be a human carcinogenic. This finding is somewhat challenged because the carcinogenic mechanism in rodents does not apply to humans.
Still, carcinogenic tests show that both BHA and BHT induce cancerogenesis, urinary bladder tumors, and thyroid cancer in rats and hamsters.
There havent been any studies on the impact of BHA and BHT on dogs, but we think its best not to risk it for the time being.
Ethoxyquin is another synthetic antioxidant commonly used in foods.
This additive was approved around 50 years ago. In terms of pet food, it conserves vitamins and prevents peroxide from forming in canned foods.
When it comes to ethoxyquin, FDA distinguishes between its use in human and pet foods. Ethoxyquin is approved forhuman consumption, but the animal feed is a different story.
Technically, FDA says that it can be used safely in animal food. However, since the 1990s, the FDA has received reports from dog owners about the adverse effects of ethoxyquin. These included allergies, skin irritation, organ failure, behavior problems, and even cancer.
That being said, FDA urged food companies to lower the amount of ethoxyquin.
How We Chose Our Top Picks
We reviewed online reviews and consulted with veterinarians to determine which experts considered dog foods some of the best.
We also looked for dog food products with high ratings from consumers on Amazon.com and other online retailers.
According to experts, some of the worst dog foods included Beneful Dog Food wet food, Iams Adult Original Recipe canned dog food, Kirkland Signature chow Mein meal for dogs and Innova Evo Gel dry kibble for dogs.
These products were eliminated from our list of the best dog foods because they had low ratings and did not meet the other criteria we set for inclusion.
Recommended Reading: Best Puppy Food For Maltese