How To Find The Best Food For Your Dog

Consider The Guaranteed Analysis

A guaranteed analysis lists the minimum amount of protein and fat by percentage and the maximum amount of fiber and moisture, also by percentage. Moisture can skew the comparison, though, so look for one converted to a dry matter basis, especially if youre looking to compare dry food to wet food.

Although the guaranteed analysis provides a measure of nutrient categories, it does not indicate quality or digestibility of ingredients.

An Alternative To Home Cooking

Cooking for your pet is a process thats demanding on your time, labor, space, and finances, says Dr. Larsen.

Home cooking is not for everyone, though, and it doesnt have to be. Another option to provide your dog with whole ingredients is to get carefully prepared ready-made meals.

There are commercial foods that can be purchased that contain whole ingredients that are pre-cooked. Which is very close to cooking, notes Dr. Bartges.

So, while you might think that cooking for your dog is better for their health, it can be just as beneficial to purchase pre-prepared food thats made with the same principles in mind. Whichever method you choose, just to make sure you are always catering to your dogs individual health and nutrition needs.

A Guide For Picking The Right Food For Your Dog

When bringing a new dog into your world, one of the bigger decisions youll want to check off your list right away is what kind of dog food to buy. The blessing and the curse of picking out dog food is that you will not be lacking for choices. Were here to help you navigate the dog food landscape so that you are fully prepared before bringing your new dog home.

As dog owners, we want the absolute best for our pups to provide them with a long, happy life, and this starts with feeding them balanced, healthy meals. Dogs bodies, like humans, are unique. Whats best for your dog can be completely different than whats best for someone elses dog.

Also Check: Does Dog Food Expire

The Meat Of The Matter

The pet food industry in Australia is worth billions of dollars, but there’s no regulator. In was found in some foods.

Food labels are something I’ve found confusing. What’s the difference between the chicken “meal” mentioned in Rosie’s food and the “poultry by-products” mentioned on another brand’s label?

Here are a few things to help you better understand the kind of meat that’s used in your dog’s food:

• The current pet food standard classifies meat as “any part of an animal other than feathers, which contains protein, and which is ordinarily or in nature, used as food by dogs or cats, whether fresh, chilled, frozen or dried”.
• Meat or poultry “meal” is made from cooked-down animal parts that humans don’t eat.
• Meat poultry “by-products” is animal parts like lungs, livers and blood, which are just as nutritious for your dog but might not be as tasty or digestible as muscle meat.

Go Light On The Treats

Pet obesity is an epidemic in this country, and because excess food can drive up weight, you need to dole out treats responsibly. Treats should make up no more than 10 percent of your pets daily calories, Brooks says. The healthiest treats for dogs? Fruits and veggies, excluding any that are toxic to dogs, Dr. Morgan says. Try berries, apples, carrots, broccoli and green beans, even frozen beans. Of course, food is only part of the equation when it comes to having a healthy pup. Youll also want to figure out how much exercise your dog really needs.

Don’t Miss: Can Dogs Eat Breadfruit

Best Dog Food For Puppies

The nutritional needs of dogs vary throughout their life. Puppies have different nutritional needs than adult dogs, and senior dogs have their own nutritional considerations. Most dog food companies carry specially formulated puppy foods for each stage of a dogs life, making it easier to narrow down your choices. If you are concerned about which is the best dog food for your dogs life stage, consult your veterinarian to see what stage food is appropriate for your dog.

Your puppy requires a different nutrient balance than an adult dog. This is especially true for large breeds. Feeding a large breed puppy food can help, as their growth needs to be monitored carefully to prevent bone and joint problems. Other puppies do well on both puppy food and food labeled for all life stages. The best food for your puppy depends on your puppys size and breed. Always consult your veterinarian for recommendations on puppy feeding, and advice on how to switch puppies to adult dog food.

How To Choose The Best Dog And Cat Food

• Vets answer your pet food questions

Choosing the right food can make all the difference to the health and happiness of your dog or cat, but it can be a daunting task trying to work out whats actually best for your pet.

Signs that your pet is eating a nutritious diet include clear and bright eyes, a shiny and dandruff-free coat, plenty of enthusiasm for life and a lack of excess body fat you should be able to feel their ribs and see their waist.

To help you navigate the pet-food aisles a little more easily and pick the best food for your cat or dog, we’ve also asked vets for their expert advice on how to choose the right pet food.

Recommended Reading: What Company Owns Purina

Should You Cook Your Dogs Food

Is cooking dog food at home really better for your pup? While there may be claims made to that effect, theres no hard scientific evidence to support it.

Owners are told by many sources that homemade food is superior to commercial products. However, there is no proof to support this claim, says Dr. Larsen.

Larsen cautions dog owners to be aware of fearmongering within the pet food industry. This is often driven by myths about ingredient quality. While there are no scientifically-supported benefits to homemade diets, whole ingredient-based diets are better in the long term. Commercial foods are made to be complete and balanced, adds Dr. Bartges, albeit not the most exciting of meals.

Think of it as eating the same highly processed food for every meal, day after day, for years, he affirms.

Put that way, feeding your dogs a variety of whole foods makes a lot of sense. In fact, there are a multitude of reasons why you might want to prepare homemade foods for your dog, according to Dr. Larsen and Dr. Bartges.

These include gaining control over your dogs diet, appeasing picky eaters, combatting food intolerance issues, concern over food recalls, or simply for the bond-building joy of preparing a home-cooked meal for your dog.

Do They Have Any Special Dietary Needs

The main thing you need to understand about your Yorkies nutritional needs is that he has a very fast metabolism. Your Yorkie may only weigh 7 pounds at most, but his metabolism is much faster than that of a larger dog. The average dog needs about 25 to 30 calories per pound of body weight per day. Your Yorkie, on the other hand, may need as many as 40 calories per pound of body weight.

To provide for your Yorkies high energy needs, youll need to choose a dog food with high fat and calorie content. You also need to consider that your Yorkie wont be able to eat large quantities at one time, so his food needs to be very nutrient-dense. Smaller kibbles are good for Yorkies, and dry food is generally best to help keep your dogs teeth clean since the breed is prone to dental problems.

Here are some of the other health problems to which the breed is prone:

• Dental issues
• Bladder stones
• Eye problems

Don’t Miss: Purina One Vs Pedigree

How Much Should I Feed My Cat Or Dog

Always follow your dog food and cat food manufacturers’ guidelines and, where possible, weigh out food using a set of electronic weighing scales.

Remember, these are intended as a guide and you may need to adjust the amount you feed depending on a number of factors including age, size and level of activity.

A Compelling New Reason To Consider A Plant

Dogs have a tremendous impact on the environment, so much that one study found that theyre responsible for 25 to 30 percent of the environmental impact of meat-eating in this country. Because animal agriculture is responsible for up to 14.5 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, it makes sense that switching dogs to a plant-based diet could help quell the effect.

Read Also: Little Caesars Dog Food Recall

Best Budget: Nutro Ultra Dry Dog Food

Theres no doubt that some dog food brands are more expensive than others, so if youre looking for a great food thats a little more budget friendly, Nutros Ultra is a top option.

This recipe starts with real chicken as the first ingredient and follows with additional high-quality protein from lamb and salmon. Healthy carbohydrates come from whole brown rice and brewers rice, and the formula offers a blend of 15 superfoods, including coconut, chia, kale, and blueberries.

All of these ingredients offer a range of nutrients, vitamins, and amino acids that adult dogs need in a balanced diet. Plus, Nutros Ultra recipes have no chicken by-product meal, corn, wheat, or soy protein, as well as no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives.

And, while this recipe is designed for adult dogs, Nutro offers their Ultra formulas for puppies, small breed dogs, large breed dogs, senior dogs, and more.

The Top 10 Worst Dog Food Brands Of 2021

All pet foods are not created equal but most of the low-quality dog food brands have a few things in common. Some of the worst brands on the market load up their products with inexpensive fillers like corn and wheat products their products also tend to be carb-heavy instead of meat-based.

Low-quality pet formulas make heavy use of by-products and plant proteins, plus they often use artificial colors and flavors to make their products more palatable for pets and the people who care for them.

Something else many of these foods have in common is a history of product recalls by their manufacturing company.

Below is an overview of the Top 10 worst dog foods of 2021 . We started our list with recipes that contain dubious and low-quality ingredients and worked our way down to the worst offenders with recent recalls under their belt.

Don’t Miss: Can You Buy Dog Food With Snap Benefits

Purina Pro Plan Adult Large Breed Shredded Blend Dry Dog Food

Chewy.com

If you have a wannabe lap dog thats over 50 pounds, you need a specialized dog food formula thats designed to maintain lean muscles, healthy joints and optimal body condition. Enter the Purina Pro Plan Adult Large Breed Shredded Blend Dry Dog Food. Featuring chicken as the first ingredient, it combines hard kibble with tender, meaty shreds that keep your big boy coming back for more. Its also fortified with probiotics, prebiotic fiber, glucosamine and EPA to support digestive, immune and joint health and overall mobility.

If you like to switch off between dry and wet food, you can also opt for the bundle, which includes a 34-pound bag of dry dog food and 12 cans of wet dog food.

Nomnomnow Fresh Food Delivery

Overall Best Yorkie Dog Food: If you want whats best for your Yorkie, you cant do better than fresh food. Typical kibble is extruded, which means that it is cooked at very high temperatures in a process that destroys much of the nutritional integrity of the raw ingredients. Fresh pet food, on the other hand, retains more of its original nutritional integrity, making it a smarter and healthier choice for your Yorkie. If youre wondering what to feed a Yorkie to maximize his nutrition, we recommend NomNomNow. NomNomNow is a fresh pet food delivery service that sends perfectly portioned packages of fresh pet food right to your door. Choose from several recipes made with premium animal proteins and fresh fruits and vegetables to deliver a powerful punch of high-quality nutrition and natural flavor. Just provide some basic information about your dog and NomNomNow will do the rest!

• Pros: Fresh food delivered to your door, comes in perfectly portioned packages, real whole-food ingredients, catered to your dogs calorie needs, several protein choices, high nutritional quality
• Cons: Expensive to feed as a staple diet, limited number of recipes

Read Also: Purina Dog Food Rating

Bad Ingredients Lead To Poor Health

Low-quality or bad ingredients can cause health issues for pets. Unfortunately, identifying poor nutrition sources, questionable quality, and cheap fillers can be difficult if you dont know what to look for. Here are a few types of ingredients to watch out for as they can lead to poor health in dogs.

• Avoid dog foods that list ingredients as poultry by-products instead of chicken meal.
• Unnamed sources of protein can be dangerous for your pet to consume.
• For example, ingredients described as meat by-products are usually ground up, internal animal remains that dog food companies use as cheap substitutes for quality protein sources.
• Where possible, choose proteins meals.

• Studies have linked BHA and BHT to kidney damage and cancer.
• Ethoxyquin is an herbicide that causes a number of medical conditions, including liver, spleen, stomach and skin cancer, kidney and liver damage, immune deficiency syndrome, and blindness.

Homemade Dog Food Recipes And Its Benefits

Cooking for your dog have more benefits than you expect, especially if your pet is allergic or has a sensitive stomach.

Its also important to know that some highly processed food loses nutritional value while making your fresh dog food preserve nutrition.

You know precisely what your dog is getting with fresh dog food than just reading them from the labels that could be a hoax.

Also Check: Darwin Dog Food Recall

Best Dry: Royal Canin

• Formulated by scientists and nutritionists

• Highly palatable to most dogs

• Some formulas can be expensive

Dry dog food is a popular choice for many pet owners thanks to its convenience and shelf stability, and one of the best dry dog food brands is Royal Canin, which offers more than 80 dry formulas. In addition to dry food for adults, puppies, and senior dogs, Royal Canin has a unique line of breed-specific foods, each of which is tailored to that dog breeds traits and common problems. Even the kibble shape is selected based on the breeds jaw structure and biting pattern.

Royal Canin is another brand that Dr. Frione personally recommends, and the company employs nutritional and research teams that help create its products. The brand takes a nutrient-focused approach to pet food, evaluating the specific nutritional needs of dogs and creating optimal diet profiles based on scientific findings.

• Offers both regular and prescription wet foods

• Multiple can sizes available

• Brand focus on quality and safety

• Formulated by team of nutritionists and vets

• Expensive

Hills Science Diet is another brand that gets the seal of approval from Dr. Frione, and its especially popular for those who prefer to feed their dog wet food. This brand offers an impressive selection of wet dog foods, including formulas for puppies, adults, and seniors, and it also has a highly regarded line of prescription foods for dogs with specific medical problems.

Processed Foods Arent Healthy For Dogs

Highly processed food is as bad for pups as it is for people. Processed food, which are foods that have been cooked at high heat or undergone an extrusion process, will never offer the fresh nutrients that you get from eating fresh food, says Judy Morgan, DVM, a holistic veterinarian in Clayton, New Jersey, and author of Yin & Yang Nutrition for Dogs. As with people, when dogs eat highly processed foods, we see an increase in chronic inflammation which can show up as arthritis, chronic elevation of liver enzymes, immune thyroiditis, and inflammatory bowel disease, among others. In addition to processed foods, these are the 11 other items you should never feed your pet.

Don’t Miss: Can You Buy Dog Food With Foodstamps

The 10 Best Yorkie Dog Foods

If youre wondering what to feed a Yorkie, there is not a single answer. The best food for Yorkies will be complete and nutritionally balanced while being high in fat and calories with plenty of protein for lean muscle maintenance. It needs to be highly digestible, should come in a smaller kibble size, and must be made with wholesome, natural ingredients and free from artificial additives.

Heres our top pick for the best Yorkie dog food:

Buy Small Bags Of Dry Kibble

If you are feeding dry kibble, buy a bag of kibble you can use within three weeks. Kibble is sprayed with fats for nutrition and taste, but those fats will oxidize quickly and become rancid, which can cause pancreatitis and inflammation in your pet, Dr. Morgan cautions. When you open the bag and expose it to air and light, it further oxidizes and heat can also create oxidation. To store it properly, keep the food in the bag in a sealed container and roll it down tightly after each use. As with all food, you should also check the expiration date.

You May Like: Which Is Better Pedigree Or Purina