Choosing Dog Foods
All Dog Foods Are Not Created Equal
What are you feeding your dog these days? According to Dog News, a magazine I write for, the pet food industry is nowhere near recovered from the melamine disaster earlier this year:
A Side-Effect of the Recall
Almost four months after the pet food industry’s largest recall began, its sales growth is off and many products still are missing from store shelves. Only about 15 percent of the dog and cat foods recalled are back, says PETCO, the nation’s number two pet-food chain. PetSmart, the biggest pet-food chain, also says few products have returned but that the bulk are expected in the next few months. In June, Menu Foods, which made most of the recalled products, said it was dropped by a “significant” customer for future cuts-and-gravy orders. That customer is Iams, said Cormark Securities analyst Aleem Israel, who covers Menu. Menu and Iams refused comment. Menu is crafting and applying new safeguards to prevent problems, including more testing of raw ingredients. The recall has spurred more people to buy premium, natural, organic, and even raw products. The reality is that this was happening before mid-March but probably gained momentum after the recall. It has been said that “billions of dollars” in pet food brand sales are up for grabs as a result of the recall. How this falls should be interesting to follow, wouldn’t you think?
So, have you joined the natural/organic band wagon? For a few weeks I was feeding as close to nature as I could get to try to avoid buying anything that might contain wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate — the ingredients which had been contaminated with Chinese melamine. Now I have gone back to feeding a Purina food which I fed for years. Purina kibble was unaffected by the recalls and I trust them, just based on having fed a few of their brands for a long time. (This is not an endorsement or recommendation to others. It’s merely my own experience based on feeding the food to my own dogs. I could have merely been lucky. Everyone has their own favorite foods.) However, many people I know are feeding holisitic, organic diets now and trying to find foods which have more natural ingredients.
Do you know what to look for when buying kibble? Most experts say that you should look for dog food which is baked, rather than extruded, if possible, but there aren’t too many of those foods. Other things to look for are foods which use ingredients which are hormone-free and antibiotic-free. Look for as many different sources of protein as possible — if a brand has two to four unique protein sources in the top four ingredients, that is a good sign. Meat protein is preferable to grain or other sources. Your dogs are omnivores/carnivores and current thinking is that they require meat protein sources in their diets. (Some people do try to feed their dogs based on a vegetarian diet, but they usually encounter problems since dogs are not by nature vegetarians.) Look for “meal” instead of meat by-products or “digest.” Most dog foods do contain grains, too, but it’s a good idea to look for foods that are not grain-heavy. Try to find foods that don’t depend too much on corn or corn gluten. Corn is harder for dogs to digest and doesn’t provide as much nutrition for them as some other grains. It also packs on weight, can cause diarrhea, and is a major source of allergies for many dogs. Rice, oatmeal, barley and other grains are better for dogs, if dog foods need some grain. Whole grains are best.
If your dog has allergies there are lots of choices for him — called “exotic” foods, meats, etc. These are foods that contain protein sources such as duck, salmon, venison, etc. They are foods that your dog’s digestive system probably hasn’t encountered before and therefore hasn’t become allergic to them. Most premium brands have some of these exotic dog foods. Caution should be used about feeding them, however. These foods are for dogs with allergies, not just to give your dog a fun dining experience. If you feed them to your dog all his life when he doesn’t have allergies, you will have nothing left to feed him if he develops allergies when he’s seven years old. What do you do then? (I’ll tell you what you do — you’ll spend a fortune at the vet on cortisone shots and you’ll be feeding your poor dog a bland diet you have to cook yourself.)
For senior dogs, look for foods which are higher in protein and and lower in carbs, with moderate amounts of fat. I like to feed seniors as much as they will eat. I hate to see a skinny older dog. People used to worry about feeding seniors too much protein, but current thinking is that they need more protein than younger dogs. You would have to seriously overfeed them high amounts of protein to damage their kidneys.
Some people prefer foods with as few ingredients as possible, on the theory that this is closer to a dog’s natural diet. Other people like foods that have supplements, such as glucosamine/chondroitin or yucca already added. That’s up to you.
There are lots of good dog foods available. It’s not necessary to drive yourself crazy trying to feed your dog a good food, though I was losing my mind during the melamine problems, it’s true. Foods seem to be safe again. Look at the label when you look for dog food. Read the ingredients and learn to understand what they mean. Chicken or beef? Lamb? Rice? Oatmeal? Your dog will tell you if he likes a food. His tastes count for a lot. For instance, one reason I went back to my Purina food instead of staying on the natural, organic food was because my dogs never cared for the natural food very much. I knew it was probably better for them, but they were leaving the food sitting in their bowls. No matter how good it was for them, if it wasn’t getting into them, it wasn’t doing them much good. So, do some research and make an informed decision, then bring the food home for your dog to taste test. I hope your dog likes it!
