The average dry dog food has over 50 ingredients on the ingredient panel. Most of the these have mysterious names like chicken by-product, dicalcium phosphate or menadione sodium bisulfite complex. I don't blame people for not knowing exactly what's inside the bag. But the best place to start is always the beginning. If a manufacturer uses high quality ingredients at the top of the list, it's a good indication of the remaining ingredients' quality. Look for specifically named meats, with names that you recognize like "Deboned Chicken".
When you see a name like Chicken Meal, we start getting into a grayer area. Basically it's rendered "tissue" so it could include some organs, fat and other non-meat tissues. Not so bad, but not all that great.
Poultry By-products sounds like it might be little bits of chicken meat that didn't make into McNuggets, right? Well, your idea of meat has to be stretched quite a bit if you want it to include chicken heads, feet and viscera (guts). If my dogs could get ahold of the neighbor's chickens, I'm sure they'd have no complaints about some of these items. However, when heads and feet make up a majority of your dog's food day in and day out, you have to question whether that's really in the best interest of your best friend.
Check for anything generic like "Animal Fat." Any mix of animals can be included, with variance from batch to batch. It's one reason why dogs may get sick on the same formula of food after long periods of time. While most of the ingredients may be the same, the fat just has to be from any animal. Any.
Do your dog a favor, go home and check the ingredients on your dog food. If the ingredients include By-Products, say goodbye. If the first 5-8 ingredients just cause question marks in your head, ask yourself why you should place your faith in that particular food.
For a good recommendation go see Heidi at Meat for Cats and Dogs, Symon at Furever Pets or Nancy at Salty's Dog Shop and tell them Rick sent you.
For more information about A quick lesson on dry food ingredients go to this article more about A quick lesson on dry food ingredients
EmoticonEmoticon