Dog Food

The other day I was watching my dog eat her food. My first thought, wow, the same thing every day. Every single day. Of course, we mix in some treats, the occasional slice of ham, chicken, what have you. But outside of that, her diet is the same thing. Every. Single. Day.

Now, this is also a dog that sleeps up to 15 hours a day, sometimes longer. Her life is not jam-packed with adventure, so I suppose the redundancy at meal times isn’t keeping her up at night (or during the day for that matter). But all this also got me thinking, the grocery store is full of dog food choices. As owners how do we really know what to choose?

The first step is you need to take a long hard look at your pooch –age, breed, activity, reproductive status. Some dog food brands will formulate foods based on the breed and most will always distinguish ideal foods for large versus small breeds. An active dog requires brands that pack in more calories and older dogs conversely need less.

Next, take a second and read the ingredients. The labels list all ingredients based on weight. Meat meals or those with meat will typically come first because they pack a high amount of water. It is recommended to choose those with meat as the first ingredient because dogs are omnivores by nature. Vegetarian diets are possible,but a veterinarian should be consulted first. 

Now, what’s in this “meat meal” you ask? Great question as meat in dog foods can be anything from tissue from the heart, esophagus or diaphragm. It can also include skeletal muscle. In summary, “meat meal” is any rendered product from the tissues of the animal and “meat by-product” are non-rendered parts which could be bone, brain, kidneys, lungs, etc. But a good brand has meat prominently listed, hopefully first. If you see corn for example, the nutritional benefit is minimal.

Following is the nutritional information. Here you’ll usually find a statement. For example, “provides complete and balanced nutrition for maintenance of adult dogs.” That is a typical one. Others are for “all life stages,” etc. The AAFCO is an entity that regulates this so seeing this acronym is also a good sign. The dog food world can seem highly varied, but these tips will orient owners and get them on the right path. 

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