Choosing Nutritious Dog Food

Advice and tips on finding the best healthy dog food for your pet

See also dog begging behavior and natural dog treats

When you love your dog and you’re concerned about his health, choosing nutritious dog food for your pet can be tough. 

Next to housebreaking, selecting a dog food is the number one concern for new pet owners. 

With dog food recalls and unclear ingredients, it can sometimes be difficult to select dog food.  But don’t worry, choosing the best healthy dog food for your pooch doesn’t have to be so complicated. 

Read on for our advice on getting nutritious dog food for your dog.

Choosing the healthiest dog food for your pet

When you give your dog the best healthy dog food, you will get the best performance from your dog.  For example, when you feed your dog a diet high in protein and vitamins you’ll see that he is leaner, has a better looking coat, looks younger and has more energy.

To select nutritious dog food, the most important things to look at are ingredients.  What is in the food?  Do you see simple ingredients like fish, chicken and sweet potatoes or are the ingredients mostly chemicals that you can’t pronounce? Stick with ingredients that are simple and wholesome.  Also look for foods with the main protein (like chicken) as the first ingredient.

There are lots of great brands of natural dog foods that contain no by products or fillers.  Old Mother Hubbard, Purina Pro Plan, California Gold and Raw Food Diets are some of the best dog foods available.  Our absolute favorite is Wellness dog food because the performance is amazing, the ingredients are wholesome, the price is reasonable and it is manufactured and packaged in the USA and Canada.

By Products and Fillers

Dog food is not as stringently regulated as human food is.  So, manufacturers can use lower quality or leftover parts and materials from human food in dog food.  By products are these leftovers and consist of things like bones, chicken beaks, feet and any other animal parts that are unsuitable for human food.  Fillers are things like wheat or flour.

As a general rule, by products and fillers are not a part of nutritious dog food.  They are unnecessary ingredients that are providing no nutritional value for your dog’s diet.  What’s worse is that they may harm your dog’s overall health.  If it’s not good enough for you to eat, why would you give it to your best friend?

Also consider where your dog food comes from.  If the food and it’s ingredients are human grade and made in the USA, it’s easier to trust that the ingredients are not contaminated.  The dog food scare with wheat gluten from China brought this particular element to light.  Keep in mind that other countries may have different regulations concerning dog food ingredients and processing.

Changing Dog Food the Easy Way

What should you do if you want to change the way your dog is eating in favor of a more nutritious dog food?  Well, in order to alter your dog’s diet without giving him diarrhea or stomach upset, you need to do it gradually. 

The best way to switch your dog over to a new dog food is to add in the new dog food in fourths.  For example, on the first day use ¾ of your old dog food mixed with ¼ of the new food.  On the second day, use half of each dog food, then ¾ of the new dog food until you are feeding your dog entirely from the new healthier dog food that you’ve purchased.

Feeding Your Dog People Food

Giving your dog scraps from the table is never a great idea.  Human food is often much too rich for dogs and when they eat it dogs can get stomach upset, diarrhea, vomiting or possibly more  serious health problems.  Feeding your dog from the table also brings up the issue of begging behavior.  Begging may seem cute at first, but over time it will grow into an annoying habit.  Avoid the trouble and simply do not feed your dog from the table in the first place.