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How to choose a good dog food?
There are a bunch of factors that go into choosing the right food for your dog, many of which will be addressed by your vet. If not, we also got expert intel from Dr. Bernal, breaking it down into simple steps — trust of the brand, nutrition, ingredients and format. We’ll get into a lot of this later, but here are a few tips.
What ingredients should I look for?
The ingredients list of a dog food bag can be confusing, with buzz words like “healthy,” “raw,” and “organic” thrown around. But what ingredients should we really be looking for when choosing a substantive and delicious dish for your dog?
“Look for [bags that] include fresh meat as the first ingredient, concentrated meat meals as second and or third ingredients,” said Dr. Bernal. “You then want to see ingredients you recognize.”
In addition, other vitamins and minerals are important for well-rounded health of your pup, said Dr. Nelson.
“Amino acids, which build and repair tissues, help maintain healthy skin and coat and support the immune system; fatty acids, which also maintain healthy skin and coat, and are essential for joint health and a healthy immune system. Vitamins and minerals are important to ensure that the pet’s nutrient requirements are met,” she said.
There are a few ingredients that you want to watch out for. Dr. Nelson warns of a few specific ingredients to be on the lookout for.
“Items like BHA, melamine and artificial dyes are the products that I steer pet parents away from when choosing foods,” she said.
There is also a misconception that grains and corn are bad for dogs, when really they do serve a purpose aside from just a filler for pet food companies.
“Grains provide a healthy source of carbohydrates in pet food and meat meal is simply a dried end-product of the cooking process and can contain high quality and digestible whole meat products,” explained Dr. Nelson.