High Quality Dog Food: What Does This Really Mean?

You hear it everywhere: pet owners should feed their dogs a high quality dog food, but what makes food high quality? Interestingly, this is a bit subjective, meaning everyone has a different opinion on which dog food is best. Some pet owners tout grain-free food is best for all dogs while others are convinced certain brands of dog kibble are better than others. Others say only raw diets are appropriate for dogs.

With that said, here are a few tips on choosing the best dog food for your dog. Thankfully, dog foods have really improved over the last decade. Dog food ingredients are important, but your dog’s reaction to his dog food is really important too!

Don’t Believe the Hype

Personally, I don’t believe a specific category or brand of dog food works for all dogs. It’s impossible. Yes, dog food commercials will try to convince you their brand is best, but remember that’s just marketing. Don’t believe all the hype. Also, raw food doesn’t work for all dogs either. Trust me, I’ve been there; check out my personal experience on why not all dogs can eat raw dog food.

How to Choose a High Quality Dog Food

Specific Type of Meat Listed as First Ingredient

Before choosing a brand of dog food, flip over the bag and take a good look at the ingredients listed. Dog food ingredients are listed by weight, so a specific type of meat meal should be listed first to indicate a dog food is mostly meat.

Now, choosing a dog food with a specific type of meal means the type of animal meat is listed. It’s not just a mystery meat combination, which could easily contain a mixture of animal meats, including horse or even dog meat. Choose a dog food that has chicken, beef, turkey, lamb or even boar meal listed as the first ingredient.

No Harmful Preservatives

This is a big one because many preservatives hidden in dog food have proven to cause cancer in many studies. Meat-rich dog foods need some type of preservative to keep meat and fat from becoming rancid, so read the entire dog food ingredient list before purchasing and feeding to your dog.

Stay away from dog food listing BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, propylene glycol (used to preserve moisture in semi-moist dog food), propyl gallate (used to preserve fat) and TBHQ (fat preservative). Even if these preservatives are listed at the bottom of the dog food ingredient list, put it back on the shelf. There are much safer preservatives out there.

Look for natural preservatives, such as Vitamin E (sometimes listed as tocopherol) or Vitamin C (sometimes listed as ascorbate). Both vitamins do an excellent job preserving meat-rich dog food, so choose naturally preserved foods over artificially or chemically preserved dog food.

RELATED: How to Stop Your Dog From Eating Cat Poop

Small Output (Meaning Poop)

Yup, this means you need to view your dog’s output. 🙂 When a dog is eating a dog food that works best for him, he produces small firm fecal matter daily. This means he’s absorbing all ingredients.

Large sloppy stool means your dog is unable to digest certain ingredients, which can be caused by unnecessary added fillers or allergies. When changing dog foods, you should do so slowly and over a 10-day period. If your dog still has large cow pie-like stools after two weeks, try a different food and look for natural ingredients, such as chicken, vegetables, fruits and whole grains (i.e. oatmeal, whole white or brown rice, barley, millet).

No Doggy Odor

You know that smell. It’s a musty sour smell that worsens when your dog is wet. Well, dogs eating a well-tolerated food should not smell like this. They should have a sweet or fresh smell instead. If your dog smells funky, switch your dog’s food slowly over 10 days. Feed 1/3 new to old food for 3 days, ½ new and old food for 3 days, ¾ new to ¼ old food for 3 days, and finally new food going forward.

Allergy Free

Dogs eating a well-tolerated food do not scratch, bite, chew or rub their skin. They should be free of red itchy skin, watery eyes, ear infections and yeast infections. Now, I’m not saying a high quality dog food will cure these things, but they should not inflame these conditions by any means.

RELATED: Hot Spots on Dogs: Causes and Treatments

Gleaming Skin & Coat

Dogs eating a high quality dog food have a gleaming coat free of dandruff and, believe it or not, shed less too. A healthy combination of the right dog food ingredients and protein percentages will most certainly reduce shedding. Some dog foods have fish or vegetable oil that really helps shedding and improve your dog’s coat too!

If your dog is not thriving on his dog food, keep researching until you find the right one. It’s worth all the extra effort!