Pet Food For The Discerning Pet Owner
Pet Food For The Discerning Pet Owner
By Brigitte Smith
With the many commercially prepared pet foods available on today’s market, it is often quite difficult to tell which ones are better than others and why. First of all, you can’t judge by advertising which are the good and bad pet foods. Many advertisers spend millions of dollars per year advertising inferior foods. Unfortunately, a good indicator on quality of food is price. Low priced foods are not always, but most often, the lowest quality foods on the market.
You want to make sure that the adult dog food you are feeding is 22-25% protein and 15-19% fat. The protein should come from a good quality source. Some dogs such as puppies, large breeds, and active breeds have different protein and fat requirements. Make sure to discuss this with your veterinarian to ensure proper feeding of your dog.
To determine which pet food is best for your pet, you need to know which ingredients are better so that you can make a good choice. You should be looking for human-grade ingredients, such as turkey, fish, lamb, or chicken meal, rice, potatoes, sunflower oil, and vegetables. Grains should not be among the first four ingredients in a quality dog food. Proteins, especially meat, should be present in the largest quantities. Pedigree dog food and Flint River Ranch dog food satisfy all of these criteria.
Be sure to see if it says that chicken is the main ingredient and not chicken meal. Chicken only refers to the fact that the entire chicken goes towards the overall protein value. Chicken meal differs in that the protein is cooked down to a version that is not appropriate for your pet in that it does not have other byproducts such as vitamins and fatty acids. These byproducts are essential ingredients in dog food.
There are ingredients that you should make sure are not present in your dog food. Wheat, corn, soy, gluten as well as chicken by-products are all types of inferior proteins. They are difficult for your pet to digest properly and they can cause long term health problems if they are used for a long period of time. You should also stay away from sugar if it is present in the food.
Remember to always follow the recommendations on food your vet gives you, and be prepared to discuss this with your vet also. You would expect your vet to know all of this information, but the truth is many vets are not taught this in veterinary school, but receive their information and facts from some commercial pet food manufacturers. On some occasions when dogs reach a certain age or have certain health conditions they need a special prescription diet. These diets may, or may not, contain the proper nutrients that dogs need, as well as often being more expensive then other foods. The dog’s health will begin to decline if owners switch to a commercial dog food brand instead of the special diet due to cost or other concerns. The veterinary staff knows what’s best to keep your particular dog healthy.
There are so many types and brands of pet food on store shelves today that it can be really hard to compare, contrast, and pick the best one for your pet. Don’t try to evaluate the quality of a brand of just from the advertising. In order to make the best choice, you need to know what the most desirable ingredients are. You are looking for these types of ingredients: Human Grade Ingredients, chicken, turkey or fish meal, lamb meal, rice, potatoes, sunflower oil, and vegetables. Meat and proteins are the best first ingredients. These are the main ingredients in pedigree dog food and Flint River ranch dog food
