What's in your Dog's Food?

There is a lot of debate over what should or shouldn’t be in your dog’s food. I should start by saying that this is my personal opinion, and I am not your veterinarian. There are hundreds of dog food brands, with thousands of ingredients. I want to go through two of the top ingredients that I, personally, would avoid feeding my dog.

Corn: This is one of the most argued ingredients amongst pet-owners and dog food companies. Some people say it is filler, while others say it has a low glycemic index and is easily digested. My opinion? Corn is absolutely a filler, it is not easily digested, and has a high glycemic index. My dog cannot eat food with corn in it, because he breaks out in hives and has an upset stomach for days – this tells me something. You could argue that my dog is sensitive (which may be true) but the fact that almost 70% of dog food customers at my work avoid corn in their dog’s food, too. Corn is just a filler in your dog’s food, and it is especially bad when it is the first ingredient is corn (meaning most of your bag is corn).
Want more on corn?:  http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-industry-exposed/dog-food-corn/ this article, I believe, sums it up perfectly.

Animal-by-Products: Think about your dog hundreds of years ago in the wild. What would he eat? He would probably catch a rabbit, and eat almost the whole thing. Liver, kidneys, heart – these are all by-products – and I believe that a dog eating these things is natural and healthy. But what about the beaks, feet, and necks? Animal by-products are the parts of the meat that are not safe for human consumption. If an animal arrives to the slaughter house dead, it is automatically unfit for human consumption – but not for pet food! They will still use the animal that arrived dead for pet food, and to be quite frank, anything could be in that dog’s food under the name “by-product”.
Care for a more detailed explanation?:  http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/choosing-dog-food/animal-by-products/

 

I only feed and recommend dog food that contains human-grade meat, I avoid grains and rice, and I look at the order of ingredients. If the food is lamb and brown rice– rice isn’t bad, I just don’t feel it’s needed in dog food- but the order of ingredients has rice first, you know that the bag is mainly rice. Another thing to look out for; ingredient splitting. Legally, the most common ingredient in the bag is listed first, and they go in order from most to least. If the list goes something like; “chicken, white rice, brewer’s rice, brown rice, barley…”  Yes, chicken is first. But all the rice is listed separately, so although the bag is more rice than chicken, the first ingredient can still say chicken because they split rice up in to sub-categories of rice. Tricky, tricky. What I recommend? Read the ingredients in your dog’s food – would you eat it? If the answer is no, move on to the next one.

This is a good reference list for ingredients you don’t want in your dog’s food:
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/?page=badingredients