Dog Food Ingredients
When trying to figure out what dog food to feed to keep your dog lena and healthy, you must learn to read a food label. Two things you want to look for on a bag of dog food is the guaranteed analysis and the ingredient list.
The guaranteed analysis lists the minimum levels of crude protein and fat and the maximum levels of fiber and water. The guaranteed analysis can be helpful but only when coupled with an ingredient list. When you read an ingredient list, all ingredients are listed by weight. In a good quality food the first ingredient will be a meat or meat by product.
There is a very good tutorial for how to read a label at Pet Education.
The main thing I tyr to explain is that I don’t want a food that has corn as the numbe rone ingredient or one that has corn listed several times (such as ground corn, corn gluten, corn bran). The other thing to remembr is if the main ingredient says chicken, that it is the pre processed weight of the chicken, so after processing, water loss will lower the meat weight. Chicken by product will not lose weight during processing and is a great source of protein.
Just take some time and search around for info on dog food labels and familiarize yourself with some of the information out there to help you make the best decision possible for your dog.
As I have mentioned before I feed Diamond dog food to all the dogs in my kennel.
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January 22nd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I have always been very particular with the ingredients that go with my pet’s feed. As a criteria, the main ingredient should be 100% meat and never meat by products because its processed state deprives the canine of the much needed protein. I likewise check for preservatives and fillings which should never form part of the feed. All natural happens to be essential to your pet’s health and thus, even for disease I make sure I give ‘em pet herbal supplements. This is a more sustainable and effective cure that won’t trigger the side effects of vet medicine.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:57 pm