Comments on: Another dog food question?

By: badgirl41

badgirl41 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:25:39 +0000

Don’t assume that a dog food with a “big name” is good for your dog, check the ingredients! Some of the “big names” are charging you plenty for poor quality food.
Look on the label for the first five listed ingredients
Ideally the top 2 or 3 of these ingredients should be a meat source (after all, dogs ARE carnivores)
Single-source meats/meat meal, like lamb, duck,chicken meal, turkey meal are good
generic meat products (poultry meal, meat meal) are not good
Single source by-products (chicken by-products) are bad; generic by-products (poultry by-products) are worse. – stay away from by-products altogether if you want a healthy dog.
Make sure any grains listed are familiar nutritious words to you, like barley,whole wheat, or brown rice – if you see unfamiliar words like soy bean mill run, brewer’s rice, corn gluten meal, wheat mill run or wheat midlings, these are all terms used to convince the uneducated that they are usinmg healthy products, but really are terms for “what’s left over” after all the nutritious parts of the grain have been stripped – another accurate term for wheat mill run is “floor sweepings”.
Stay away from ground corn as a major ingredient, it can be a cause of allergies, and is a cheap filler.
Avoid chemical preservatives, sweeteners, artificial colors, propylene glycol, etc.
Baked dog food is better – the companies that “extrude” their food actually have to “add” flavor to the very outside of the food, or dogs wouldn’ eat it.
……………… Hmmm- if they don’t add flavor, the dog wouldn’t be interested in eating it…..what does that tell you about the food quality?
In the long run, the best foods aren’t really more expensive. Because good nutritious foods are better digested and utilized by the digestive system, you don’t have to feed as much to your dog per day.

High Quality Foods Should NOT Contain:

Fats or proteins named generically (example: animal fat/poultry fat instead of beef fat / lamb meal)
Artificial preservatives (BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin)
Artificial colors.
Sweeteners (corn syrup, sucrose, ammoniated glycyrrhizin) to improve unappealing food
Propylene glycol (is very similar to ethylene glycol-the main ingredient in automobile antifreeze), a toxic substance when consumed in large amounts; added to some “chewy” foods to keep them moist)

if you want a really good website to go to for dog food comparison tables and more really good info here you are.http://www.eccha.org/dog_food.htm

By: theshadow01

theshadow01 — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:15:20 +0000

It is better than a lot of the foods out there, but not as good as some. I would prefer to see meat, rather than a meat meal as the first ingredient. There are no by-products, and flax seeds are very good for dogs. I don’t like seeing the poultry fat. Dog food companies spray that on the food to make it more appealing to the dogs.

Below is a formula that I found for scoring dog foods.

Scoring Your Dog Food
*Please note that the following is for entertainment purposes only and has not been researched by DAN and may not be a “true” grading of food. If you have any questions regarding the food you are feeding your dog consult your veternarian.
This is a very interesting way to check out the quality of the dog food that you are feeding. It’s interesting, because sometimes paying more, does not get you more and vice versa.
The scores are rather interesting.
How to grade your dog’s food: (Some brand reviews already calculated here)
Start with a grade of 100:
1.For every listing of “by-product”, subtract 10 points
2.For every non-specific animal source (”meat” or “poultry”, meat, meal
or fat) reference, subtract 10 points
3.If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points
4.For every grain “mill run” or non-specific grain source, subtract 5
points
5.If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five
ingredients (i.e. “ground brown rice”, “brewer rice”, “rice flour” are all
the same grain), subtract 5 points
6.If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than 2
meats in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points
7.If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points
8.If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points
9.If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 more points
10.If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 2
points
11.If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic
to other protein sources), subtract 2 points
12.If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points
13.If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to
wheat), subtract 2 points
14.If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to
beef), subtract 1 point
15.If it contains salt, subtract 1 point
Extra Credit:
1.If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points
2.If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or
nutritionist, add 5 points
3.If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points
4.If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points
5.If the food contains fruit, add 3 points
6.If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3
points
7.If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2
points
8.If the food contains barley, add 2 points
9.If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points
10.If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point
11.If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point
12.For every different specific animal protein source (other than
the first one; count “chicken” and “chicken meal” as only one protein
source, but “chicken” and “” as 2 different sources), add 1 point
13.If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point
14.If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are
pesticide-free, add 1 point
94-100+ = A 86-93 = B 78-85 = C 70-77 = D 69 = F
Here are some foods that have already been scored. If you don’t see your dog’s food here, ask and someone will score it for you.
Brand Dog Food scores:
•Authority Harvest Baked: 116 A+
•Bil-Jac Select: 68 F
•Canidae: 112 A+
•Chicken Soup Senior: 115 A+
•Diamond Maintenance: 64 F
•Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice: 92 B
•Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula: 99 A
•Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Ultra Premium: 122 A+
•Dick Van Patten’s Duck and Potato: 106 A+
•Foundations: 106 A+
•Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold: 93 D
•Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium: 73 D
•Innova Dog: 114 A+
•Innova Evo: 114 A+
•Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables: 110 A+
•Nutrisource Lamb and Rice: 87 B
•Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy: 87 B
•Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice: 23 F
•ProPlan Natural Turkey & Barley: 103 A+
•Purina Beneful: 17 F
•Purina Dog: 62 F
•Purina Come-n-Get It: 16 F
•Royal Canin Bulldog: 100 A+
•Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult: 106 A+
•Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice: 97 A
•Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+: 63 F
•Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies: 69 F
•Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken: 110 A+
•Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold: 97 A

By: yournextamericanidol

yournextamericanidol — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:59:40 +0000

Make sure that the first ingredient on ANY dog food that you use should meat. It looks ok. you are rite iams is very bad and so is beniful. Dogs are derived from wolves, wolves are carnivores, there for, dogs are carnivores. They dont need veggies and fruits they need meat.

By: bholsinger3

bholsinger3 — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 22:29:00 +0000

you shouldn’t be so worried about the corn in dog food and/or such but more about the animal digest and any by-products, corn and such are actually very nutrietional for your animal however animal digest is Very bad, it consists of mutiple animals intestines and organs and such, by-product in most food are very bad, they consist of bones, skin, liver and organs of animals, but not in iams, eukanuba, or hill’s science diet (their food is only good food for your animal, and only from chicken), therefore to answer your question nutro, or natrual life is a good food because they have no by-products or animal digest, but i have heard that some animals just do not like it, but i would suggest that or hill’s science diet, iam s, eukanuba, or even purina pro plan if needed, good luck

By: lilbit_883_hugger

lilbit_883_hugger — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:24:05 +0000

Yes it looks good. I think tomorrow I will go check it out..

By: infobod

infobod — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:44:32 +0000

it looks very complicated and i am sure your dog would not get his paws on half of these ingredients in the wild, unless he hunted down a half eaten big mac

By: roxy

roxy — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:53:29 +0000

Here is a good website for answering that question. It tells you what to look for and what to avoid.

By: Edd P

Edd P — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:26:51 +0000

It looks good but it does’nt say on the list for what kind of dog breed it is best recommended.

By: delightracardeanne

delightracardeanne — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 09:15:19 +0000

Meal is okay actually, but what you want is the first ingredient to just say Lamb. Meal means it could be any part of the lamb, like chicken nuggets from micky ds when we were a kid. Linseed oil is pretty good for the coat and the brown rice is a definate PLUS. The best is Blue Buffalo. It’s holistic and amazing and you don’t have to go to a fancy store to get it, just your regular PetSmart and such. It’s not cheap, but doesnt your pooch deserve only the best?

By: Skiqueen62

Skiqueen62 — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:36:52 +0000

To me it does, but you might want to check out the web site ( if any) and consult a vet.
When giving our little dog, cheap dog food, she shed hair like crazy, and had poor skin condition..when we moved to Purina, her hair grew back, and she is as healthy as ever!
Be sure to contact your vet about it though!
Good dog food is very important!