Better Ingredient Choices~

     Now that is a lot of ingredients to condemn, so what does that leave us with? You want a good source of protein as your first ingredient and possibly second and or third as well depending- for example bison, salmon meal, turkey, chicken meal. If you remember from earlier meal' is the water removed, so a few sneaky companies may put a good source of meat followed by a grain. And if it is not a specific meat meal, it means you have a food with more grain than meat. How is the average person supposed to know this? They often do not. And it is how companies get away with more fillers than meat.

     A few foods contain no grains but they are higher in protein than most dogs need, so next there will be a grain. Good ones include brown rice, oatmeal, millet, barley.. There are more but that is a start. White rice is not evil, it is just not as healthy, and is preferable if it is a little further down the ingredient list. Ground' or meal' is okay too, but avoid things like brewer's rice'. It is a by-product of the brewing industry with so little nutrition it is practically worthless. You do not need 3 forms of rice in one food, it is overkill on filler. And sweeteners are not helpful either. Menadione is a vitamin many better companies are removing from their food as it may cause health problems.

     Many senior dog foods and weight loss foods are often jam packed with fillers. In diet food the dog is pooping out what it can not digest and is not taking in as many nutrients or calories. You would be easier on the dog to feed a better quality food in a smaller amount, and supplementing with low calorie vegetables to fill the dog up. Senior foods are trying to give a dog less calories. But by packing it full of fillers what exactly are you paying for? Your dog to poop more than it should need to? Better companies do have better senior foods, but you really need to read the labels to find something that is worth the cost.

Multinational Corporations and the Pet Food They Make~

     Many of the main stream dog food companies that are the most well known also own human manufacturing companies. It's a nice way to reuse your by-products for free. Food is not marketed to your pet; it is with you in mind. Your dog does not care what the bag looks like. These big businesses are making a profit from what should really be going to waste. What big businesses own pet food companies?

NestlÉ - Alpo, Come 'N Get It, Mighty Dog, Chef's Blend, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Kit 'N Kaboodle, Deli-Cat, and NestlÉ Purina products such as Dog Chow, Pro Plan, Beneful and Purina One

Colgate-Palmolive - Hill's Science Diet Pet Food

Del Monte - 9-Lives, Kibbles `n Bits, Cycle, Gravy Train, Nature's Recipe, and Reward

Procter & Gamble - Eukanuba and Iams

Mars- Pedigree, Advance, Cesar, Whiskas and Sheba Another leading pet food, Nutro, is not a multinational company.7 

Except for Nutro, all the brands of dog food listed contain waste ingredients from human production of food. Nice cheap way to recycle and it is your pet that gets the short end of the stick. Most of these brands advertise so they are in your home and in your head. It is easy to believe that they are great from what it says on the front of the bag along with the pretty pictures of happy dogs.

How to Analyze the Label~

     Tired yet? Let us look at some common foods pushed often at unknowing consumers and why they are not so great. I am picking a common bag of food from a few of the big names. Some of their foods fare a little better some a little worse, but none are actually good. So within the range of looking at these it shows you an awful assortment of what is actually made by these companies.

Science Diet (adult Large Breed)- Corn meal, chicken by-product meal, soybean meal, animal fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), chicken liver flavor, vegetable oil, dried egg product, flaxseed, glucosamine hydrochloride, L-carnitine, chondroitin sulfate, preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid, minerals (salt, calcium carbonate, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), rosemary extract, beta-carotene, vitamins (choline chloride, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (a source of vitamin C), niacin, thiamine mononitrate, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement)

The first ingredient is corn which is very indigestible and the bulk of what the food is- filler. Chicken by-product meal means that there is no actual real source of meat in this food since we talked earlier about what this actually contains. And soybean meal which is a poor quality protein filler used to boost the protein content of low quality pet foods. Lastly of the main ingredients there is an unspecific fat that could really contain anything. This is a food pushed on television- often pushed by vets. And it is mainly garbage.

     Let us look at another. Purina has high television coverage, commercials of happy bouncing dogs. So what is actually in it?

Purina (Beneful Original)- Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols (source of Vitamin E), rice flour, beef, soy flour, sugar, sorbitol, tricalcium phosphate, water, animal digest, salt, phosphoric acid, potassium chloride, dicalcium phosphate, sorbic acid (a preservative), L-Lysine monohydrochloride, dried peas, dried carrots, calcium carbonate, calcium propionate (a preservative), choline chloride, vitamin supplements (E, A, B-12, D-3), added color (Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 2), dl-Methionine, zinc sulfate, glyceryl monostearate, ferrous sulfate, niacin, manganese sulfate, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, biotin, thiamine mononitrate, garlic oil, copper sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, sodium selenite

Another food that is mainly corn. Coincidence? No, it is cheap filler. You make more money being cheap. More chicken by-products rather than real meat, and more corn in an even less protein filled form. Whole wheat flour is generally so processed most of the nutrients are gone, flour ingredients are simply the leftover dust from processing human food ingredients. And the last main ingredient beef tallow which is a flavouring agent for low quality food and very cheap to obtain.

     How about Eukanuba? They are so large they own the Superdogs franchise. They are a subsidiary of IAMS. Vets push the food often. They have to be good, right?

Eukanuba Original (Adult Maintenance Formula)- Chicken, chicken byproduct meal, corn meal, ground whole grain sorghum, ground whole grain barley, fish meal, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a source of vitamin E, and citric acid), brewers rice, natural chicken flavor, dried beet pulp (sugar removed), dried egg product, brewers dried yeast, potassium chloride, salt, sodium hexametaphosphate, calcium carbonate, flax meal, choline chloride, ferrous sulfate, dl-methionine, vitamin E supplement, beta carotene, zinc oxide, ascorbic acid, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, vitamin A acetate, calcium pantothenate, biotin, rosemary extract, vitamin B12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), niacin, riboflavin supplement (source of vitamin B2), inositol, pyridoxine hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), vitamin D3 supplement, potassium iodide, folic acid, cobalt carbonate 

They actually use chicken which is a step up from the foods we have looked at, but when the water weight is removed it sits behind the corn meal. Which means this food is mainly chicken by-products like the others. It contains corn meal as cheap filler like the other foods so far. Ground whole grain sorghum is a good carbohydrate, but it has very poor digestibility making it a poor choice as a main ingredient in a dog food. The barley would be good if the food was not already full of so many fillers and the fish meal is unspecific which means the quality is anyone's guess. And if it is not human grade it has been preserved with ethoxyquin which does not have to be mentioned on the label- it is banned from human consumption, but it is alright for your dog? A dog is consuming up to 300 times more ethoxyquin than allowed for people. (depending upon the weight) Also many dog food manufacturers are not always listing it as an ingredient on the packaging, but sometimes merely print 'E'."10 Lastly chicken fat is fine. But out of that ingredient list only two of the top ingredients are actually good. And this is a food people assume is great.

     How about a vet diet' for comparison of how great the ingredients are for the prices one pays. It should also be mentioned it is far more difficult to locate the ingredient lists for prescription diets than normal food.

Hill's Science Diet Canine I/D (gastro formula for sensitive stomachs)- Ground Whole Grain Corn, Brewers Rice, Dried Egg Product, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Soy Fibre, Dicalcium Phosphate, Chicken Liver Flavor, Iodized Salt, Potassium Citrate, Choline Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Soybean Oil, vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Taurine, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Ethoxyquin (a preservative).

How is corn sensitive on a stomach? It is not. They are using a mediocre quality rice, and dried egg product is a stool hardener which is really high on this ingredients list. Chicken by-products are the meat' and then more corn, but at least the fat is specific. This is barely a food in all honesty. Some days my compost bucket contains more nutritional value than what is listed here. It would be far cheaper and better food for you canine pal to cook beef and rice for a sensitive tummy.

     Some of the worst of the worst. Ol' Roy. Cheap food shows in its ingredients.

Ol' Roy (Premium)- Ground yellow corn, meat and bone meal, ground whole wheat, soybean meal, wheat middlings, animal fat (preserved with BHA and citric acid), chicken by-product meal, rice, animal digest, salt, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, choline chloride, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, vitamin E supplement, niacin, copper sulafate, manganous oxide, vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, menadione sodium bisulfite (complex source of vitamin K), calcium iodate, vitamin D3 supplement, riboflavin supplement, cobalt carbonate, folic acid, sodium selenite

I have seen worse, but seriously, if one were to look at the ingredients they should honestly wonder without anyone's help. Corn and meat and bone meal as discussed earlier (the 4 Ds of the slaughterhouse) that could be goats, road kill or technically euthanized pets. The wheat would be okay if it was not already full of fillers, the soybean meal is a poor by-product that is more filler and the middlings are floor sweepings with no nutritional value; super cheap filler. Last main ingredient is animal fat which has been gone over more than once and I am sure you now know what it is by now.

     That was a lot of learning through bad foods. Let us look at a good one for comparison.

Timberwolf Organics (Wilderness Elk Dry)- Fresh elk, salmon meal, millet, sweet potatoes, oats, flaxseed, carrot, watercress, spinach, celery, parsley, fennel seed, wild salmon oil, atlantic kelp, alfalfa, potassium chloride, amaranth, currants, cranberries, pears, figs, thyme, anise seed, ground cinnamon bark, fenugreek, garlic pieces, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, apples, chicory root, spirulina, choline chloride, lecithin, probiotics: (lactobacillus acidophilus, lactobacillus casei, lactobacillus lactis, bacillus bifidum, streptococcus diacetilactis, bacillus subtillus), taurine, mixed tocopherols (a source of vitamin E), lysine, zinc proteinate, iron proteinate, manganese proteinate, thiamine, methionine, carnitine, niacin, vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, iodine proteinate, vitamin D3 supplement, biotin, folic acid, pyridoxine (a source of vitamin B6), cobalt proteinate, papain, yucca schidigera extract

The differences are noticeable immediately. While the Elk is not the heaviest ingredient when the water is removed, Salmon is the number one and is an excellent protein source. Millet is a good grain highly nutritious, and sweet potatoes are a healthier carbohydrate than most. The elk is a good meat and rare enough in foods that it might help with a dog with allergies. Oats are fine, and flaxseed helps digestion and is an essential fatty acid. It should also be noted it does not have any stool hardeners. On a good food the dog should be able to produce great poop on its own. Too much fibre can also cause loose stool resulting in poorer food having more than one stool hardener in it.

     So where should you go from here? You can research on the internet or look through some books; there are some great ones on the subject of what is in dog food. If you have never been to a feed store look through your yellow pages. At least go browse, look at some labels up close and personal. You may find some decent brands in your local Petco, but you need to know your labels to decipher the good, the bad, and the ugly. Also, there are a few brands that make holistic great quality food, and a second line of mediocre food like we have just talked about. They can be sneaky about it, and I do not like the idea of the cheap food and the good food by one brand, but just keep an eye out for it. It is not all equal.

Written by Laura Presley - Property of www.IHeartPaws.com not to be reproduced without written consent
Article Sponsor (Contact the Administrator to sponsor an article):
Pet health Insurance If the health of your pet is as important as the health of your family then pet insurance is a great option.  Veterinary pet insurance is so important to give you peace of mind, and a sense of relief of financial worry.  Be informed about Dog insurance and pet insurance, so that you can best decide what kind of pet insurance best suits your needs.