What To Look For When Choosing Food For Your Dog

As pet owners, we want to do our very best for our dogs. We want to make sure they’re happy, healthy and have everything they need to thrive physically and mentally. While there are lots of elements that make up your pooches care, what you feed them is significant and so you need to be choosing a high quality pet food. Of course you have the option to make your own or feed them a raw diet, but if this isn’t an option (perhaps due to time or money constraints) you should pick a brand that provides everything they need.


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You can find lists of the best organic foods on sites like Dogs By Nina, it goes to show that you can’t just go on price alone to work out what’s good. There are a few things you can look out for to make an informed decision on what the best choice for your dog is. Here are a few examples.

Organic
Lots of pet foods contain fillers and additives that aren’t good for your dog. Ash is one example, this is exactly what it sounds like- ash from burned bones of the animals used. This is used to bulk up lots of commercial dog foods and is almost completely useless to dogs in terms of nutrition. Many pet foods will also contain all kinds of additives and extras to keep the food from spoiling quickly which aren’t great for your pooch. Organic dog foods on the other hand will be free of these kinds of ingredients. They will also contain organic meats and vegetables which are free of added hormones and pesticides and have a higher nutritional content.

Grain free
Grain isn’t necessarily bad for dogs, however it’s not essential in their diets and a good quality dog food will have less of these filler type ingredients and more of the good stuff that will contribute to a dogs nutritional needs. Some dogs can be allergic to grains, often it will cause an imbalance that gives them a distinctive smell. Some people describe this as a corn chips or popcorn kind of smell, especially on their paws (hence the nickname ‘Frito feet’ being given). It can cause itchiness and general discomfort and is common in dogs that are already quite allergy prone. In this case, switching to a grain free dog food is essential, but something that all dog owners could do if they wanted to as again it’s not needed in a dog’s diet.

Added glucosamine
If you have a senior dog, or a larger dog then food which has glucosamine added is a good choice. This helps to promote healthy joints and prevent or help conditions like arthritis. You can choose to give your dog these as an additional supplement, but having it all in one in their food can make life easier especially if they’re particular when it comes to taking tablets.

What sort of things do you look out for when buying dog food?

Disclosure: This is a contributed post.