Food

In recent years, the pet food industry has discovered the benefit of sharing more information about its products, manufacturing and research and development with consumers. In a highly competitive market, it's advantageous to project a confident image of full transparency - as long as the company is doing everything they say they are doing. In the wake of a substantial amount of bad PR from a nearly decade-old PETA campaign showing conditions of research animals, Whole Dog Journal had the opportunity to conduct extensive tours of two large pet food manufacturers' research facilities.

Most animal lovers know that dogs need high quality protein, fat, and a complete complement of vitamins and minerals in their diet to remain healthy. We know that the foods our canine companions eat should come from clean, wholesome sources, and that a good diet must be combined with ample exercise and a healthy living environment. But when planning a diet for a companion animal, many of us overlook some very important aspects of what constitutes complete nutrition for an animal.

Recently we've heard from a number of dog owners who are concerned about the use of ethoxyquin to preserve fish meal that is used in dog foods. We've had one e-mail forwarded to us several times expressing worry over links between undeclared ethoxyquin in pet foods and canine cancer. We have long advised owners to pass over dog food that contains artificial preservatives such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), tert-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ), propyl gallate, and ethoxyquin, in favor of products made with natural preservatives, such as tocopherols (vitamin E), citric acid (vitamin C), and rosemary extract. Though synthetic preservatives were once – as recently as 20 years ago – the usual preservative found in all dry dog foods, today, they appear only on the labels of low-cost and lower-quality products.

Canines have eaten raw for a whole lot longer than they've eaten cooked foods! It's difficult for us to understand, in the face of this one fact, how any dog guardians (much less thousands of veterinarians) could deny that raw food diets are healthful for dogs. But is it really best for ALL dogs? Actually, there are exceptions.

How should you select the right dog food for your dog? Over the years, we've spoken to literally thousands of dog owners and industry experts – and they have at least a few hundred different approaches to the task. We'll briefly discuss some of the most prevalent factors used by owners to support their dog food buying decisions – and then we'll tell you how we recommend choosing your dogs' food.

Dog food as we know it today – that is, either crumbly bits of kibble packaged in bags and boxes or gloopy meat-based concoctions sealed into cans – was invented in 1860. Think about that for a moment. Our great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents raised dogs completely without the benefit of Purina. Before 1860, no one poured a pile of chow from a bag marked, Dog." Everyone who had a dog knew what dogs ate and how to feed them. "

There has been renewed interest in fiber as a dog food ingredient. One pet food manufacturer published an article on the Internet condemning beet pulp in dog food as unhealthy, if not downright dangerous. There is a lot of myth and misunderstanding concerning fiber, so let's take a closer look at this controversial ingredient.The term fiber" (or "roughage") applies to complex carbohydrates that are resistant to mammalian digestive enzymes

Dogs can exist as vegetarians, but making the diet complete and balanced" requires owner commitment and diligence. Tamara McFarland

The easiest type of bowl to keep clean – and, not incidently, also the safest bowl for your dog to eat and drink from – is stainless steel. This material will not leach potentially dangerous chemicals into your dog's food and water, like some plastics, aluminum, poorly glazed pottery, or old ceramic dishes. Stainless steel and glass bowls are similarly inert, but stainless steel wins in my house, due to its durability on the floor and in the sink.

The companies that appear on the Whole Dog Journal “Approved Foods” list offer products that meet Whole Dog Journal's basic dog food selection criteria: they contain good ingredients, they don’t contain any “red flag” ingredients, and their makers are reasonably transparent about their manufacturing and formulation. This dog food list is a start – meant to give you examples of companies with better-quality products than those found in grocery and big-box stores, and lower-end pet supply stores. The list purposely contains products that range in quality and cost, from “wildly expensive” to “not cheap.” Inexpensive foods will not meet our selection criteria, because it’s impossible to make a low-cost dog food that contains superior ingredients.

Consider your dog's dinnerware, a topic more complicated than you might have thought. A visit to your local pet superstore, for example, will reveal dozens of choices, in plastic, stainless steel, glass, nylon, ceramic, and possibly aluminum. Among them are many simple, practical and economical models, meant for long-term everyday use, which are the focus of this article. Of course, bowls also come in a million different specialty" models – to feed automatically

Good dog food costs a lot more than low-quality dog food because good dog food is made with better-quality ingredients, which cost more than low-quality ingredients. That said, the most expensive dog food is not necessarily the best, nor does the price always correlate precisely with a dog food's quality. There are lots of low-quality dog foods that are sold for good-food prices, because some companies spend a ton on marketing and advertising!