We know that many of you subscribe to Whole Dog Journal in order to learn about dog food. We’re also aware that, more specifically, many of you are hoping that we will tell you which foods are best; you want to know what you should be buying to feed your dog.
Well, we have some good news and some bad news for you!
First, the good news. We are going to tell you a lot about dry dog food: what to look for (traits of good foods), what to look out for (traits of low-quality foods), what information that appears in giant letters or starbursts on the label is completely useless, what tiny-print information on the label is critically important, and more.
Now for the bad news. We can’t tell you which products will be “best” for your dog, any more than we could tell you what foods would be “best” for you or your children.
Dogs are individuals, just like us. Some of us can eat junk food for years on end without suffering any signs of ill health – no indigestion, diabetes, heart disease, or cancer. For others, a single trip through a fast-food lane will cause almost immediate gastrointestinal upset.
Well, dogs are the same. We probably all know someone with a 15-year-old Labrador who has been fed Ol’ Roy (one of the cheapest of the low-quality foods) his whole life; we don’t hear as much about the dogs who were fed the same diet and died at age 8 looking like they were 15. And some dogs are fed diets of the very highest quality and have all sorts of health problems anyway.
The bottom line: One-size-fits-all recommendations don’t work when it comes to diet. You have to feed the individual what works for him. It’s wonderful when you have more than one dog and they can both digest and thrive on the same variety of food, but we wouldn’t take it for granted that any two dogs can.
Is the high price right?
Here’s a question we are asked a lot: “Is the most expensive food the best? Should I just buy that?”
The answer goes right back to what we were just saying: The most expensive foods on the market may well be very high in quality, but that doesn’t mean they will suit your dog. Plus, not everyone can afford high-priced foods – and that doesn’t make them bad dog owners.
That said, we will warn you away from the very lowest-cost foods. Most of them are more suitable for feeding chickens than dogs.
Our goals are to teach you how to identify the better-quality foods at any but the lowest price points and how to know if the products suit your dog.
Ready to shop? Read on!
Related Posts
Whole Dog Journal’s Approved Dry Dog Foods for 2020
Whole Dog Journal’s Approved Dry Dog Food List
Do you have any comment about frozen raw or “Fresh Pet” refrigerated foods?