Dog Food Brands Comparison Guide
So we decide to feed our dobermans a commercial dry dog food, but which one?
Here is a guide you may want to print out and take with you to the store to help you compare different dog food brands. This should help you choose between a good dog food and a dog food that is harmful or nutrient deficient. Grab the bag, look for the ingredient labelling and compare it to these suggestions. Following these guidelines doesn’t guarantee you’ll get good quality, human grade ingredients or that the processing techniques haven’t destroyed most of the nutrients, but it will filter out the worst commercial dog food. Lastly use the feeding portion sizes on the bag as a guideline not a rule. The amount you need to feed a dog varies depending on it’s age, breed, activity level and any specific health issues. You are better to compare your dog’s weight against the Dog Body Condition Score and adjust portion sizes as needed.
DOG FOOD GUIDE
You want this:
- Look for certification from the AAFCO – Association of American Feed Control Officials. You want to see that animal feeding tests using AAFCO procedures have been conducted.
- Check the expiration date or bar code date for when the food was made. You want to buy the freshest, especially since natural preservatives in dog food are only effective for about 30-60 days.
- Look for a meat product as the first ingredient, like chicken meat or lamb meat. You want human grade meat (USDA) and better yet, organic meat. Organic meat is less likely to contain hormones, growth stimulants or come from diseased animal flesh.
- Natural preservatives Vitamin C and E (or Tocopherol)
- Look for whole grains like barley, oats and rice (no “hulls)
- Buy from a store that has a quick turnover of product for optimal freshness
- You want a food that has high digestibility. You can find out how digestible the food is just by looking at your dogs stool. If the volume of the stool produced is greater than, equal to or slightly less the volume of food eaten, the digestibility is poor. The aim is to have a samller stool volume with little odor, this indicates good digestibility.
- Bonus if the dog food contains probiotics (good-bacteria) to help digestion
You don’t want this:
- Avoid these preservatives that have been shown to cause health problems,
BHA, BHT, Ethoxyquin
- Meat by-product, this is basically animal parts that are not meat, like brains, intestines, blood and chicken feet. (yuck!)
- Corn, soy, wheat or low quality carb fillers. (common allergens)
- Avoid foods with artificial dyes or colors and flavors, these are usually listed as a dye number
Rather than going through and rating some popular dog food brands, I thought this guide would be more practical. This way you can compare dog food brands that are available for sale in your local pet store or grocery store. But if you like, I did find this dog food rating site dogfoodanalysis.com that you may want to check out. Keep in mind although that some of these dog food brands may only be available to you through online purchase and remember you want to buy a product that has good turnover to get the freshest possible dog food.
I hope this guide helps you find a good food for your doberman dog.
If you missed the previous post on dog food here it is.
September 12th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
This is some decent information, however, I would like to add a word of caution about organic products. It is true that to be certified organic they cannot include certain, tested antibiotics and hormones, however, the field of organic produce is extremely poorly regulated with only minimal guidelines. As an animal science major, I have read and performed numerous research projects that use other “supplements” that are approved by organic certifications, but have limited long term and animal health testing. Not to say all organic products are bad, I myself have raised numerous livestock 100% organic, I just think as consumers we should be aware that organic does not necessarily mean better or safe. I definately agree that feed tests are very important, and that what works for one dog does not always work for another. Despite their systems being almost the same, they are individuals and have varying levels of tolerance for different products. For example, my great dane does very well on both corn and chicken, and my german shepherd does poorly on both, prefering venison, lamb, and brown rice.