Dry Dog Food Info

[AttilaVikingsDemon]

Hi! Just thought I could help out by researching useful links about the much discussed topic of dry dog food. We all want to know whats best for our best friends, what's expensive and really no better or not much better than the grocery store's line-up. I have some to share with you, I hope this is useful to someone and answers some of the questions out there I don't work for any of these companies, nor any affiliation with them, I'm just trying to help with the dry dog food dilemma and good dog food ingredients so as to help you make a better informed decision when purchasing your best friends food.

http://www.consumersearch.com/dog-food/dog-food-ingredients

Best Dry Dog Food

Top-rated dry dog food

In the dry food category, we found a number of high quality dog foods that earn great grades from pet food advocates. Innova Evo, including Innova Evo Turkey and Chicken Formula (*Est. $30 per 13.2 lb. bag), from Natura Pet Products is notable for its high-quality content. DogFoodAnalysis.com calls Innova Evo an "outstanding" product. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that there are no grains; carbohydrate comes from potatoes. In addition, the four top ingredients are meat products (turkey, chicken, turkey meal, chicken meal). Christopher Eng at PetFoodRatings.net is equally complimentary. Some owners aren't as sure, however; among rave reviews at RateItAll.com and OnlyNaturalPet.com we saw some comments about dogs who suffered stomach upset, possibly because of the high meat content.

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Best Dog FoodTop 10 Dry Dog FoodsHomemade Pet FoodDry Puppy FoodHowever, as noted elsewhere, Natura has been acquired by Proctor & Gamble, which has caused much consternation among fans of the food. In light of the poor evaluations that other Proctor & Gamble foods (Iams and Eukanuba) typically receive because of their ingredients, many say they fear that that Innova Evo (and other Natura brands) may decline in quality. For now, Innova Evo remains a top brand, but the advice from most quarters is to watch the ingredient list carefully going forward.

Orijen (*Est. $40 per 15.4 lb. bag) is another grain-free dog food that draws kudos from top reviewers. As noted by DogFoodAnalysis.com, the food contains tons of meat products, and chicken meal and turkey meal are among the top three ingredients (the third is deboned chicken). "This is a far more natural food concept and combined with a complete lack of any low quality or controversial ingredients is the reason this food is placed in a class above the more conventional form dry dog foods," the editors say. Christopher Eng at PetFoodRatings.net agrees, and he also compliments the food for the high quality of its nonmeat ingredients. "There is absolutely nothing you can fault this food for," Eng concludes. Orijen is also does exceptionally well among users weighing in at RateItAll.com. On the downside, the food is expensive and a bit hard to find.

Blue Buffalo Wilderness also rates highly with Eng, and he calls it "one of the best dog foods I've found thus far." Despite a couple of minor quibbles, DogFoodAdvisor.com gives Blue Buffalo Wilderness Duck Recipe (*Est. $30 per 11 lb. bag) its highest rating for its top-quality ingredients, high protein content, inclusion of probiotics and use of chelated minerals, which are easier to absorb. The top ingredients are deboned duck, chicken meal, potato starch, turkey meal, peas, chicken fat and potatoes.

Taste of the Wild High Prairie (*Est. $40 for a 15- -lb bag) draws good ratings from a number of pet-food advocates, though not every one gives it an unequivocal recommendation. One thing that's a bit unusual is the inclusion of "exotic" protein sources. The top ingredient is bison meat, and roasted bison and roasted venison appear farther down in the listings. Many note that these would be higher cost protein sources than typically found in dog foods, but Mary Straus at DogAware.com says its use could pose a complication for dogs with food allergies. "Remember that it's a good idea to reserve at least some exotic proteins for future use in case needed for an elimination diet or to treat severe food allergies," she writes.

Mike Sagman at PetFoodAdvisor.com says the generic term "fish meal" doesn't adequately address that ingredient, adding that it's always preferable to see a named fish species. One positive, however, is that Susan Thixton of TruthAboutPetFood.com says the fish meal is preserved with natural tocopherols, which means that Taste of the Wild is free of hidden ethoxyquin (something that's also true of the other dog foods named above). One additional negative is that Taste of the Wild can be hard to find, though it is available at specialty independent pet stores and online.

Several other grain-free dry dog foods have earned the respect of experts. Examples include Wellness Core (*Est. $30 per 12 lb. bag) and Solid Gold Barking at the Moon (*Est. $35 per 15 lb. bag). If you are looking for a grain-free dry food, either would make good substitutes for the foods named above if availability, cost and your dog's preferences dictate.

Natural Balance Ultra Premium (*Est. $30 per 15 lb. bag) is a little less expensive, and many pet food advocates consider it to be a pretty good value in light of its use of all-natural dog food ingredients, quality meats and lack of byproducts. Natural Balance Ultra Premium does contain grains, but they are higher quality grains such as brown rice, oatmeal and barley. Other top ingredients are protein sources such as chicken, duck meal and lamb meal. Fishmeals are preserved with Naturox, and the food is ethoxyquin-free.

Professional reviewers give Natural Balance good to great grades. It's on the list of recommended foods at DogAware.com and The Whole Dog Journal, and earns 4 out of 5 stars at sites like PetFoodRatings.net and DogFoodAdvisor.com. Among users posting at the Zootoo.com website, where it attracts more than 100 ratings, the vast majority recommend Natural Balance Ultra Premium. Ratings are even more impressive at Petco.com, where more than 95 percent of reviewers recommend it to others. Most owners comment on their dogs' overall health, energy, shiny coat and lack of digestive problems with this food, though a few owners say their pet's coat seemed too dry while on Natural Balance.

Some of Natural Balance's products were affected by a rice gluten recall in 2007, but Natural Balance Ultra Premium dry dog food was not. However, in response to that, and to other recalls, Natural Balance has instituted an extensive product-testing program. Each date-code batch of the company's foods is tested for a variety of contaminants -- testing for E. coli and salmonella was added to the program in September 2008 -- and the results posted for pet owners to see. One small point of concern is a voluntary recall of the company's Sweet Potato & Chicken dry dog food variety over possible salmonella contamination despite the batch in question passing muster for that during testing. The company issued a letter to its customers about the situation, which can be on their website.

Whether they include grains, any of the dry foods discussed above are a far better choice than most supermarket dry foods. Premium brands lead off with meat and have additional meat high in the ingredient list. Contrast that with a popular supermarket choice such as Purina Dog Chow Complete and Balanced (*Est. $18 per 20 lb. bag). Its top ingredient is whole grain corn, and things actually go downhill from there as the following ingredients are poultry byproduct meal, corn gluten meal, animal fat, meat and bone meal, brewers rice and soybean meal. Although we use Purina Dog Chow here as an example, its ingredients are typical of those found in many mainstream dry dog foods.

Some brands with a premium profile that can be found in supermarkets and large pet stores don't fare that much better. Iams Healthy Naturals (*Est. $25 per 17.5 lb. bag) lists its top ingredients as chicken, chicken byproduct meal, brewers rice, corn meal, ground whole grain sorghum and ground whole grain barley. Science Diet Adult Advanced Fitness Original (*Est. $30 for a 20 lb. Bag) is much the same, because its ingredient list leads off with chicken, ground whole-grain corn, ground whole-grain sorghum, ground whole-grain wheat, chicken by-product meal, soybean meal and corn gluten meal. Although both are better than typical supermarket foods, they are as or more expensive than some higher-quality choices.

Dog Food Ingredients

Nutritional requirements and dog food

Pet-nutrition experts say that the best dog food is made from top-grade ingredients like meat, whole grains and vegetables. What you don't want is a lot of filler as the primary ingredients; these are items that have less nutritional benefit.

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Best Dog FoodTop 10 Dry Dog FoodsHomemade Pet FoodDry Puppy FoodAccording to reviews, better-quality dog food results in a healthier coat, fewer digestive problems and firmer stools. Because your dog will absorb more nutrients from better-quality dog food, less will be passed as waste.

Dogs love meat, and they need protein. Unlike cats, which need high amounts of protein and no carbohydrates at all, dogs need a diet that contains as much as 50 percent carbohydrates. Still, experts say meat should be the first ingredient, followed by healthy carbohydrate sources such as potatoes or more absorbable grains like rice.

If you've read any dog food labels, you might have noticed the term "byproduct." Meat byproducts consist mainly of animal parts that are not used for human consumption, such as bones, organs, blood, fatty tissue and intestines. If a label says "chicken byproduct," all the parts must come from chicken; the same goes for lamb, beef, etc.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to byproducts in dog food. Some say that because a dog in the wild would eat the entire animal when killing prey, including skin, organs and bones, some amount of byproduct in dog food is just fine. What you don't want, say reviews, is unidentified byproducts, often listed as "meat byproducts." Experts say this could include zoo animals, road kill and what's often referred to as 4-D livestock (dead, diseased, disabled, dying). Meat by-products can include euthanized dogs and cats. In 1990 the American Veterinary Medical Association and the FDA confirmed that some pet food companies were using the bodies of euthanized pets as byproducts in their foods. It turns out that this practice wasn't widespread but limited to small rural rendering plants and a few other assorted links in the pet food manufacturing chain. For these reasons, reviews that do approve of some byproducts in pet food say that dog owners should look for specific origin, such as chicken byproduct or lamb byproduct.

Note that in poultry-based dog foods, the term "byproduct" is used to identify byproduct meals. However, in other types of dog food, byproduct meal can be labeled as "meat and bone meal" (MBM) or even "beef and bone meal." This type of labeling is legal, but clearly misleading.

The other -- and prevailing -- school of thought is that byproducts should be avoided entirely, and that a dog's diet should contain meat, vegetables and absorbable grains. These critics say that it's simply too hard to know what exactly is included in byproducts, and some say that these unwanted animal parts may contain bacteria or even parts from cancerous animals. MBM used in cattle feed is suspected of being an agent in the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (also known as mad cow disease).

Similarly, there's a low-quality ingredient called animal digest, which is the dry or liquid byproduct of the meat rendering process. Experts say that although there is meat content in animal digest, it's of little nutritional value because it is not very digestible.

In dry foods the listing of meat at the top of an ingredient list can be misleading, because meat has a high water content that is removed when processed into dry pet food. However, so-called "meat meal" is meat with the water removed, and finding it high up in the ingredient list is a good indication of a high-protein dry food. Again, beware of foods that contain meat and bone meal or beef and bone meal, as those are low-quality ingredients.

The quality of the carbohydrate sources also matter. According to information from wildlife advocacy organization Born Free USA, dogs can absorb almost all the nutrients from white rice, but grains like oats, flour and wheat have almost no nutritional value for them. Corn products aren't very valuable either, and peanut hulls have no value at all. Glutens are another group of ingredients that experts say don't provide much nutritional value to dogs, and are a particular concern since 2007's massive recall of pet foods tainted by contaminated wheat and rice gluten from China.

Dog food companies are making moves to get away from using artificial preservatives in dog food. Chemicals used as preservatives, like BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin, have been under scrutiny, and many companies are switching to natural preservatives like vitamin C (ascorbate) and vitamin E (tocopherols). Naturox, which is made from natural ingredients, is also gaining in popularity. Reviews say natural preservatives are much safer. Ethoxyquin has been of particular concern to some because it is also used to preserve certain ingredients -- mainly fishmeals -- before they reach the pet food maker and hence is not included on ingredient lists.

Here's a very good read and this is the link-I'll provide what it says here so you can read it without going to the link for time, and when you have time, click on the link-which ever you choose=)

http://dogfoodchat.com/solid-gold-barking-at-the-moon/Solid Gold Barking at the Moon dog food

October 4, 2008 by admin

Filed under Dog Food Reviews, Solid Gold

18 Comments

Solid Gold Barking at the Moon may have a funny name, but there is nothing funny about the food. It’s a premium brand of dog food, which is highly recommended. This food is a grain free, high protein and low in carbohydrates. This formula is a great brand of dog food for dogs that are energetic and highly active. As with all dog food brands we review, we are going to take a look at the first five ingredients:

Solid Gold Barking at the Moon Ingredients: (First Five)

• Ocean Fish Meal
• Beef
• Potatoes
• Potato Protein
• Canola Oil

PROS: More than one source of meat

CONS: High in Protein – Not suitable for all dogs.

We recommend this food to Adult dogs that are of a larger breed. Puppies and smaller dogs may not be able to process all the protein that this food provides.

Guaranteed Analysis:

Crude Protein, min 41%

Crude Fat, min 20%

Crude Fiber, max 4%

Moisture, max 10%

Would we recommend this food? YES.

You can buy solid gold barking at the moon dog food in two different sizes: 15lbs and 33lbs

[Rosemary]

Sadly, not one of the foods mentioned are available in South Africa - the only foods we get here are the inferior cheaper brands. I suppose it is the cost of importing to South Africa that makes it too expensive to be viable.

I would buy the Barking at the Moon brand - cool name

[AttilaVikingsDemon]

I'm sorry, wish they could be available everywhere. We don't get the foods people mention on here from the UK. We had him on Diamond as per the breeders advice, but our veterinarian said we were wasting that money which could be going for a better food. Our vet is also not overly impressed with iams or Eukenuba as well. Well, don't worry-before I did research on holistic foods and other types, I fed my Red Heelers food from wal-mart-and my best boy lived to be 15 1/2!

[Kirbysowner]

something important to mention is that the three preservatives you mention are known to be carcinogenics in both humans and animals. Also, ingredients wise there is a difference between meat and meat meal. I can't remember which one is better but if memory serves me right meat meal is better since the weight does not include water weight.

good thread!!!

[AttilaVikingsDemon]

Thank you very much, just saw a quite a few members having trouble with the dry food dog woes and thought I'd research and cover it for them. Good thing about research is the researcher learns alot!!

[valkyries]

great post thank you +1

[dygosamikita]

Great post, it is nice to have the information together for people.

One reason why pet owners tend to be against any products produced by P&G is because of their alleged animal testing. It is a rather ongoing thing, I haven't looked into it lately so not sure about the current status.