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Wednesday, 19 August 2009

Gone To The Dogs: Dog Food Ratings

Like any dog owner, you will understandably want to give your pet the best nutrition possible, and these dog food ratings may be helpful. Keep in mind that these dog food ratings do not cover all the different brands out there, since that would be beyond the scope of this article. Instead, we present dog food ratings on 3 products of widely different qualities to give you an idea of what to look for in a good dog food.

Alpo Premium Cuts

Sad to say, there’s nothing in here that we would feed our dog on a regular basis. The main ingredients are cheaper grains such as corn and soybean, and there is very little actual animal protein. In addition, this has way too much salt in it.

The problem with this brand is that the main ingredient–corn–isn’t really very nutritious, nor is it easy to digest. The rest of the blend isn’t impressive either, with beef and bone meal serving as the primary animal protein source. The addition of soybean meal is also questionable, since it has very little nutritional value for dogs. In addition there are other chicken byproducts that are better left unmentioned.

All of this is tied together with an unappetizing filler of brewers rice. “Filling for what” is the question that comes to mind, since so many of the product’s ingredients are more like fillers than actual food themselves. The excessive salt content was enough to convince us to give this one of our lowest dog food ratings.

Authority Harvest Baked Chicken

With chicken is the primary ingredient, we were a lot more hopeful with Authority Harvest. This product also contains chicken meal and salmon meal, which are definitely a lot more nutritious for dogs than rice and soybeans! Grains are made up of barley along with other worthy varieties, and there are adequate amounts of vegetables and flax. Authority Harvest Baked Chicken is let down a bit by its use of wheat, which aside from being less than nutritious can cause allergies in some dogs.

What drew us to Authority Harvest was the lack of corn and by-products on the label. It was also refreshing to see a dog food with out any animal digest in it, and there is plenty of meat to satisfy even the hungriest dog. In addition to the meat, this products also has several nutritious vegetables such as carrots, spinach, broccoli and even cranberries! And for your dog’s fatty acid requirements, flaxseed has even been thrown in.

AvoDerm Chicken Meal and Brown Rice

Chicken is the star of this product, and what a product it is. Composed primarily of chicken meal, AvoDerm also contains abundant amounts of herring meal. Again the undesirable ingredients such as by-products, corn, and animal digest are nowhere to be found, which was enough to make this a serious contender in our dog food ratings. Avocado is also used to beneficial effect, which provides your dog with plenty of vitamins and fatty acids, helping improve your dog’s coat.
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