Picking out a dog food - not as easy as it would seem

Recently I wrote about how we've gotten a new addition to our family, a complete MUTT dog we've named Sophie. Since she's come I've been bitten by a definate case of hyperactive puppy mom syndrome. I enrolled her into puppy school at Manner's and More. She's done now with puppy kindergarten class and is ready to move on to Novice/CGC classes, which I'm really excited about! I'm also dreaming of her one day maybe taking some of the agility classes....but that's down the road!
See, it would appear our little angel may have some cattle dog in the mix. Which makes her a very smart, VERY BUSY little girl! Much more curious that our daschund/beagle mix who is perfectly content to sleep 20 hours a day and nap the other four.

Which leads us to our  next problem. How do we feed one overweight dog and one growing puppy who will be an active adult? How do we do it without breaking the bank? How do we do it without purchasing different "special diet" foods. I talked briefly before about my desire for a "natural" dog food for our pup also, but I'd like to expand a little bit more on the why of that as well.

So, I've hit the books and have been doing some research into dog foods. I've decided that for us and our mixed bag of needs, that a basic dry kibble food is the way to go. But there are hundreds if not THOUSANDS of varieties of that on the market. So...let's break it down a little bit more shall we?

Our local store offers all different kinds of dog foods, of the big  box variety. Kibbles and Bits, Beneful, even Iams. But they don't get much more "specialized" than that. So what is wrong with kibbles and bits? Or even...Iams? Iams is fairly decent as far as foods go, right? It actually offers a good natural selection of foods that is limited in it's fillers (corn, wheat and other products). But did you know they are also on PETA's major hit list for animal cruelty? They have not committed to humane animal testing standards. Add to that that in independant studies, their foods have been found time and time again to be deficient in REGULATED and mandatory levels of nutrients (like magnesium in cat food). You may or may not be a supporter of PETA. I am in some ways, but I'm not a vegan. I do strongly support the ethical treatment of all animals but I also, being a member of the medical community, understand the need for labratory testing. But there is a limit to that testing, and there is always a level of "humane" that needs to be a standard. Read more about it here and decide for yourself: http://www.iamscruelty.com/FAQ.asp. I'm just stating my own feelings here.

But that's not the only concern I have with "big box" brand dog foods. Rendered meal is another concern of mine. Rendered..that's just boiling down the excess to get to the protiens, right? Well....yes and..no. There's a deep dark secret to the rendering of protiens....in that it can and a lot of times DOES include "Meat and bone meal" from euthanized animals. Meaning...euthanized cats and dogs. Meaning...you might be feeding your pets other cats and dog rendered down in the plant and mixed in along with the listed ingredients. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendering_(animals) (Read where it lists animals from animal shelters. This is not an illegal practice and it provides a cheap easy source of protein for dog food manufacturers.)

So how do you know if you're dogs food has been rendered? Comes from a whole source? You read the label. It's a little trickier than reading the label on your own food items but it can be sorted out. Look for trigger words like "By-Products or By-Product Meal". Look for corn as a major ingredient and avoid it. Look for foods that specify what animal source the protien came from. If it's listed as "whole" then it legally can NOT be a rendered product. Grains listed should also be whole: brown rice, barley, rye or whole wheat.

There's more, dry food vs. canned? Canned by nature will supply more meat than dry food. We haven't in the past ever given our dogs canned because they have tended to give them upset bellies. But maybe with a better brand?

For now, I've settled on Nature Selects brand. It was cheaper at the store I was at than Blue Buffalo, which is the food I sought out to buy. It's a "limited ingredient" food, which means you get one protien (lamb in our case) and one grain (brown rice). It's also organic, which is nice, but I didn't set out to look for that. It was just an added bonus.

So far, both dogs LOVE the change from Iams to this. They showed their appreciation by licking the box the food is stored in, after they'd eaten every single bit and crumb. (Dottie the fat daschund had hers mixed with green beans, a tip both our dog trainer and a good friend of mine suggested since she's got to slim down her plump girlish figure). So...it was pricier than Iams yes, but I feel good about our choice.

I know there are many  many out there in support of a raw food diet for dogs. I'd be on board with that...IF I didn't feel squeamish about chasing down the remains of a raw chicken outside. Maybe some day but for now, we'lls stick to our kibble and people food supplemented regimen.