Do Dogs Need Probiotics?

In recent years, the topic of probiotics for dogs has gained in popularity. Probiotics convey many health benefits, from improving digestion, decreasing stress and anxiety, amplifying the immune system, supporting cognitive health, and more. While they used to only be available as a supplement, probiotics are now being incorporated into dog food formulas as well.

What Are Probiotics for Dogs?

Probiotics are live microorganisms that are beneficial to the host animal and provide health benefits when consumed in adequate quantities. These beneficial bacteria help maintain a healthy balance of gut microflora, which is vital for not only healthy digestion, but overall health and wellness. While probiotics colonize and inhabit the gut of your dog, their impact is systemic. Research is now showing the importance of gut health on immune function, with 70% of your dog’s immune system residing within the gut, cognitive support, with gut health impacting the brain through the gut-brain axis, and aging.

Probiotics in Dry Dog Food

You may notice that probiotics are only offered in dry foods and not wet or fresh diets. Why is that? While probiotics are live organisms, many have the ability to go dormant, or sleep, until conditions are right for them to replicate. The key ingredient for many of them to wake from their dormant state is water.

Kibble, freeze-dried, baked, and air-dried pet foods have low enough moisture levels to keep the added probiotics dormant for the duration of their shelf life. Once your dog consumes them, they become active and begin to replicate and colonize your dog’s gut.

The probiotics in these formulations are added to the outside of the food in the final step of manufacturing prior to bagging. Because of this, proper storage is vital to keep the probiotics viable and prevent spoilage; keep your dog’s food out of extreme heat, sealed from humidity, and out of direct sunlight.

Choosing Dog Food with Probiotics

When looking for dog food with probiotics, opt for brands that use high-quality, easily digestible ingredients. Look for foods that contain specific strains known to benefit dogs, such as Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus species.

Some foods may contain prebiotic fiber as well. This prebiotic fiber supplies the probiotics with a reliable food source, promoting their growth. Good sources of prebiotic fiber include chicory root (a source of inulin), oats, and psyllium. If your dog has specific health conditions or dietary requirements, be sure to consult with your veterinarian prior to switching diets.

Incorporating probiotics into your dog’s food offers numerous benefits for your dog’s digestive health, immune system, and overall wellbeing. By choosing a high-quality dry dog food with added probiotics, you ensure your pet is receiving consistent, properly dosed, probiotic supplementation. Investing in your dog’s diet by giving them added probiotics is not just a trend, but a proactive step toward supporting their health from the inside out.

The post Dog Food With Probiotics appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

While protein is vital to a dog’s health for energy and to support the dog’s vital organs, skin, hair, tendons, ligaments, muscles, and more, many dogs are prescribed low-protein diets. In dogs with kidney issues, a reduced protein intake can alleviate some of the workload on the kidneys. Other medical conditions, such as chronic gastrointestinal upset or liver disease, also may benefit from restricted protein intake. However, there is dog food that is low in protein, and there is dog food with really low protein.

What Is a Low Protein Dog Food?

The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) guidelines set a minimum protein percentage of 18% for adult maintenance and 22.5% for dogs of all life stages (ALS, which includes growth and reproduction), on what’s called a dry matter (DM) basis (more about that in a minute).

Diets with a protein concentration below the legally required minimum levels for most dogs must be prescribed by a veterinarian. The dog food with the lowest protein level you can purchase without a prescription is 18% protein on a dry matter (DM) basis. (This is how much protein is in the food with the product’s moisture removed.) But the prescription low-protein dog foods contain far less than that; some contain as little as 13% or 14% protein.

Before you buy, you need to know whether your vet wants your dog to be fed a prescription low-protein dog food, or just a lower-protein dog food?  Because, besides the legal minimum for most dogs, there are no definitions or standards for what are considered low-protein diets, diets with moderate protein levels, and high-protein diets. And many foods that contain high-quality ingredients may contain twice as much protein as the legal minimum, or even more!  Most  veterinary nutritionists consider the following ranges for protein on a DM basis:

Low protein: 20% or less
Moderate/Normal: ~25%
High Protein: 30% or higher

So: Does your dog need a diet that has prescription-low levels of protein, or just an amount of protein that’s on the lower end? It likely depends on the severity of the health problem that your veterinarian is trying to address.

What to Look for in a Low-Protein Dog Food

When looking at low-protein diets, prioritize high-quality, highly digestible protein sources. These include animal-based proteins, such as meat and eggs, which tend to have optimal amino acid profiles and are highly digestible by dogs. With these sources, dogs will get the most benefit out of the smaller amount of protein they consume. You should see these ingredients listed among the first five ingredients.

Don’t Go Too Low

Be careful choosing your dog’s protein level. Protein is vital to your dog’s health and going too low can cause physical problems like muscle loss and weakness. In a healthy dog, excess protein is simply excreted in the urine.

Low-protein diets should not be fed to growing puppies, highly active dogs, or pregnant or lactating dogs. Protein is important for dogs who are growing, have higher protein requirements for muscle maintenance and repair, or have higher nutritional needs. In the absence of specific health issues, healthy adult dogs generally do well with a balanced diet containing moderate protein levels.

If your dog is suffering from health issues, be sure to work with your veterinarian to find a diet that has the appropriate levels of protein given their current health status.

The post Low Protein Dog Food appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

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Understand, however, there are plenty of dogs who seem to do just fine on any food that contains the minimum nutrient levels required by law in order to be labeled as “complete and balanced” – even products that solely contain cheap, highly processed by-products from human food manufacturing. It shouldn’t be surprising; a lot of research goes into finding ways to use waste products from human-food manufacturing in pet food – and even more research has gone into determining the minimum amounts of every nutrient that dogs need to live, grow, and reproduce.

If your dog can subsist on almost any food and still maintain vibrant health, a glossy coat, good stools, and a normal energy level – well, count your blessings! – because many other dogs need better-quality ingredients, higher-than-minimum levels of protein and/or fat, and thoughtful supplementation in order to thrive.

Also, some of us don’t want to miss the opportunity to give our dogs every nutritional advantage that might contribute to healthier skin, better resistance to chronic disease, stronger bones, and well-lubricated joints. And some of us are already sadly aware that our dogs have extraordinary dietary requirements; they may be allergic to or intolerant of certain ingredients or require a tightly controlled level of fat, protein, or fiber. Or, we may have experienced that they seem to feel, look, or even smell better on higher quality diets. This information is for those of you who have any of these or other reasons to be in search of better-quality foods.

How We Chose: Attributes of Quality Dry Dog Food or Lack Thereof

The attributes of quality that we look for in a dog food – as well as the traits that warn us away from low-quality foods – are described here. We used those criteria to identify the 60-plus companies that we describe in the February 2024 print edition of Whole Dog Journal (available here as a downloadable PDF to subscribers only). These companies all make good or great foods. But to select our favorite products for puppies or adolescent dogs, active dogs, inactive dogs, and so on, we used more refined criteria, which we’ll describe in each of eight categories:

Whole Dog Journal is reader-supported. If you purchase food through links on our site we may earn a commission. Whole Dog Journal does not accept money for its food and product reviews.

Dry Puppy Food/All Life Stages

Did you know that there isn’t any nutritional difference between foods that are formulated for puppies and those that are formulated for dogs “of all life stages”? – although products that are named or labeled as “puppy” foods are likely manufactured in a smaller kibble size. Whether the product’s small-type nutritional adequacy statement (also known as the AAFCO statement, as it references the Association of American Feed Control Officials) references “growth,” “growth and reproduction,” or “dogs of all life stages,” the product has been formulated to meet the same set of nutritional standards.

There are two of these standards; the other one is for “adult maintenance.” Foods that are formulated to meet the “growth” standards must have higher protein and fat levels, and higher levels of calcium, phosphorus, and linoleic acid than foods that have been formulated for “adult maintenance.”

Whether we’re looking for a food for puppies or a reasonably active adult dog, we look among prospects that have moderate (neither minimal nor very high) levels of fat and protein. If the food contains supplements such as probiotics or glycosaminoglycans (i.e., glucosamine, chondroitin), we want to see them listed on the guaranteed analysis, indicating they are present in verifiably beneficial quantities.

Whether we are shopping for a food for a puppy or adult dog, our preference is always for a product with a meat and a meat meal in the top two or more ingredients; and legumes (such as peas, chickpeas, and lentils) used in minor roles (below the 5th or 6th position on the ingredients list).

Best Dry Puppy Food/All Life Stages: Stella & Chewy’s Wholesome Grains Duck with Pumpkin & Quinoa

Things we like:

• Meats appear 1st and 6th; meat meal appears second
• Omega-3 and -6 fatty acids, taurine, glucosamine, chondroitin, and total microorganisms (probiotics) on the guaranteed analysis
• Freeze-dried, raw coated baked kibble ensures palatability

First 10 ingredients: Duck, turkey meal, pearled barley, oatmeal, turkey fat, turkey, pumpkin, quinoa, tomato pomace, natural vegetable flavor

Protein: Min 26%
Fat: Min 16%
Calories: 448 Kcal/cup
Cost: $3.77/lb

Runners up:

Bixbi Liberty Game Bird Feast

Boreal Healthy Grains Chicken

Lucy Pet LID Chicken, Brown Rice & Pumpkin

Dry Dog Foods for Adult Maintenance 

Adult maintenance foods usually contain lower levels of protein, fat, and certain vitamins and minerals than foods that are formulated to meet the growth and reproduction needs of puppies and their parents. That said, the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles do not declare maximum levels of fat or protein, so take a peek at the protein and fat levels in any adult-maintenance food you consider to make sure the amounts are appropriate for your dog. Less-active or overweight adult dogs don’t need high-protein or high-fat foods.

Best Dry Dog Food for Adult Maintenance: Acana Wholesome Grains Small Breed Recipe

Things we like:

• Meat (1st and 10th on the ingredients list), two meat meals (2nd, 7th), and organs (11th, 15th, and 16th) for 60% animal-sourced ingredients
• EPA, DHA, Omega-3 and -6, taurine, probiotics on the guaranteed analysis

First 10 ingredients: Deboned chicken, chicken meal, oat groats, sorghum, millet, eggs, catfish meal, chicken fat, oats, turkey

Protein: Min 27%
Fat: 17%
Calories: 413 Kcal/cup
Cost: $3.65/lb

Runners up:

Solid Gold Hund-N-Flocken Lamb, Brown Rice & Pearled Barley Recipe

Nulo Frontrunner High-Protein Chicken, Oats, and Turkey Recipe

Merrick Healthy Grains Freeze-Dried Raw-Coated Real Salmon + Brown Rice

Lower-Fat Dry Dog Foods

The legal minimum amount of crude fat in a dry dog food adult maintenance is 6.1% as fed; for puppies, the minimum amount is 9.4% as fed.

The words “as fed” are important. If you look up AAFCO’s Dog Food Nutrient Profiles, you will see the minimum requirement of crude fat for adult dogs as 5.5% and 8.5% for puppies. But the numbers used on the Dog Food Nutrient Profiles are based on the foods’ “dry matter” – what’s in the food if you have removed all the moisture in it. Nutritionists use dry-matter numbers instead of “as fed” numbers so they can compare the nutrients present in foods that have varying amounts of moisture. But the numbers that are used on the guaranteed analysis of all pet food labels are always “as fed” numbers.

Pregnant or nursing mothers and growing puppies need more fat than most adult dogs, so few people are searching for low-fat foods for puppies. Low-fat foods become more important for inactive and sedentary dogs, dogs who have diabetes, dogs who are overweight, and dogs who either have pancreatitis or are of a breed that is genetically predisposed to pancreatitis.

When looking for a lower-fat food for one of these dogs, we start our search by looking at products with lower (but not necessarily the very lowest) fat content.

Remember that dry dog foods contain protein, fat, and carbohydrates. When you reduce the amount of any one of those three macronutrients, one or both of the other two will rise – so some lower-fat foods will contain increased levels of protein, and some will contain increased levels of carbohydrates, and some will contain increased levels of both. This is where, as always, you need to take your own dog’s unique needs into account. Does he do better on higher protein or higher carb foods?

Our top picks reflect products that take a balanced tack, with increased amounts of protein and carbs. We didn’t select the foods with the very lowest amounts of fat that are on our Approved Dry Dog Foods list. If your dog is not just prone to pancreatitis, but has suffered one or more episodes of pancreatitis, you may wish to look among those products with the very lowest possible fat levels.

Best Lower-Fat Dry Dog Food: Merrick Healthy Grains Healthy Weight Recipe

Things we like:

• Deboned meat first, meat meal second
• Variety of healthy carbs without ingredient “splitting”
• Extra nutrients listed on the guaranteed analysis, including taurine, L-carnitine, Omega-3 and -6 fatty acids

First 10 ingredients: Deboned chicken, chicken meal, brown rice, oatmeal, barley, turkey meal, miscanthus grass, quinoa, natural flavor, chicken fat

Protein: Min 26%
Fat: Min 9%
Calories: 385 Kcal/cup
Cost: $3.31/lb

Runners up:

Eagle Pack Reduced Fat Adult (Min 6% fat)

Health Extension Lite Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe (Min 7.5% fat)

Solid Gold Wolf King Bison, Brown Rice, & Sweet Potato (Min 9% fat)

High Protein Dry Dog Foods

The AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles list minimum protein levels, on a dry matter basis, as 18% for adult dog maintenance and 22.5% for growth. Assuming a 10% moisture content (average for dry foods), the minimum as-fed protein values are 20% for adult dog maintenance, and 24% for growth.

Again, there are no established maximum values for protein in dog food. Dogs can eat and thrive on food that contains twice (or even more than that) of the minimum amounts of protein they require. This amount of protein is not necessary, however, and foods with high protein levels are much more expensive than lower-protein foods. On the other hand, some dogs absolutely do better on high-protein foods than they do on foods with more moderate or lower protein levels. Young, active dogs and canine athletes – particularly dogs who are used in endurance or cold-weather activities – may do better on high protein foods.

When you increase the amount of one of the three macronutrients in a dog food (protein, fat, and carbs), one or both of the other three necessarily decrease. Some higher-protein foods will contain less fat, some will contain fewer carbs, and some will contain less of both fat and carbs. To select our favorites, we looked for products with a somewhat balanced approach (lower fat and carb levels). And, again, we didn’t select foods with the very highest levels of protein for our favorites; we chose foods that were among the highest 20% or so.

Best High-Protein Dry Dog Food: Wellness Core RawRev Wholesome Grains Puppy Food +100% Raw Turkey

Things we like:

• Two meats (1st, 7th) and two meat meals (2nd, 3rd)
• Amounts of DHA, EPA, taurine, and probiotics on the guaranteed analysis
• Freeze-dried meat and kibble made by Wellness (100% made in Wellness’ own plants)

First 10 ingredients: Deboned chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal, oatmeal, barley, chicken fat, turkey liver, flaxseed, tomato pomace, quinoa

Protein: Min 38%
Fat: Min 17.5%
Calories: 438 Kcal/cup
Cost: $4.99/lb

Runners up:

Orijen Amazing Grains Six Fish Recipe (38% protein)

Stella & Chewy’s Wild Red Raw Coated Wholesome Grains Puppy Prairie Recipe (36% protein)

Limited Ingredient Dry Dog Foods

Be advised that there isn’t a legal or even a commonly agreed-upon definition of a limited-ingredient dog food. Some manufacturers will use just five or six major ingredients (the sources of protein, fat, and carbs) in their limited-ingredient foods, while others will contain 10, 12, or even more sources of protein, fat, and carbohydrate sources.

The whole point of the “limited ingredient” appellation, from a dog owner’s perspective, is to find a product that has as few ingredients as possible. Usually, those of us buying these products are either feeding dogs who are sensitive to either known or as-yet unknown ingredients, trying to prevent aggravating a hypersensitive (allergic) response, or trying to identify which ingredients the dog seems to be able to digest without triggering an adverse response. The more ingredients a food has, the harder it is to identify exactly which ingredient is troubling the dog – so our bias in selecting favorites in this category was for foods with as few major ingredients as possible.

Best Limited Ingredient Dry Dog Food: AvoDerm Sensitive Support Wholesome Grains Salmon & Oatmeal Formula

Things we like:

• Single species of animal protein (salmon)
• Novel protein source may benefit dogs with allergies to more common proteins
• Made in company’s own plant

First 10 ingredients: Salmon, salmon meal, oatmeal, white rice, pumpkin, canola oil, brown rice, flax seed, avocado, dried tomato pomace

Protein: Min 24%
Fat: Min 14%
Calories: 437 Kcal/cup
Cost: $3.18/lb

Runners up:

FirstMate Limited Ingredient Pacific Ocean Fish Meal

Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Chicken & Brown Rice

Wellness Simple Limited Ingredient Duck and Oatmeal Recipe

Grain-Free Dry Dog Foods

The topic of grain-free food is a bit of a third rail in the dog world, but we’re going to keep this simple.

Grain-free foods can be a literal life-saver for dogs who are allergic to or intolerant of grains. However, the number of dogs who are genuinely among that population is much smaller than the number of grain-free foods on the market would indicate.

The demand for grain-free foods for dogs rose along with the heightened awareness of the prevalence of celiac disease in humans – but this popularity was further boosted by owners who promote “biologically appropriate” or “evolutionary” diets.

Dogs have no requirement for carbohydrates in their diets whatsoever – they can live and thrive on diets that contain only fat and protein – and people who adopted so-called “natural” diets for dogs increasingly cut grain out of their home-prepared diet recipes. But the vast majority of dog owners want to feed kibble, as it’s highly convenient, relatively shelf-stable, and more economical than many other types of diets. But to make kibble, you need carbs in the formula; it’s impossible to extrude a dog food that contains no carbs. Fortunately, there are lots of non-grain carbohydrate sources.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes were highly popular in the first grain-free products, but soon every type of legume grown on the planet found its way into these products: peas, lentils, chickpeas, and beans.

In 2018, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration turned the dog world upside down with a preliminary advisory warning of a possible link between grain-free foods and the incidence of canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Despite much study, that link has not been proven, though a link between higher rates of DCM and foods with high inclusions of legumes (such as peas, chickpeas, lentils, and beans) is still suspected. Today, we feel confident that there is no link between the broad category of “grain-free foods” and canine DCM, and that even foods with a high legume inclusion are safe for dogs as long as their maker adds adequate amounts of taurine and/or its metabolic precursors, methionine and cysteine.

However, given the relatively recent use of – and extremely high inclusion rate of – legumes in dog food today (grain-free as well as grain-containing), we feel more comfortable recommending grain-free foods only for dogs who have a demonstrated lack of ability to thrive on foods that contain grain, and/or grain-free foods that contain a relatively low inclusion rate of legumes.

Best Grain-Free Dry Dog Food: Open Farm RawMix Open Prairie Recipe

Things we like:

• Certified humanely raised chicken and turkey
• Complete nutrient analysis on website
• Freeze-dried raw coating on kibble, plus chunks of freeze-dried meat

First 10 ingredients: Chicken, turkey, potatoes, Menhaden fish meal, herring meal, sweet potatoes, tapioca, coconut oil, sunflower oil, pumpkin

Protein: Min 30%
Fat: Min 15%
Calories: 405 Kcal/cup
Cost: $4.98/lb

Runners up:

Farmina N&D Pumpkin Grain Free Duck & Cantaloupe Melon Adult Medium & Maxi

Halo Elevate Grain-Free Chicken & Sweet Potato Recipe

Organix Organic Grain-Free Chicken & Sweet Potato Recipe

Budget Dry Dog Foods

Our “budget” foods are more expensive than the cheapest foods you can find, but that’s because the cheapest foods you can buy would be disqualified from our approved foods list by several criteria. The cheapest foods usually use plant proteins (such as corn and peas) rather than animal proteins as the main protein sources, unnamed animal protein and fat sources (identified on the ingredients list only as “meat,” “meat meal,” or “meat and bone meal,” and “animal fat”), and none or few whole foods used as carb sources. We just can’t recommend those foods.

Best Budget Dry Dog Food: Chicken Soup Classic Adult Dry Dog Food Chicken, Turkey & Brown Rice Recipe

Things we like:

• Two meats (1st, 2nd) and two meat meals (3rd, 4th) before carb sources; more meats 15th and 16th, but this is insignificant
• Company provides more than 1 million meals annually to animal rescue organizations and food banks

First 10 ingredients: Chicken, turkey, chicken meal, turkey meal, cracked pearled barley, brown rice, peas, oatmeal, white rice, faba beans

Protein: Min 25%
Fat: Min 13%
Calories: 355 Kcal/cup
Cost: $2.12/lb

Runners up:

Triumph Wild Spirit Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe ($1.83/lb)

NutriSource Performance Chicken & Rice Recipe ($2.09/lb)

Alternative Protein Dry Dog Foods

While they are quite rare, some dogs are hypersensitive (allergic) to all or most animal protein sources. Also, many people have ethical, moral, and/or environmental objections to raising and killing animals to feed their dogs. Fortunately for individuals of both kinds, there is an increasing number of complete and balanced diets for dogs that contain no “dead animal” sources of protein.

We’re aware of fewer than 10 foods that fit in this category. Some are vegetarian, some are vegan, and some are . . . well, we’re not quite sure what to call products that use insect sources of protein!

Please note that all of these meat-free foods provide complete and balanced nutrition for adult maintenance only; none are formulated for puppies or dogs of all life stages.

Best Dry Dog Food Containing Alternative Proteins: Jiminy’s Cravin’ Cricket

Things we like:

• Eco-friendly, humane, sustainable formula
• Cricket protein is prebiotic, helps feed beneficial bacteria in the gut
• Baked, not extruded

First 10 ingredients: Crickets, oats, quinoa, sweet potato, brown rice, chickpeas, milo, potato protein, peas, sunflower oil

Protein: Min 24%
Fat: Min 12%
Calories: 378 Kcal/cup
Cost: $5.89/lb

Runners up:

Lucy Pet Vegetarian Formula (protein sources are dried yeast, chickpeas, and potato protein)

Open Farm Kind Earth Premium Insect Kibble Recipe (protein sources are Black Soldier Fly Larvae and dried yeast)

Now you choose!

So, that’s what we would choose and what we’d base those choices on. Now it’s your turn! You’ll need to consider your dog’s age, weight, health, and preferences – and your budget and preferences – but you’ll have plenty to choose from; we suggest using our searchable database of Approved Dry Dog Foods, which allows you to sort prospects on their ingredients, protein and fat levels, price, and more.

The post What’s the Best Dry Dog Food? 2024’s Top Picks in 8 Categories appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

Minimums, maximums, and actual amounts

Every pet food label is required to display a “guaranteed analysis” that includes the minimum percentages of crude protein and crude fat and the maximum percentages of crude fiber and moisture that are present in that food “as fed” – as they are in the food’s present form.

Protein and fat are the most important (and costly) nutrients in a dog’s food, so these are reported as guaranteed minimums; this ensures that dogs receive the minimum amounts necessary for health.

Moisture (water) and fiber, being empty of nutrients, are listed by their maximum amounts; this ensures that consumers know the maximum amount of the food’s contents that is without nutrients.

All these amounts are subject to surveillance, testing, and enforcement by feed control officials in every state where the product is sold.

It’s important to understand that the minimum and maximum amounts listed in the guaranteed analyses are just that: minimums and maximums. The actual amount of those nutrients may be significantly different. For example, the minimum fat guarantee on a label may be 8%, but the product might contain 15% fat or more. Similarly, a product with a maximum guarantee of 5% fiber may actually contain only 1%.

Some product manufacturers report more accurate numbers for their products’ nutrients in what’s usually called a “typical nutrient analysis.” These analyses may reflect nutrient levels that have been calculated by a computer analysis of the product’s ingredients and formula, or levels that have been determined by laboratory tests of the product. The most transparent, consumer-friendly pet food makers publish typical nutrient analyses for all of their products on their websites. Other companies make these available by request – and some companies don’t make them available at all!

If it’s critical to your dog’s health that you feed a very specific amount of protein (for a dog with diminished kidney function, for example), fat (say, for a dog who is prone to pancreatitis), or fiber (for a dog prone to constipation or diarrhea), we’d recommend considering only those foods with a readily available typical nutrient analysis.

Further, for the most precise comparison to other products and products of different types (canned, dry, etc.), it’s ideal if these analyses list their nutrient contents in two ways: “as-fed” (meaning, the food as it is presented in its package) and as “dry matter” (the nutrient levels in the food if all of the water were removed).

Why the “dry matter” values matter

Have you ever wondered about the disparity between the amounts of protein or fat listed on the canned (or fresh frozen) food you give your dog, and those on the bag of dry or freeze-dried food he eats? A good-quality dry food may have a minimum of 28% protein listed, while a comparable canned food may be labeled as having just 7% protein. How can a dog live on the (seemingly) paltry amounts of nutrients in canned and fresh foods?

Answer: A dog can subsist on those amounts because they are anything but paltry! In fact, high quality canned and fresh/frozen foods usually contain more fat and protein than high-quality dry foods – if you go by the dry matter values.

In order to directly compare the protein or fat content of one type of food (i.e., canned, dry, raw frozen, or freeze-dried) to another type, you need to consider them on a level playing field. Each of these types of food contains highly disparate amounts of moisture, which affects the “as fed” percentages. The nutrient levels in high-moisture foods are, in effect, diluted.

To compare the nutrient levels in products with disparate amounts of moisture, you have to remove all the moisture from each product. This is easy to do mathematically.

The first step in comparing any two products of different types is to convert the as-fed amounts on the label to dry matter (DM) values. Do this by subtracting the amount of moisture on the label from 100. The result is the food’s dry matter or DM factor.

100 − moisture % = dry matter or DM factor

Then you can divide any listed nutrient percentage by the DM factor to determine its dry matter percentage. For example:

Protein % ÷ DM factor = DM protein

Multiply by 100 to show it as a percentage

Let’s look at a canned food. The math looks a little different, because the moisture content is so high in canned foods, which makes the dry matter factor number small. The high amount of moisture also makes the as-fed nutrient amounts small (they are literally diluted!). But you use the same formula – and you may be surprised by the result. Check it out:

Did that surprise you? Notice that both the dry food in Example Label #1 and the canned food in Example Label #2 contain the same amount of dry matter protein (31%), even though the “as fed” numbers on their labels look very different. If you were trying to find a dry and a canned food that contained a moderate and consistent amount of protein for your dog, you’d do well to run these calculations, to make sure that both types of food offer an appropriate (and similar, if not matching) amount of protein.

What about carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are not usually listed on a guaranteed analysis, but, if you’ve gotten this far, they are easy to compute. But in order to do so, we have to add one more “nutrient” to the calculation.

The “ash” content of dog food is rarely discussed, even though some pet food manufacturers list the maximum amount of ash in their products on the guaranteed analysis. This is not required, but it’s helpful for dog owners who know what ash is.

Ash is essentially what would be left over if you were to put the food in an oven and burn away everything that could burn; what’s left are all the minerals in the food. Calcium and phosphorus constitute the vast majority of these minerals (interestingly, you could use the ash total as a rough estimate of how much calcium and phosphorus are in the diet), but even the iron, copper, zinc, magnesium, selenium, and the rest of the trace minerals in the food contribute to the total amount of ash.

Though all dog foods need to contain some ash – as they all need to contain the minerals required by dogs – low-quality foods often contain fairly high levels of ash, as much as 10% or more. High levels of ash can impede a dog’s ability to absorb other nutrients – which is why you will almost never see the amount of ash reported by the makers of cheap, low-quality foods, but you may see low amounts of ash voluntarily included in the guaranteed analysis by makers of high-quality foods.

Back to carbohydrates: In order to calculate what percentage of a food is carbohydrates, add the as-fed (label) percentages for protein, fat, fiber, moisture, and ash, subtract their total from 100, and divide the result by the DM factor.

If you can’t find the ash content for a particular food, you can use an estimate of between 5% and 9% as the ash percentage of a canned or dry food. You can use an estimate of between 1% and 4% for the ash percentage of most fresh or frozen raw foods.

Let’s look at another example:

Don’t be intimidated!

These calculations are not difficult, just a bit tedious. If you follow along through a few more, you’ll begin to see how easy it is – and how much more you can learn about your dog’s food by doing some math.

This is a very low-carb food, typical of many raw-food diets. (Remember, dogs don’t have a nutritional requirement for carbohydrates; they can live on fat and protein alone. Dietary fiber offers some functional benefits – read “Dietary Fiber for Dogs” – but many dogs thrive on low- or no-carb diets.)

Ok, just one more. For fun, let’s look at a food that’s on the other end of the carb-content scale. This one is a brand every dog owner knows:

The more you know . . .

When I first came across descriptions of how to calculate dry matter percentages, my brain would freeze. But with practice, it has become easy and even fun – especially when I can exclaim over the carb counts for most grocery-store kibbles. Carbohydrate-wise, we might as well just feed our dogs cinnamon buns! I hope you find this important subject as interesting as I do.

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The post Dry Dog Food Labels: How to Compare Fat, Protein, and Carbs appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

1. Look for named animal protein sources at the top of the ingredients list.

Ingredients in pet food are listed in order of the weight of that ingredient in the formula, so whatever is at the top of the list is present in the food in the greatest amount.

We want to see animal protein sources, because animal proteins contain more of the amino acids that dogs need than plant-sourced proteins; the more completely a protein provides the amino acids that dogs need, the higher-quality that protein is considered to be.

We also want that animal protein source to be named – identified by species, whether it’s a meat, organ, or a meat meal (e.g., chicken, chicken liver, chicken meal).

When a fresh meat is first on the ingredient list, there should be a named animal-protein meal immediately or closely following the meat. Important note: When we use the phrase “meat meal,” we are always talking about a meal made from a named animal. If the ingredients list on a product label says “meat meal,” you have no idea what species of animal is in that meal. Only buy products with named meat meals – chicken meal, beef meal, pork meal, lamb meal, etc.

Meat meals are made through a process called rendering, whereby much of the moisture (and a lot of the fat) is removed from the meat. Meat meals are a highly concentrated source of protein. Pound for pound, meat meals provide much more protein at a lower cost than fresh meats. But fresh meats add appealing flavors and aromas to the food. Also, they get added to the food mixture just before the food is cooked; rendered meat meals have already been processed and will be twice-cooked by the time the food is extruded or baked (and some nutrients are depleted with each cooking process).

Fresh or frozen meat contains a lot of moisture (which is heavy), but not that much protein, so if meat is first on the list, it acts like a diluted protein source. That’s why we like to see another named source of animal protein appearing in the top two or three ingredients. We’re emphasizing animal proteins because some companies use fresh meats supported by plant proteins. To repeat ourselves, generally, plant proteins are less complete for dogs than animal proteins.

So, what’s best for healthy dog food: meat only, meat meal only, or both? We like both – but it depends on what works best for your dog and your budget.

2. Look for whole-food ingredients in dog food.

When vegetables, fruits, grains, and/or carbohydrate sources such as chickpeas or sweet potatoes are used, they should be whole. Ingredients that have already been processed, shipped, and stored before they are used in dog kibble will have lost quite a bit of their nutritive value before they are mixed with other ingredients and processed again (mixed with other ingredients and then either baked or extruded, dried, and coated). 

3. Look for ingredients that are certified as organic, humanely raised, or sustainably farmed.

Companies will use wiggle words to lend the impression that they are using the best ingredients available. Certifications give these claims credibility in the best, healthy dog foods.

SUBSCRIBER ONLY: See Whole Dog Journal’s 2024 list of approved dry dog foods.

For 2024, we’ve named the the best dry dog foods in a number of categories. Click here to see our selections.

Signs of Low-Quality Dog Food: Traits and Ingredients to Avoid

The following are traits that we don’t want to see on a dog food label – undesirable attributes that indicate a lower-quality dog food:

• The lowest price you can find.

The cheapest foods contain the cheapest ingredients available to pet food manufacturers, and will not be healthy dog foods. While technically any food that’s labeled as “complete and balanced” is supposed to contain minimum amounts of the nutrients dogs need, with low-quality ingredients, there is no telling how bio-available the nutrients will be. 

• Animal products that are not specified by species.

Meat meal, meat and bone meal, poultry meal, poultry by-product meal, animal fat, poultry fat: If you have a pet with a food intolerance or allergy, you have to know what you’re feeding him in order to identify the problematic ingredient.

• Animal by-products.

This includes meat by-products and poultry by-products, as well as meat by-product meal and poultry by-product meal. These animal protein sources are nutritious, but are handled with far less care than more expensive animal protein sources (i.e., without refrigeration and with less sanitation).

We’d choose a food that contained meat by-products over one with meat by-product meal; the unrendered ingredients must be used for food production quickly, whereas the industry handles ingredients that are going to be rendered with less urgency. Also, again, all meals have been cooked once already and will be cooked again after being mixed with all the other food ingredients. 

• Added sweeteners.

Like us, dogs like sweets. But they also like meat, especially fatty meats. When a food lacks enough meat to make it appealing to dogs, either because the food is carbohydrate-heavy or uses mostly plant-sourced proteins, sweeteners are often added to increase the food’s palatability. 

• Artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives (such as BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin).

The color of the food doesn’t matter to your dog. And it should be flavored well enough with healthy meats and fats to be enticing. Natural preservatives, such as mixed tocopherols, are healthier than synthetic preservatives.

The one time we don’t mind seeing an artificial preservative is in foods that contain a lot of fish. Fish and fish meals are notoriously volatile; the fats in fish go rancid more quickly than other animal fats. Artificial preservatives repress the rancidity better and longer than natural preservatives. Pro tip: If buying a fish-based food, check the date-code on the bag and try to get the freshest food possible.

• Ingredient splitting.

This is where two or more very similar food “fractions” appear separately on the ingredients list. A pet food manufacturer can use this technique to make it appear that a high-quality ingredient is represented in the food in a greater proportion than it really is. Remember, the food’s ingredients are listed in descending order of their weight on the label. By using several separate iterations of an ingredient and listing them separately, they will fall below the better ingredient on the ingredients list.

An example: A label lists chicken meal first on the label, followed by several fractions or versions of an ingredient as separate ingredients (i.e., rice, brewer’s rice, rice bran, rice protein meal). If all the iterations of the “rice” ingredients were combined or reconstituted, they would outweigh and push the chicken down on the ingredients list; it would now read rice first, then chicken.

SUBSCRIBER ONLY: See Whole Dog Journal’s 2024 list of approved dry dog foods.

Best adult maintenance food, best puppy food, best budget food, best lower-fat food, and more.

The post How to Find Healthy Dog Food: WDJ’s Dry Dog Food Selection Criteria appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

There is no agreed-upon definition for “limited-ingredient foods.” In some cases, pet food makers use the phrase to designate foods that contain only one animal protein source and one carbohydrate source; these products may contain very few ingredients overall… but this is not always the case. In some cases, using only a single animal protein source results in a food that contains less protein than the pet food maker wanted, so a plant protein source (or two, or more) are added.

By the way, no matter how “limited” the formula is, it may appear to contain dozens of ingredients. The pet food makers don’t really consider all the ingredients that go into their vitamin/mineral pre-mix when they call a food “limited ingredient,” even though they have to name each of the ingredients included in that pre-mix on the list of ingredients on the product label. Generally, when the phrase is used, it’s meant to mean all of the major ingredients, not the vitamins and mineral sources, and certainly nothing that’s named among or below those sources on the ingredients list. (Since the ingredients are listed by the weight of their inclusion in the mix, anything that’s included in the same amount or less as some individual vitamin or mineral is present in the food in a very small amount – not enough to worry about for any but the most allergic dog ever.)

What advantage is there to a limited ingredient diet? A small ingredient list isn’t a virtue in and of itself; it’s only particularly helpful to dogs who are allergic to or intolerant of several food ingredients.

A review: An allergy involves an exaggerated or pathological immunological reaction (often referred to as a hypersensitive immune response) to a benign substance. True allergies cause the immune system to produce antibodies called immunoglobulin E (IgE). In dogs, allergies usually cause extreme itchiness; digestive issues such as diarrhea and vomiting are not out of the question, but they are far more rare than itchy skin (including itchy paws and ears).

A food intolerance, in contrast, is something that causes an adverse reaction such as vomiting, diarrhea, and extreme gassiness.

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY: Whole Dog Journal’s 2022 Approved Dry Dog Foods

Dog food elimination diet trials

The best way to find out which food ingredients your dog is allergic to or intolerant of is to conduct a dog elimination diet trial. In this sort of trial, you feed your dog an extremely limited-ingredient diet – generally a home-prepared diet consisting of a single animal protein source and a single carbohydrate source. The protein and carb are selected for novelty – something the dog (one hopes) hasn’t ever eaten before. For example, you may try bison for protein and barley for carbohydrates. This diet (and nothing but this diet) is fed for a few weeks while the dog is watched carefully for reactions. If he remains symptom-free, then a single new ingredient is added to the diet – perhaps another protein source – and he’s again watched carefully to see if any symptoms arise.

If he responds at any time with symptoms, the ingredient that was added most recently is suspected of causing his allergy or intolerance and removed from the diet until he’s free of symptoms again. From then on, the owner tries to make sure the dog’s diet is free of that/those ingredients. (For more about food-allergic dogs and how to conduct a food elimination trial, see this article.)

If you don’t know what food ingredients your dog is allergic to or intolerant of, you might find a limited-ingredient diet that doesn’t contain the ingredients that are problematic for your dog by sheer dumb luck. That’s great if you never change his food again, and if the manufacturer doesn’t ever change the formula, and if your dog doesn’t develop an allergy of/intolerance to any more ingredients (it happens). But a food-elimination trial is really the way to go, so you know what you are avoiding.

Dogs who are allergic to or intolerant of several or lots of common food ingredients (or even more) are the most difficult to find commercial diets for. They are the ones that a truly limited-ingredient diet is helpful for – as long as the product doesn’t contain the specific ingredients the dog is allergic to or intolerant to.

Use our searchable database to find limited ingredient dog food!

How can you find limited-ingredient foods? Well, it’s not the easiest task, mostly because (as I said earlier) there is no specific definition of the term. But some manufacturers who are taking this tack try to include “Limited Ingredient” in the product name – and these we can capture using the “approved food” searchable database on our site. I searched for the word “limited” in the “dry food variety” field and got 23 results. I expanded the ingredients list field on each food, to see exactly how “limited” they were.

The most limited-ingredient products (shortest ingredient list) on our list are Taste of the Wild products in their “Prey Limited Ingredient” line. The Beef variety contains just four major ingredients: beef, lentils, tomato pomace, and sunflower oil.  The Turkey and the Trout varieties have the same formula, with just the different protein (turkey, lentils, tomato pomace, and sunflower oil in the Turkey variety and trout, lentils, tomato pomace, and sunflower oil in the Trout variety).

How do we define “major ingredients” in dog food? Essentially, we’re talking about the protein, carb, and fat sources high up on the label. As soon as you get into things like “natural flavor,” which comes next on the label, you are no longer in the land of “major” ingredients.

Personally, I’m not such a huge fan of products with a legume (or legumes) representing so much of the formula, but if your dog is intolerant of grains and legumes seem to suit your dog, fine!

Triumph Pet Food has a product called Limited Ingredient Lamb & Brown Rice in its Wild Spirit line with just six major ingredients: deboned lamb, lamb meal, brown rice, whole barley, peas, and chicken fat. I like the fact that the peas are lower down on the list of that product, but this is a personal preference.

You might find other dry dog foods on our “approved foods” list that have short ingredient lists but without the word “limited” in the name. It would be best if you knew exactly which ingredients you were trying to avoid because then you could simply build a search that omitted all of those ingredients – like a soy-free, corn-free, wheat-free, rice-free, and chicken-free dog food. Something like this example:

That search resulted in 73 prospects to look over – pretty good for your dog food search when your dog suffers from several food allergies!

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY: Whole Dog Journal’s 2022 Approved Dry Dog Foods

The post Limited Ingredient Dog Food – How to Find the Best Dog Food for Allergies & Intolerances appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

Read about our criteria when selecting these canned dog foods here.

Trying to print this page? Here are some hints: When printing this page, if the chart is cut off on the right side, try printing in landscape mode. Computers, printers, operating systems and web browsers can have different settings and print pages differently. Printing from a PDF can be more reliable. You can access these charts in the February 2020 issue on pages 10-13.

The post Whole Dog Journal’s Approved Dry Dog Foods for 2020 appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

The food you give your dog plays a critical role in his well-being, both on a daily basis and long-term. He needs a diet with the right nutrients to keep him active, happy, and healthy. And make no mistake: Not all dog foods are created equal. Since 1998, Whole Dog Journal has been proving that much in an annual review and ratings of dry dog foods.

Year by Year: Subscribers to Whole Dog Journal can access our annual dry dog food reviews online. Here are links to our lists approved dog foods over the years:

• 2021 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List
• 2020 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List
• 2019 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List
• 2018 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List
• 2017 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List
• 2016 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List
• 2015 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List

Whole Dog Journal rates dry dog food and creates an annual “Approved” list (for publication every February) based on the following criteria.

Must-Have Ingredients in Dry Dog Food

Make sure your dog’s dry food has the following elements, the hallmarks of a quality product:

✓ Superior sources of protein: Look for dry dog foods that contain a lot of animal proteins—either whole, fresh meats or single-source meat meal. For example, you want to see “chicken meal” or “beef meal” on the label, not “poultry meal” or “meat meal.” A dog food label listing simply “meat” is an example of a low-quality protein source of dubious origin.

✓ Whole-meat source as one of the first two ingredients: Better yet: two meat sources among the top three ingredients (say, chicken and chicken meal). Meat, the most natural source of protein for dogs, contains the amino acids most important to canine health. A good mix of meat proteins helps round out a dog food’s amino acid profile.

✓ Whole, unprocessed grains, vegetables, and other foods. An unprocessed food for your dog has the best chance of surviving the food-making process with its nutrients—vitamins, enzymes, and antioxidants—intact.

Avoid Dry Dog Food with These Ingredients

When scanning dry dog food labels, keep your eyes peeled for the following undesirables. High-quality dry dog foods have these ingredients in minimal percentages:

✗ Meat by-products. Research has revealed that higher-value ingredients in dry dog foods tend to be processed and stored more carefully (kept clean and cold) than lower-cost ingredients—including “by-products.” And it’s just about impossible to ascertain the quality of by-products. We prefer to see these second-rate ingredients in a supporting role to whole meats or meat meals—say, below the top five ingredients.

✗ “Generic” fat source. “Animal fat”—an ingredient you may notice in some dry dog foods—can be just about anything, from an unwholesome mystery mix of various fats to recycled grease from restaurants. A preferable ingredient would be “beef fat” or “chicken fat.” The more generic the term, the more suspect the ingredient is. (We shudder to think of what’s in “animal digest”—another item we’ve seen on ingredient lists.)

✗ Artificial preservatives, including BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin. Natural preservatives such as tocopherols (compounds often with vitamin E), vitamin C, and rosemary extract can be used instead. Note that natural preservatives do not preserve dog foods as long as artificial preservatives do, so owners should always check the “best by…” date on the label.

✗ Artificial colors. Trust us: Your dog doesn’t care about the color of his food. And he certainly doesn’t need daily exposure to unnecessary chemicals that provide color. Also avoid dog food with propylene glycol, a chemical added to some “chewy” foods to keep them moist.

✗ Artificial flavors. Your dog’s food should be flavored well enough with healthy meats and fats to be enticing to him.

✗ Sweeteners. Dogs, like us, have a taste for sweets. Corn syrup, sucrose, ammoniated glycyrrhizin, and other sweeteners are sometimes added to lower-quality foods to increase their appeal. But dietary sugar can cause or worsen health problems—including diabetes—in dogs.

Average Dog Food Price Per Pound

The 2021 Dry Dog Food Review lists a number of companies that make good- to great-quality dry dog foods in  order of the average price of their products. We collected prices for kibble from online retailers and from the companies themselves, asking for their suggested retail prices for the largest-sized bags of their foods (the larger the bag, the lower the price per pound). We calculated the price per pound of each variety of food (by dividing the price by the number of pounds of food in the bag). Then we calculated the average price per pound of food for each company, using the figures from each food in each line.

Does a high-end dog food really make a difference to your dog’s lifelong health? As any long-time reader knows, the pet food industry seeks to maximize its profits, not the health of the animals who depend on it. Most humans can’t access grass-fed organic meat for themselves, let alone their dogs, so find brands of kibble with decent ingredient lists which you are comfortable paying for.

But do know that in the case of dog food, you do get what you pay for.

YOUR DOG’S UNIQUE DIET AND NUTRITION NEEDS

Whole Dog Journal‘s Approved list is based on assessments of dry dog food ingredients along with the “Guaranteed Analysis” anyone can find on food labels. Dog owners are encouraged to develop an understanding of which ingredients are beneficial and which aren’t—and to routinely look at labels before buying.

A scan of a dry dog food’s ingredients can tell you a lot about the maker’s intentions and philosophy. If a dog food company admits to using artificial preservatives, say, or lots of grain “fragments” or animal “by-products,” you’re probably not dealing with a top-of-the-line product.

Conversely, if a list of dog food ingredients leads off with a quality protein source followed by whole, healthy foods, you know you’ve found a worthy product.

Keep in mind that there’s no “right” food that works for every one of the 77.8 million dogs in America. They’re all individuals with unique physiological and metabolic make-ups. Consider:

A dog who is prone to urinary tract infections would be better off with a food lower in pH (and thus less acidic).

If your dog is lean and active, you might look for a higher-fat, higher-protein brand.

If your dog is older and less active, you might want food with a higher percentage of lean protein.

These are just some possible factors you might be dealing with when looking for a dog food. Here are some real-world examples of equally valid dog food buying decisions.

Caloric Considerations

Another thing you have to consider is the caloric content of the food you choose. If the food you select for your dog is energy-dense, and your dog is a couch potato, you may have to cut her daily ration considerably to prevent her from getting fat. Some dogs respond to forced dieting with begging, counter-surfing, and garbage-raiding. If your dog is one of these, you may have to seek out a high-fiber, low-calorie food – one that may not necessarily contain the highest-quality protein or fat sources on the market – to keep your dog feeling contentedly full without getting fat.

Dogs exhibit a wide range of energy requirements. You may have to seek out a higher- or lower-calorie food based on the following attributes that can affect your dog’s energy needs:

• Activity level. The more a dog exercises the more energy he needs to consume to maintain his condition; it’s that simple.

• Growth. Growing puppies have higher energy requirements than adult dogs. A food with a higher protein level, but a moderate (not high) fat level is ideal. Obese puppies are far more prone to degenerative joint disease – especially in large and giant breeds – than puppies with a normal or slim physique.

• Age. The age at which a dog becomes a senior citizen varies from breed to breed, with larger dogs considered geriatric at earlier ages. Older dogs typically require fewer calories to maintain their body weight and condition, partly because they tend to be less active than younger dogs.

• Environmental conditions. Dogs who live or spend much of their time outside in severe cold temperatures need from 10 percent to as much as 90 percent more energy than dogs who enjoy a temperate climate. The thickness and quality of the dog’s coat, the amount of body fat he has, and the quality of his shelter have direct effects on the dog’s energy needs.

• Illness. Sick dogs have increased energy needs; it takes energy to mount an immune response or repair tissues. However, dogs who do not feel well also tend to be inactive, which lowers their energy needs.

• Reproduction. A pregnant female’s energy requirement does not increase significantly until the final third of her pregnancy, when it may increase by a factor of three.

• Lactation. A nursing female may require as much as eight times as much energy as a female of the same age and condition who is not nursing.

• Neutering. It is generally accepted that neutered (and spayed) dogs have reduced energy needs. However, there are actually no studies that conclusively prove that neutered dogs require fewer calories simply as a result of lower hormone levels. It has been suggested that these dogs gain weight due to increased appetites and/or decreased activity levels.

• Other individual factors. Other factors that can affect a dog’s energy requirement include its temperament (nervous or placid?) and skin, fat, and coat quality (how well he is insulated against weather conditions).

Dog Food for Managing Canine Illnesses & Health Problems

If your dog has any sort of disease or an inherited propensity for disease, ask your veterinarian about the benefits of nutritional therapy to help treat or prevent the disease. Don’t settle for the suggestion of a commercial “prescription” diet; most of them are formulated with lower-quality ingredients. Instead, ask what specifically in the diet has been manipulated so as to be beneficial for your dog. Then, see if you can find a product that offers the same benefits and better-quality ingredients. The best example is a “kidney” diet for dogs with kidney failure. The goal is to feed these patients a diet with a moderate level of very high-quality protein and low amounts of phosphorus (see “When to Say No to Low-Protein“). An intelligently formulated home-prepared dog food diet can do a far better job of accomplishing these goals than the commercial dog food diets on the market.

You should also do some research on your own to determine what dietary changes might help your dog. A good starting place is Donald R. Strombeck’s Home-Prepared Dog & Cat Diets: The Healthful Alternative (available by order in bookstores). Dr. Strombeck details strategies for changing the dog’s diet to treat and/or prevent gastrointestinal, skin, skeletal and joint, renal, urinary, endocrine, heart, pancreatic, and hepatic disease.

Other diseases that can be improved with dietary management include:

• Allergy or intolerance. There are a number of breeds that are particularly susceptible to food allergies, including Cocker Spaniels, Dalmatians, English Springer Spaniels, Labrador Retrievers, Lhasa Apsos, Miniature Schnauzers, and more. Again, it’s important to keep a record of what foods you feed your dog, what they contain, and how your dog looks and feels. If your records indicate that one or more ingredients trigger bad reactions in your dog, seek out foods that do not contain those ingredients in any amount. (See “Walking the Allergy Maze,” “Diet Makes the Difference“.)

• Cancer. High-fat, low-carbohydrate (or carb-free) diets are ideal for cancer patients. Cancer cells use carbs for energy, and don’t easily utilize fat, so you can effectively “starve” the cancer cells while providing extra energy to your dog with a diet rich in a high-quality fat sources. (See “Feed the Dog, Starve the Cancer.“)

• Inherited metabolism disorders. Some breeds are prone to diseases with a strong dietary influence. For example, the West Highland White Terrier and the Cocker Spaniel have an inherited tendency to suffer from copper buildup in the liver; these dogs should eat a diet that is formulated with low levels of copper. Malamutes and Siberian Huskies can inherit a zinc metabolism disorder, and require a high-zinc diet (or zinc supplements).

Ask your veterinarian (and reliable breeders) about your dog’s breed-related nutritional requirements. And contact the manufacturer of your dog’s food for the expanded version of the food’s nutrient levels. Pet food makers are not required to print the levels of every nutrient on their labels, but should make this information available to you upon request.

So take your dog’s age, condition, and health history into account. Consider product availability, too; a large percentage of the brands on WDJ‘s Approved list are available at independent stores, and some cases are regionally sold products.

And, of course, price can come into play. The right dog food isn’t necessarily cheap, but that old axiom, “You get what you pay for,” applies here, too.

BEST PRACTICES FOR CHOOSING DRY DOG FOOD

Nutrition experts don’t agree on everything, but one thing they generally concede to be true is that all animals enjoy the best health when given a balanced and varying diet of fresh, species-appropriate foods.

They also generally agree that highly processed foods are not as healthy as lightly processed foods; some of nature’s value is always lost to oxidation, heat, pressure, and chemical interactions. Foods made with highly processed (and sometimes, as a result, aged) ingredients are at a big disadvantage compared to those that are made with fresh, whole ingredients.

The healthiest dog foods contain high-quality proteins and whole, unprocessed grains and vegetables. Always ensure that the dry dog food you buy include high-quality proteins, such as either whole, fresh meats or single-source meat meal (“chicken meal” or “beef meal.”) Avoid dog foods that use vague wording on the ingredients list, such as “poultry meal” or “meat meal.” Any label that simply says “meat” should be disqualified as a low-quality source of protein.

Finally, remember that it’s a good idea to switch dog foods regularly. Choose several brands that contain the right ingredients and give your dog some variety over time. It’ll help correct the excesses, insufficiencies, or imbalances that result from the same dog food day in and day out.

Year by Year: Subscribers to Whole Dog Journal can access our annual dry dog food reviews online. Here are links to the past five lists of approved dog foods:

• 2021 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List
• 2020 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List
• 2019 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List
• 2018 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List
• 2017 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List
• 2016 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List
• 2015 Whole Dog Journal Approved Dry Dog Food List

The post Whole Dog Journal’s Free Guide on Dry Dog Food appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

So, when a canned food label says that a food contains (for example) 9% fat, in order to really understand how much fat you are thinking about feeding to your dog, you have to remove the moisture from the equation; you want to know how much fat (in this example) is in the food part of the food – the “dry matter.” Any serious discussion of nutrition, or comparison of dry and wet diets, requires the conversion of the nutrient values from “as fed” to “dry matter.”

To calculate the nutrient levels in a food as dry matter (DM) percentages, first determine the amount of dry matter in the product. You do this by subtracting the percentage of moisture from 100. Then, divide the “as fed” percentage of the nutrient you are curious about by the amount of dry matter; that will give you the dry matter percentage.

For example, if a canned food has 78% moisture and 9% fat as fed (as seen on the guaranteed analysis):

• 100 – 78 = 22% dry matter (DM)
• 9 ÷ 22 = .40 = 40% fat DM (on a dry matter basis)

To compare that product to a dry food, do the same calculation for the dry food you may have been feeding. We’ll use the numbers from a bag of food our dogs are currently eating; the guaranteed analysis says it contains 10% moisture and 13% fat.

• 100 – 10 = 90% DM
• 13 ÷ 90 = 14% fat DM

So the canned food contains a little more than three times the amount of fat than the dry food does, on a dry matter basis. Yowsa! We’d be careful if we were considering adding some of this food to our dog’s diet – we’d add only small amounts – and we certainly wouldn’t switch quickly from the dry food to this canned food. Doing so would just be asking for digestive upset, and could provoke a pancreatitis attack in susceptible dogs.

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The post How to Compare Nutrient Levels in Canned Dog Foods with Dry Foods appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

The post Whole Dog Journal’s Approved Dry Dog Foods for 2019 appeared first on Whole Dog Journal.

You might not think that is funny, but my friend and I laughed for a solid minute, because we have both experienced that exact conversation countless times.

It’s an inescapable fact that quality dog foods cost money – and the highest quality foods cost a lot of money. You simply cannot sell steaks at hamburger prices. And as much as we may want to buy “the best” food for our dogs, most of us have a number – unique to each of us, based on our financial status, the size and number of dogs we own, and perhaps even our relationship with our dogs – to which we will respond, “No, forget it; that’s too much.”

We’ve never made cost a part of WDJ’s dog food selection criteria, and have barely mentioned it in past reviews, precisely because of the fact that one dog owner’s “No, forget it” price may be another person’s food selection starting point. What you can afford or feel comfortable spending on dog food is a personal matter. But the conversation with my friend made me reconsider this particular elephant in the living room. It occurred to me that perhaps it would be helpful to help people identify the higher-quality foods in any group of identically priced products.

What Is In a Good Dry Dog Food?

In order to recognize a superior product in a group of foods, you have to know what specific attributes indicate quality in a dog food. We look for the following hallmarks of quality:

1. Animal Proteins at the Top of the List

Lots of animal protein at the top of the ingredients list. Ingredients in pet food are listed in order of the weight of that ingredient in the formula, so you want to see a named animal protein or named animal protein meal first on the ingredients list. (“Named” means the species is identified: chicken, beef, lamb, etc. “Meal” means a dry, rendered product made from an identified species.)

2. Named-Species Meat Meal 

When a fresh meat is first on the ingredient list, there should be a named animal-protein meal immediately or closely following the meat. Fresh meat contains a lot of moisture (which is heavy), so if meat is first on the list, it acts like a diluted protein source; while it adds an appealing flavor and aroma to the food, it doesn’t actually contribute that much protein. That’s why another named source of animal protein should appear in the top two or three ingredients.

3. Whole Plant Ingredients

When vegetables, fruits, grains, and/or carbohydrate sources such as potatoes, chickpeas, or sweet potatoes are used, they should be whole. Fresh, unprocessed food ingredients contain nutrients in all their complex glory, with their vitamins, enzymes, and antioxidants intact.

4. Organic, Sustainable, “Green” Labelling

Some of us are also looking for products that are made with organic ingredients, and/or humanely raised or sustainably farmed ingredients. It may also be meaningful for some of us to buy from companies who support shelters or rescue, manufacture in “green” plants, participate in recycling and waste reduction programs, and so on.

Bad Ingredients Found in Dry Dog Food

There are also some things to look out for – undesirable attributes that indicate a lower-quality food:

Meat by-products, poultry by-products, meat by-product meal, and poultry by-product meal

Many of the animal tissues that are defined as animal by-products are nutritious, but may be handled indifferently.

“Generic” fat sources

“Animal fat” can literally be any mixed fat of animal origin. “Poultry” fat is not quite as suspect as “animal fat,” but “chicken fat” or “duck fat” is better (and traceable).

Ingredient splitting

Watch out for a practice commonly called “ingredient splitting,” whereby two or more very similar food “fractions” appear on the ingredients list. Because the ingredients are listed in descending order of their weight, a manufacturer can make it appear that a higher-quality ingredient is represented in the food in a higher amount than it really is. This is accomplished by using several fractions or versions of an ingredient as separate ingredients (i.e., rice, brewer’s rice, rice bran, rice protein meal). If all the iterations of that ingredient were combined or reconstituted, they would outweigh the higher-quality ingredient, pushing it down on the ingredients list.

Plasma and blood

We don’t recommend foods that use animal plasma or blood meal as a protein source.

Added sweeteners

Dogs, like humans, enjoy the taste of sweet foods. Sweeteners effectively persuade many dogs to eat foods comprised mainly of grain fragments (and containing less healthy animal protein and fats).

Other Additives

Artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives (such as BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin). The color of the food doesn’t matter to your dog. And it should be flavored well enough with healthy meats and fats to be enticing. Natural preservatives, such as mixed tocopherols, can be used instead.

Compare and Contrast Kibbles

Once you know what traits you are looking for, go compare the products in the price range that works for you. Make sure you use the calculator app on your phone and calculate the price per pound of any food you are considering. Write the numbers down so you can compare prices at different retail outlets; if you are accustomed to buying your dog’s food in a grocery store, you might be surprised to find that you can find foods of a much higher quality at very close to the same price.

For example, Beneful is a brand that’s sold in many grocery and big-box stores. It costs more than many of the foods in the grocery store so you may be patting yourself on the back for buying a better food for your dog. A 12.5-pound bag of its Grain-Free Chicken variety sells for $14.19, or $1.13 per pound. But look at the ingredients (we’ll list just the first 10):

– chicken
– pea starch
– cassava root flour
– chicken by-product meal
– soybean germ meal
– soybean meal
– canola meal
– beef tallow
– dried beet pulp
– poultry and pork digest

This food contains a minimum of 24% protein and 13% fat.

Now, let’s look at the first 10 ingredients of one of the foods on our “approved foods” list (which you can view by clicking the links on this page). We’ll compare it to a product from a company whose average prices are the lowest on our list: Eagle Pack. The Chicken Meal and Pork Meal formula sells for $39.99 for a 30-pound bag ($1.33 per pound).

– chicken meal
– pork meal
– ground brown rice
– dehulled barley
– oatmeal
– rice
– peas
– chicken fat
– brewers dried yeast
– flaxseed

This food contains a minimum of 27% protein and 14% fat.

Yes, there is a 20-cent per pound difference in the prices of these foods; the Beneful is less expensive. But the difference in quality is huge.

It’s nice that Beneful uses chicken meat as its first ingredient, but its next animal protein (chicken by-product meal) is fourth on this list. Because meat contains so much moisture, the chicken doesn’t contribute as much protein to the diet as a meat meal. Beneful props up the protein content in this food with low-quality protein sources: chicken by-product meal, soybean germ meal, and soybean meal.

By the way, we’d call the appearance of those last two ingredients “ingredient splitting.”If you added the weight of the soybean germ meal and the soybean meal, we’d hazard a guess that they would outweigh the chicken by-product meal, meaning they play a far larger role in the food than the chicken by-product meal.

Animal proteins contain more of the amino acids that dogs require than plant proteins, but plant proteins are less expensive – hence their appearance in lower-priced dog foods.

In contrast, Eagle Pack uses two high-quality meat meals as the first and second ingredients; this is where the food is getting most of its protein.

As a fat source, the Beneful food uses beef tallow – widely considered to be a lower-quality fat than the chicken fat used in the Eagle Pack food.

The grains used in the Eagle Pack food are either whole or lightly processed (ground or dehulled). In contrast, the carbohydrate sources in the Beneful product are highly processed (pea starch, cassava root flour, canola meal). All in all, there is a world of difference between the two foods.

Average Dog Food Price Per Pound

In the 2018 Dry Dog Food Review, we’ve listed a number of companies that make good- to great-quality foods. For the first time ever, we’ve ordered the dry dog food companies by the average price of their products so you could compare their features with similarly priced foods.

Here’s how we came up with the figures we used for the average sales price:

We collected prices for kibble from online retailers and from the companies themselves, asking for their suggested retail prices for the largest-sized bags of their foods (the larger the bag, the lower the price per pound). We calculated the price per pound of each variety of food (by dividing the price by the number of pounds of food in the bag). Then we calculated the average price per pound of food for each company, using the figures from each food in each line.

Keep in mind that an average means there are foods that cost more and some that cost less than the average. The company average price per pound will accurately represent those companies whose product lines are priced similarly, but it less accurately represents companies who have widely disparate lines of food.

Consider, for example, the three lines of food that Petcurean sells in the United States. Products from its most expensive line, “Gather,” sell for $4.99 per pound. Its Now Fresh foods sell for an average of $3.21 per pound, and its Go! foods sell for an average of $2.94 per pound. The company average is $3.71 per pound.

Does A Good Dog Food Really Make a Difference?

A difference to your dog’s lifelong health? Yeah, it does. Over the years, Whole Dog Journal has dedicated countless pages to the challenges and essentials of nourishing your dogs. As any long-time reader knows, the pet food industry seeks to maximize its profits, not the health of the animals who depend on it. Do we wish everyone could afford the most expensive dog food in the world, and thus the best quality ingredients? Of course we do, but we also recognize this isn’t the reality we, or our dogs, live in. 

Find brands of kibble with decent ingredient lists which you can afford. Most humans can’t access grass-fed organic meat for themselves, let alone their dogs. The 40+ foods on this list will help you hit your target.

There may be less obvious differences in the quality of ingredients between products that appear at the top of our “approved foods” list. This is where some of the companies’ intangible factors come into play. At the top end of the price charts, you will see companies who use dog food ingredients that are certified organic, sustainable, and humane; those certifications don’t come without a price. You will also see pet food companies with very good safety records, whose names you probably haven’t heard associated with any recalls. Quality manufacturing and quality control has a price, too.

Again, that’s not to say that we can all afford the price of some of these foods. But when you check to make sure that the foods have many of the traits of a good-quality product and none or few of the traits of low-quality products, you can rest assured that you are in the right ballpark, anyway. All of the foods on our approved foods list, even those at the very bottom of the list when they are ordered by average cost (as we have done) are capable of providing superior nutrition to your dog.

Now, all you have to do is find the ones that suit your individual dog – and that’s no small feat. There are dogs who thrive on low-quality foods and dogs who wilt when fed expensive foods. The problem in the latter case might lie with a certain ingredient, the percentage of fat, or something else. Don’t fret, just try another good-quality food. The great news is that there are plenty to choose from.

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