The top three things I've learnt about dog food

I’ve been in the dog food industry for ten years now and during this time I have helped thousands of people to feed their dog better. Although there’s lots of things I’ve learnt in the past ten years, I’d say there are three main things everyone should know about dog food.

Not all dog foods are created equal.

There are so many different types of dog foods out there and not all dog foods are the same. You can get dog foods that range from good to amazing quality and you can get ones that range from bad to rubbish quality. Just like when you’re looking to buy a car, there’s good quality cars and there’s also some rubbish quality cars. Not all cars are built to the same quality and this also applies to the dog food world. The interesting thing about it is that some of the best dog foods can be slightly cheaper than some of the worst dog foods so it’s important not to judge the quality of the food by its price.

Dogs thrive on meat.

Some people will disagree with me on this but in my experience, I’ve learnt that dogs really do thrive on meat and one of the things that has really stood out is when you increase the meat intake, the dog generally do a lot better. This doesn’t have to be raw meat; it can be in kibble too. For example, you can increase the meat to 50% when you were previously feeding kibble with 10% meat. Dogs are carnivores and it’s a basic fact of life that dogs need a nutritious diet that’s high in meat nutrients in order to live healthily.

Most dogs don’t get on with grains.

There are small minority of dogs that do get on with grains and if your dog is one of those, that’s great! But the majority of dogs don’t get on well with them and problems can arise. Unlike us, they lack the necessary enzymes in their saliva to break them down, so they pass into the stomach largely undigested, causing a range of issues. Dogs store fat and use fat differently to us too, and carbs are a key cause of weight gain, something common to all breeds. 

When people come to us for help, we’ve noticed that when advise them to reduce or cut out the grains in their diet, the problems significantly improve. If you’re looking to cut out the grains in your dog’s diet the things you need to look out for in the ingredients are:

• Rice
• Corn
• Barley
• Wheat
• Oats
• Rye
• Sorghum (millet)

We know how complicated dog food can be and we’re here to help you feed your dog the best you possibly can. If you need any help or have any questions, get in contact or pop in store.