Watching all those ads for dog food on TV, you’d think that every meal for your dog is a sumptuous buffet of meaty flavors, packed with vitamins and minerals. Back in the real world, however, it’s a different story.

While it’s true that many dogs have lived out full life spans on low-quality kibble, it doesn’t make it the best choice. Imagine if you ate at McDonald’s every day. You wouldn’t eat junk food like that — and neither should your pet.

Better foods are highly digestible, which means there is less waste to come out of the other end of your dog. Poor quality pet foods have fillers such as corn. It makes your dog feel full but is highly indigestible. Feeding a premium food means your dog will actually eat less.

But veterinarians may not be the best source for figuring out which food is best for your pet.

Think like a chef and start with the ingredients. Just because a bag is colorful and says “formulated by a vet” or “Now with extra meat!” doesn’t mean it’s healthy.

Also, keep in mind that not every food works with every dog. You may not even realize that the food isn’t perfect until you find the one that is. When you do, though, and get less stool, and firmer stool, you’ll be cheering so loudly the neighbors may be calling Bellevue for you.

We’ll get to the 10 Best Dog Foods a little later, but for now let’s turn to what you don’t want in your pet’s food.

Allergens in Dog Food

Allergies in dogs are becoming more common. Without allergy testing, you won’t know if problems are environmental or from the food. Your dog may end up needing allergy shots to control it if it is severe. In some cases it’s not an allergy but an intolerance. The easiest thing to do is start eliminating the most common sources of allergies in food: wheat, corn, soy, chicken and beef. There are others, however, and any dog could be allergic to preservatives in food or something far less common. Keep in mind that food-based allergies can take up to six months to disappear from a dog’s system.

How to Read Dog Food Labels

Let’s take a look at a pet food label. Your dog is a carnivore.

Ideally, you want a food that is high in meat and low in filler. Foods like Hill’s Science Diet that start with corn indicate you paid for mainly indigestible filler in a pretty bag. You want a meat source, and even better if it is meal, which is meat without water weight.

Many good foods have more than one source of meat. But a couple of meat sources at the top of a label is an excellent start.

You also want to be able to identify them. “Poultry,” for example, could mean a lot of things, so look instead for chicken or turkey. By-products can be a touchy subject, and they’re not just internal organs. While an animal in the wild would eat most everything, by-products in dog food are truely frightening. In the wild, the dog would be able to eat the whole animal, organs and meat.

In a 40-pound bag of low-quality dog food, that animal protein is composed of chicken feet, heads, bones and feathers — and perhaps some livers and hearts if you’re lucky.

The way things are worded by the Association of American Feed Control Officials can be very sneaky. Read the definitions of ingredients and ask yourself why they are worded that way.

Unspecific ingredients such as animal fat are terrifying. Animal fat could be derived from the four D’s of the slaughter industry — dead, diseased, disabled or dying prior to slaughter — or could even be part of road kill or a euthanized dog, from the vague AAFCO definition.

Poorer quality grains that are being reused from human industry are also common but low in nutritional value.

Lastly, watch out for meat meal and bone meal, both made from parts that were unfit for human consumption. Corn gluten meal has some protein but not enough to be near a top ingredient.

Use common sense. If it sounds mysterious or is unspecific, walk away.

Now that’s a lot of ingredients to condemn, so what are we left with? You want a good source of protein as your first ingredient and possibly second or third. Bison, salmon meal, turkey and chicken meal are all excellent. Be careful, a few sneaky companies may put a good source of meat followed by a grain. And if it’s listed as “corn meal,” you suddenly have a food with more grain than meat, because of water weight in that first meat ingredient.

Good grains include brown rice, oatmeal, millet and barley. White rice isn’t evil, just not as healthy, and preferably you’ll find it a little farther down the ingredients list. Avoid brewer’s rice.

Three forms of rice in one food is overkill on filler. Sweeteners aren’t helpful either.

Many senior dog foods and weight-loss foods are packed with fillers. Instead, try feeding better quality food in a smaller amount, and supplement with low-calorie vegetables to fill the dog up.

HOW TO RATE DOG FOOD

Start with a grade of 100, then subtract or add points as shown below:

• For every listing of “by-product” -10
• For every non-specific animal source (“meat” or “poultry,” meat, meal or fat) reference -10
• If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin -10
• For every grain “mill run” or non-specific grain source -5
• If the same grain ingredient is used two or more times in the first five ingredients (i.e. “ground brown rice,” “brewer’s rice,” “rice flour” are all the same grain) -5
• If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than two meats in the top three ingredients -3
• If it contains any artificial colorants -3
• If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn -3
• If corn is listed in the top five ingredients -2
• If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil -2
• If lamb is the only animal protein source, unless your dog is allergic to other protein sources -2
• If it contains soy or soybeans, -2
• If it contains wheat, unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to wheat -2
• If it contains beef, unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to beef -1
• If it contains salt -1

Extra credit:

• If any meat source is organic +5
• If the food is endorsed by a major breed group or nutritionist +5
• If the food is baked, not extruded +5
• If the food contains probiotics +3
• If the food contains fruit +3
• If the food contains vegetables (not corn or other grains) +3
• If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free +2
• If the food contains barley +2
• If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds) +2
• If the food contains oats or oatmeal +1
• If the food contains sunflower oil +1
• For every different specific animal protein source, other than the first one; count “chicken” and “chicken meal” as only one protein source, but “chicken” and “—–” as two different sources +1
• If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin +1
• If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are pesticide-free +1

Grades
A: 94-100+
B: 86-93
C: 78-85
D: 70-77
F: 0-69

10 BEST DOG FOODS

Here’s a sampling of how some major dog food brands fared. The 10 best dog foods are those with an A or A+:

A+:
1) Eagle Pack Holistic
2) Wellness Super5Mix Chicken
3) Solid Gold Bison
4) Canidae
5) Natural Balance Potato and Duck Formula
6) Timberwolf Organics Lamb and Venison
7) Innova
8) Eagle Pack Holistic Chicken Chicken Soup

A:
9) Eagle Pack Natural
10) Eagle Pack Large and Giant Breed Puppy

THE REST…

B:
Flint River Ranch
Eukanuba Natural Lamb and Rice

C:
Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice
Nutro Chicken, Rice, & Oatmeal
Eukanuba Large Breed Adult
Iams Large Breed

D:
Iams Lamb Meal and Rice

F:
Science Diet Chicken Adult Maintainance
Bil-Jac Select
Science Diet Large Breed
Pro Plan All Breed
Pedigree Complete Nutrition
Pedigree Adult Complete
Ol Roy
Purina Beneful

***

For an explanation of AAFCO definitions, plus a little people perspective on the worst ingredients in pet food, see this site at the Dog Food Project.

Reprinted with permission from Dig & Scratch.

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