Choosing dog food

Here's how to choose the best dog food for your best friend.

When it comes to choosing the best dog food for your best friend, there are so many options to choose from. A walk down the pet food isle of the supermarket or pet store, can be quite daunting with wall to wall options and so many promises. I am going to show you a quick and easy way to pick which foods are good for your dog and which ones you should steer well clear of. I am getting a bit ahead of myself though, so I first want to ask you a couple of quick questions.

    

Do you have your dog's best interest in mind?

When we first take home our cute, new puppies, we make all sorts of promises to them about how well we are going to look after them, play with them every day, take them for walks in the park and protect them from harm. Kids are especially good at these promises. However, a few months down the track, and they have dug up the garden, chewed up you thongs and pulled the washing off the line. It can be easy to get frustrated with them and throw those promises out the window. The kids are now too busy with soccer, cricket and dancing to walk the dog and you're now the taxi driver trying to fit it all in. When it is time to make a decision for your dog, please make it from the same heart that took home the puppy.

   

Will you choose a healthy diet for your dog?

The pet food industry has some very close similarities with the people food industry, so I will use people food to help show you some points. In the modern world we all now have a good understanding of healthy food (fruit and veg, fresh meat, dairy) and junk food (processed foods, macca's, pie 'n' chips). If we largely have a healthy diet with occasional junk food, we can expect to have a largely healthy body. If we reverse these diets and have mostly junk food and occasional healthy food, we can expect health problems like obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure etc. It is fair to say that if we live on junk food we will most likley die earlier and spend a lot more time (& money) at the doctors.

   

The same applies to dog food. There is healthy food and there is junk food. If we have a healthy diet, we will have a healthy happy dog that lives longer and needs less visits to vet. If we feed junk food all the time, we can expect our dog to live a shorter life, filled with health problems and vet visits. Which option do you think is in the best interest for your dog. The healthy one of course. Here's the big question though, Does your dog get to make that choice for himself, or are you choosing it for him? We choose for them, so we have to choose a healthy lifestyle for them.

    

The quick and easy way to choose your dog's healthy diet.

Step 1 to making it easy, is to ask yourself where am I shopping for my dog's food. If you are not in a store that has pet food as their core business, you're in the wrong place. An easy way to find out is to divide the number of isles of pet food by the total isles in the store. Another easy way is to ask for help choosing a dog food. If you can't find someone to help, or worse you can't find anyone at all, walk out now.  

Step 2 is to find someone to help you. Depending on the type of dog, how old they are, how active they are, and even your lifestyle will determine which foods will work best for you and your dog. You need to be able to trust the person giving you the advice and be assured they will be there when you go back.

Step 3 is to check out their after sales service. Do they guarantee that you will be happy with your purchase? If your dog does not eat the food, will they swap it for something else or give me a refund? Have they told you about any frequent buyer programs that give you free bags of food? Do they make it easy or hard to deal with?

   

Step 4 Choose the best quality you can afford. I am going to show you a table below that outlines the costs to feed the average dog on different types of food. I am also going to give you a checklist of items to look at to save you money on dog food. But before we get to that, I want to explain the different levels of dog food to you. The higher quality level, the higher the nutritional value, which means you feed less and the bag lasts longer. This also means that they poo less and it is easier to pick up when you are in a park or beach. The higher the quality the more ingredients are already included, like calcium, omega oils, glucosamine etc. The higher the quality the healthier the diet is and your dog will live longer and happier.

    

Super Premium Foods - These foods are the best you can buy for Healthy happy dogs. They are highly concentrated food and contain all the extras for joints, coats, teeth & bones etc. They include brands like Eukanuba, Iams, Science Diet, Advance, Pro Plan.

Premium Foods - These are complete foods that are based on using quality ingredients. They are not as concentrated as super premium and contain some of the extras for healthy teeth, bones & coats. They include brands like Bonnie, Enduro, Supercoat.

Complete Basic Foods - These are complete foods, but the recipe will change depending on the prices of ingredients. They are not as concentrated as premiums and don't contain any of the extras for healthy teeth, bones & coats. They include brands like Cobber, Country Kennel, Hypro, Meaty Bites.

Incomplete Basic Foods - These are incomplete foods that need supplementing with meat products, The recipe will change depending on the prices of ingredients. They are usually the lowest concentration and don't contain any of the extras for healthy teeth, bones & coats. They are usually high in fat and salt. They include brands like Chum, Kennel Mix, most canned foods.