Dog Food Ingredients Label – Do You Really Know What is in Your Pet’s Food?

Why do you need to understand your dog food ingredients label? Because what you don’t know about what is in your pet’s food could actually be harming your beloved dog! You think you are feeding a food for optimal health, when in fact, you might be poisoning him.

Maybe you have looked at your ingredients label and just scratched your head. What are all these things in there? So you just shake your head and put your trust in the dog food company. After all, haven’t these companies been telling us for decades that they know what is best, nutritionally speaking, for our dogs? Well, the massive pet food recalls over the past several years have thankfully given us a well needed wake-up call. This is evident with all the all-natural and organic pet foods that have been popping up in the market.

But it’s not hard to figure out what is in your pet food so you can compare with other brands. Here are some of the more common “tricks” to reading dog food ingredients lists:

The first 5 – 10 ingredients listed are the majority of the food. If they are not quality ingredients, it is not a quality dog food.
BHA, BHT, and Ethoxyquin are BAD preservatives, linked to liver and kidney damage. If your dog food uses them, you could be poisoning your dog. Look for natural preservatives, such as Vitamin E (tocopherols) and Vitamin C (ascorbic acid).
Since ingredients are listed by weight, a dog food with a lot of one ingredient (especially one that is not a quality ingredient, for example, corn) is allowed to be broken into different parts and listed separately. For example, you might see corn flour, corn bran, and corn gluten meal all listed somewhere in the dog food ingredients list – yet they are all derived from corn. Why not just say corn? Why break them up? Because the weight of the individual components will weigh less, so they can go further down the ingredient list, making them look like they are not a key component of the dog food. Sneaky? Yes. Underhanded? Yes. Legal? Yes.
Listing just a meat as a top 3 ingredient. If the actual meat is listed (i.e. chicken), and not a meat meal (i.e. chicken meal), then the meat is weighed with all moisture in tact. Meal, on the other hand, has most of the moisture removed first. Therefore, the amount of protein in one pound of chicken will be less than in one pound of chicken meal. Keeping the moisture in the meat makes it weigh more, keeping it in the beginning of the dog food ingredients list.

The moral of the story? Learn to read the labels to see what you are actually feeding your dog. Your current dog food may be great, or it may be the worst thing for your dog. Don’t just rely on enticing packaging showing a delicious chicken and lots of fresh beautiful fruits and vegetables. Although we like to think that is what we are feeding our dogs, the reality is, most dog foods are nothing like this!