I was recently contacted by reviews.com about writing a blog on dog food. What kind of food we feed our dogs is a so important. The barrage of information we receive about the content & benefits of the products is overwhelming. Everybody’s is the best for happy healthy hounds. 

The following article gives some good information about good  brands on the market. It’s worth a read!

With countless recalls and misleading labels, paying attention to the ingredients list on your dog’s food has become more important than ever. Knowing what can be helpful and harmful to your dog can help keep you dog safe and healthy. The team at Reviews.com recently spend over 1,400 hours researching 2,223 dog food formulas to find the truth behind dog food ingredients. Here’s some of their findings:

Bad ingredients make dog food unsafe and unhealthy

Safety has always been the biggest concern for pet owners — and one of the hardest challenges for dog food manufacturers to meet. Since the 2007 recalls on Chinese-sourced food, many consumers have started reading labels to see where their food was coming from, but even ingredients sourced in the US can be unsafe.

The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) sets and maintains standards for the proper levels of ingredients in pet food, but it’s the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that determines the quality. FDA regulations, however, don’t guarantee that all ingredients will be safe.

Ingredients from rendering facilities, for instance, should be avoided. You’ll recognize these ingredients on the label under generic, non-specific terms like “meat” and “meat meal.” In California, manufacturers have given them the appetizing name of “dry rendered tankage.” So why avoid them? It’s almost impossible to tell what’s being rendered: It can be roadkill, zoo animals, and sometimes even spoiled meat from the grocery store that’s still wrapped in plastic.

Bad Ingredients, Poor Health

Just verifying all the ingredients in your food are “safe” doesn’t mean they are optimal or even healthy for your best friend. Dogs need the right combination of protein, fat, moisture, fiber, and nutrients to live healthy, happy lives. The wrong ingredients in the wrong combinations can lead to a host of health problems, both physical and mental.

Digestive problems, including bloat and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), are symptomatic of poor ingredients that don’t contain enough whole, unprocessed foods. Food allergies can also lead to digestive issues — many of the experts we reached out to have seen evidence that dogs are sensitive to wheat and corn, both popular fillers.

Obesity is on the rise in dogs. One main reason for this is overfeeding, but many of the experts we talked to were quick to point out that poor grain-based ingredients are also to blame.

Physical problems are only half of it. There was a unanimous consensus among trainers and behaviorists we talked to that poor diet causes mental health issues in dogs, including poor temperament and lack of focus.

To see their full guide, go to http://www.reviews.com/dog-food/