Be fussy when it comes to selecting commercial dog food

If you’ve noticed your favourite little canine friend becoming overly fussy about their food, then it may be the case that you as an owner are not being fussy enough in the pet food store. All the information is there on the tin or on the bag, and it just needs to be read and assessed.  Buying healthy dog food online allows buyers to easily and quickly compare the ingredients and benefits of different foods simultaneously. 

First of all, you will need to look past the marketing of colours and pictures of cute puppies on the labels. You should only be concerned about the contents of the package, not the packaging itself. Health food trend words includingorganic and natural may not necessarily be entirely valid. Also, beware of labels such as ‘beef flavour’, as this does not necessarily come from actual beef. Double check the origins before believing all that you see. 

Just like for human food, all packaged dog food must clearly display a list of ingredients on the label. We all want to give our little ones the best, so it is important to consider optimum nutrition when walking through the aisles. Once you stumble across the one that your dog can’t get enough of, then that’s great. Dogs will have different tastes, so don’t opt for something that you think they will like when it sacrifices the nutritional benefit. 

Numbers and percentages may not give an accurate description of the nutrition of your food. For example, you might see that protein is 30%, however this can come from just about anything. Beaks and feet can offer protein, but are not nearly as healthy as meat or meat meal. The ingredients table will list the heaviest ingredient first. If this is meat, then keep in mind that a lot of this is water weight. Meat meal is a powdered form where a lot of the water has been removed. It is still high in protein, and so don’t worry if meat is not in the top ingredients. 

The ingredients may list some by-products that initially seem unpleasant. Some parts, including liver actually have high amounts of vitamins that are great for the growth and development of your dog. Other elements that can be ground into meat meal act as more of a filler, If you are concerned about the exact sources of ingredients, then perhaps avoid by-products altogether. You see, this term is an umbrella term and actually covers any number of parts. This is a bit of a loophole in mandatory ingredient listing, as the specific by-products do not strictly need to be mentioned. 

Finally, once you have settled on a brand and a type, double check the feeding instructions. If you are changing food after years of the same one, you may instinctively feed the new food in the same way. In reality, any two foods could have slightly different energy, protein and fat levels, and will therefore have specific feeding instructions. For comprehensive and simple dog food labels online, check out Pookinuk on http://pookinuk.com.au/.