⇦ home   welcome eridox index   the sausage link message board   goodies for your woofer   wellness & nutrition consultations   breeding consultations   eridox about me   my hot dogs hotdog stats adults my bratwursts bratwurst stats 1 baby girl left!   frankfurter fotos hunt pics   general info history of wieners   teckel terms   coats, colors, & patterns   genetic disorders   of interest current genetics studies   genetic & phenotypic testing   unrelated book research      other resources dachsie links   site references   contact me   nutrition Most dog food that is advertized on television and that you can buy at your local grocery store are not typically of "good" quality.  In order to keep their costs to a minumum (often to be used on advertizing), they have fillers and other products in the food to get around having to include more meat and quality nutrition. Many medical problems dogs have can be solved simply by feeding them a high-quality food.  A dog on poor-quality food may have/show the following qualities/signs:  tiredness or irritability, a more obvious "doggy smell", a greasy coat, dry and/or itchy skin and a dandruffy coat, volumous stools, excess gas, dull eyes, weak/brittle nails, and other varied health problems.  From what I've heard and seen, the most common is volumous stools, excess (and smelly) gas, and itchy skin along with dandruff. If you feed a higher-quality food, your dog will produce firmer, smaller stools.  The dog will also eat less food, because it is absorbing the nutrients it needs that the good food is actually providing; if you feed a low-quality food, your dog will produce more, bigger, and looser stools, and it will eat more of the food in order to get the nutrients it needs.  Another issue that arises from this is manufacturers of poor-quality food add what are known as fillers to their foods in order to make dogs feel full, because if the dog isn't getting the nutrition it needs, it will tend to overeat. Sometimes higher-quality foods are a little more expensive, but oftentimes they aren't.  But based on the above information, even if the higher-quality food is a little more expensive, it will all balance out, because your dog will eat less of the higher-quality food and therefore you won't have to buy it as much/often as you would with the lower-quality food.  (The high-quality food I feed my dogs is actually a little less expensive than most so-called "premium" brands of much lesser quality.) dog food comparisons and compositions Below are a list of dog foods and their first six ingredients.  (Each brand is based on its standard dry adult food, or as close to it as I could find at the time I was researching in early 2006.)  Compare them and see what you think. — Shown in green are the meat ingredients, the "good stuff" dogs need. — Shown in yellow are the questionable ingredients (the "what is that vague wording supposed to mean?" / "it could and probably does mean anything" ingredients). — Shown in red are the substandard ingredients (including ingredients that are useless to dogs, ingredients that are difficult for dogs to digest, and/or ingredients that are likely poisonous to dogs; see the info explained below the chart). — Shown with a purple asterisk are the ingredients that can cause adverse reactions in some dogs, usually minor adverse reactions, such as dry, flaky, and itchy skin.  (You will hear some people call these "food allergies".  I tend to think that's stretching the definition a little.  For instance, if you eat a strawberry and you develop hives and start wheezing an hour later, that is a food allergy.  A little dry/flaky skin over the course of a few weeks after eating a lot of corn on a daily basis would just be, well, expected and normal, in my opinion.) — Everything else, whether good or neutral, is shown uncolored. — Each brand name of food listed has a link to its website, except Ol' Roy, which has no website. — I will add other foods as I find their ingredient information. ingredient #1 ingredient #2 ingredient #3 ingredient #4 ingredient #5 ingredient #6 Alpo™ ground yellow corn* beef and bone meal soybean meal* beef tallow (fat) BHA/BHT animal digest Artemis® chicken turkey chicken meal turkey meal brown rice pearled barley Beneful® ground yellow corn* chicken by-product meal corn gluten meal whole wheat flour* animal fat rice flour Blue Buffalo™ chicken chicken meal whole ground brown rice whole ground barley rye oatmeal California Natural™ ground brown rice chicken meal ground white rice chicken fat flaxseed sunflower oil Canidae® chicken meal turkey meal ground brown rice ground white rice lamb meal chicken fat Canine Caviar® chicken meal ground pearl millet whole ground brown rice chicken fat chicken white fish Chicken Soup™ chicken turkey chicken meal turkey meal ground brown rice ground white rice Diamond® Naturals® chicken chicken meal whole grain brown rice white rice cracked pearled barley chicken fat Diamond® Original® meat meal ground corn* wheat flour* poultry by-product meal chicken fat beet pulp Diamond® Premium® chicken byproduct meal whole grain ground corn* wheat flour* chicken fat brewer's rice beet pulp Eagle Pack® pork meal ground yellow corn* ground brown rice chicken meal oatmeal chicken fat Embark (dehydrated) turkey meal flaxseed potatoes celery spinach carrots Eukanuba® chicken chicken byproduct meal corn meal* sorghum ground barley fish meal Flint River Ranch® chicken meal whole wheat flour* ground white rice lamb meal poultry fat ground whole wheat* Fromm® chicken ground yellow corn* chicken meal oat flour wheat flour* whole egg Force (dehydrated) chicken meal flaxseed potatoes celery cabbage sweet potatoes Iams® lamb meal brewer's rice corn meal* sorghum ground barley chicken fat Innova™ turkey chicken chicken meal ground barley ground brown rice potatoes Kibbles 'n Bits™ whole corn* soybean meal* ground whole wheat* beef & bone meal animal fat BHA/BHT Kirkland lamb lamb meal whole grain brown rice rice flour white rice egg product Merrick™ turkey oatmeal barley chicken meal chicken duck Nature's Recipe® lamb meal cracked pearled barley oatmeal ground rice chicken fat lamb digest NutriSource® chicken chicken meal brown rice brewer's rice barley oatmeal Nutro® Natural Choice® lamb meal ground rice rice flour rice bran soybean oil sunflower oil Nutro® Max® chicken meal ground wheat flour* ground whole wheat* rice bran poultry fat corn gluten meal Nutro Ultra® chicken meal whole brown rice ground rice lamb meal rice bran sunflower oil Ol' Roy™ ground yellow corn* meat and bone meal corn gluten meal soybean meal* wheat middlings* animal fat Pedigree® ground yellow corn* meat and bone meal corn gluten meal chicken byproduct meal animal fat BHA/BHT Premium Edge® chicken chicken meal whole grain brown rice cracked pearled barley white rice turkey meal Purina® Dog Chow® ground yellow corn* poultry by-product meal corn gluten meal animal fat brewer's rice soybean meal* Purina® Pro Plan® chicken brewer's rice whole grain wheat* poultry by-product meal corn gluten meal beef tallow (fat) Royal Canin™ chicken meal brewer's rice rice oatmeal/rolled oats chicken fat rosemary extract Science Diet™ chicken corn meal sorghum ground whole wheat* chicken byproduct meal soybean meal* Solid Gold™ lamb lamb meal whole ground millet ground brown rice pearled barley oatmeal/rolled oats Verve (dehydrated) rolled rye rolled barley beef meal rolled oats flaxseed carrots Wellness™ deboned chicken chicken meal oatmeal ground barley ground brown rice rice bran Wysong chicken ground corn* ground wheat* ground brown rice ground oat groats poultry fat detailed composition information — Ingredients in dog foods are listed by weight, with the "biggest"/weightiest ingredient at the top and going down from there.  So, if the first ingredient is turkey meal, it means turkey is the main ingredient in the food.  If flaxseed is the ingredient tenth on the list, then it means there isn't nearly as much flaxseed in the food as there is turkey (or whatever the first product listed is). — If a meat ingredient is a plain meat (for instance, chicken), then that means that it is the meat including its water content.  If a meat ingredient has "meal" after it (for instance, chicken meal), then that means it has been dehydrated.  I mention this because if your food has chicken as the first ingredient and then lists low-quality ingredients (see below) for the next few items, chances are if all the water were drained from the chicken (i.e., if it were chicken meal), there is a good deal less chicken in there than you think there is, and your dog ends up eating mostly the low-quality ingredients. — Meat byproducts:  Meat byproducts are the leftover materials from animal food sources that most people would consider unfit for human consumption:  brains, bones, feathers/hair, horns/nails, skin, not-fully-digested excrement, etc.  These byproducts are also not necessarily kept fresh before they are made use of in pet food.  (I personally don't approve of my dogs eating half-rotten chicken poo, so I don't feed them a food that contains such a thing.)  In particular, tallow, a hard, fatty material that is difficult to digest, is listed as an ingredient in some dog foods. Meat byproducts are found in:  Alpo™, Diamond®, Eukanuba®, Iams®, Ol' Roy™, Pedigree®, Purina®, and Science Diet™. — Fillers:  Corn, sorghum, and soy are fillers.  Their sole purpose is to make dogs feel full, but they don't really supply them with the nutrients they need.  (As I once heard it put, 'A dog in the wild is not going to raid a cornfield looking for food.')  Corn and similar products dry out coats something horrible, which makes dogs scratch and become dandruffy.  Plenty of dogs even have mild adverse reactions to these products (wheat too).  Soy in particular is undigestible, and it can cause them to have bloat and gas.  There is no good reason to have corn, soy, or sorghum products in a dog food. Corn and/or soy products are found in:  Alpo™, Diamond®, Eukanuba®, Fromm®, Iams®, Kibbles 'n Bits™, Ol' Roy™, Pedigree®, Purina®, Royal Canin™, and Science Diet™. — Plant byproducts:  Fillers known as food fragments are another type of difficult-to-digest byproduct that consist of non-animal leftovers from the manufacture of human foods/drinks.  Brewer's rice, corn bran, corn flour, oat flour, and rice flour fall into this category.  Because they are byproducts, they are cheaper to use than quality ingredients, but they are significantly lacking in nutrients. Food fragments are found in:  Diamond®, Eukanuba®, Fromm®, Iams®, Purina®, Royal Canin™, and Science Diet™. — Plant glutens:  Corn gluten, rice gluten, and wheat gluten are concentrated sources of protein that are cheaper to produce than, and not as digestable as, animal proteins.  Other inferior sources of protein in dog foods include soybean meal, wheat flour, and whole wheat. Plant glutens are found in:  Diamond®, Flint River Ranch®, Fromm®, Kibbles 'n Bits™, Ol' Roy™, Pedigree®, Purina®, Royal Canin™, and Science Diet™. — Synthetic preservatives:  Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), ethoxyquin, propyl gallate, and TBHQ are non-natural preservatives included in some dog foods to make them last longer, but these particular preservatives are thought by many to be carcinogenic (cause cancer).  Ethoxyquin in particular is used as a pesticide. Synthetic preservatives are found in:  Alpo™, Kibbles 'n Bits™, Ol' Roy™, and Pedigree®.  (Eukanuba® and Science Diet™ contained ethoxyquin until recently.) — Food coloring:  Aritificial food coloring should be avoided.  Dogs don't care what color(s) their food is, and it's just one more thing a dog doesn't need in its diet but would have to process and excrete. supplements If you feed your dog a high-quality dog food, the truth is, it does not need vitamin/mineral supplements unless it has a genetically-caused or environmentally-caused medical problem/deficiency.  If you are feeding your dog a high-quality food, adding extra supplements may throw off the balance of the food which already contains them.  Whether a human or a dog, overdosing on some vitamins and minerals can be just as bad as not getting enough of them. Unless otherwise noted: All text, images, & audio, unless noted, are copyright by Lisa J. Emerson & may not be used or reproduced without express permission. All TSL posts are copyright by their respective authors and may not be used or reproduced without their express permission. All pictures are copyright by their respective authors and may not be used or reproduced without their express permission.