Your Morkie deserves the best dog food, but with more than 5,000 varieties of commercial dog food available on the shelves today, how can you pick healthy dog food brands from the garbage? Here’s the scoop, plus 12 top quality foods you can buy.
There's only one way to pick a healthy dog food brand: Read the label. Very carefully.
First, look for foods that do not contain dangerous or toxic ingredients.
Next, look for healthy ingredients.
I’m not going to lie – this is not food we’d ever like to eat. But it’s clean, pure and unadulterated. And it’s perfect for dogs.
Avoid all dog food that lists any of these ingredients:
MEAT. Just generic or unnamed meat can be from almost any kind of animal you can imagine. It could be road kill, euthanized pets, or spoiled grocery meats complete with styrofoam trays and plastic wrap. Look for food that NAMES the species. For example, beef, lamb, salmon, chicken, etc.
OTHER GENERIC NAMES such as animal fat – or is it used restaurant grease? Could be.
Is Meat and Bone Meal listed? The problem is, you don’t know meat and bones from what animal??!! Horse, goat, donkey??
Foods with ARTIFICIAL INGREDIENTS including the preservatives BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin and propylene glycol.
- BHA is a preservative that’s linked to cancer in laboratory animals by the World Health Organization. It’s banned from use in human food in Europe and Japan, yet we feed it to our dogs.
- BHT is also believed to cause cancer.Propylene glycol is a food stabilizer. It’s a synthetic liquid substance that absorbs water.The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified propylene glycol as an additive that is “generally recognized as safe” for use in food.
I want better than that for my dogs and I’m sure you do too.
Look for foods with healthy ingredients
Healthy dog food brands go beyond excluding bad ingredients. They actually contain GOOD stuff for our dogs.
Here’s what you want to see:
- named animal protein – near the top of the list and plenty of it
- whole veggies, fruits and grains
- a ‘best by’ date that is at least 6 months away
The sad story of Kibbles ‘n Bits
A food with both hard crunchy kibble and soft chewy pieces, Kibbles ‘n Bits was introduced in 1981 by Big Heart Pet Brands. It was later sold to H. J. Heinz and then Del Monte.
Today, it is the 5th largest dry dog food brand in the USA, churning out about 1.7 million pounds a day or almost HALF A BILLION pounds a year!
Here’s the ingredient list, exactly as it appears on the package of Kibbles ‘n Bits:
Ingredients:
Corn, soybean meal, beef & bone meal, whole wheat, animal fat (BHA used as preservative), corn syrup, wheat middlings, water sufficient for processing, animal digest (source of chicken flavor), propylene glycol, salt, hydrochloric acid, potassium chloride, peas, caramel color, sorbic acid (used as a preservative), choline chloride, sodium carbonate, minerals (ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), vitamins (vitamin E supplement, niacin, d-calcium pantothenate, vitamin A supplement, riboflavin supplement, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, biotin), dl-methionine, calcium sulfate, carrots, green beans, wheat flour, titanium dioxide (color), yellow 5, yellow 6, red 40, BHA (used as a preservative), blue 1.
Experts say the first five ingredients tell the story:
- corn
- soybean meal
- beef & bone meal
- whole wheat
- animal fat (BHA used as preservative)
- corn syrup
Corn? Corn? How is corn dog food? (And I’ve shown item #6 since it is corn syrup; yes, that syrupy sweet stuff they used to pour on our toast at camp!)
And it gets worse…
Kibbles ‘n Bits was recalled
by the FDA in February, 2018*
Sodium Pentobarbital was found in Kibbles ‘n Bits. Sodium Pentobarbital is a drug used to euthanize pets and small animals. It is NOT used to slaughter cows, sheep, pigs or any other food you’d expect your dog to eat.
The amount found is negligible as far as health goes, but that’s not the point.
Where and how in the supply chain does this drug get into dog food?
Many pet food companies buy raw goods from rendering facilities that process animals euthanized at animal shelters.
That means that some pet food is made from a variety of meats that humans wouldn’t eat, including diseased livestock and cats and dogs containing lethal doses of sodium pentobarbital.
In other words, the body of a stray dog killed in a shelter may be ground up into dog food. Whether the Kibbles ‘n Bits recall is related to this practice is unknown. But logic says, there can’t be any other way it got there.
* see the story in Newsweek magazine, or here on CBS
If we can’t trust a major, internationally-popular brand
like Kibbles ‘n Bits, where do we turn?
We read the labels ourselves. Very carefully.
In the meantime, here are some choices I've checked out for you.
What is the best dog food? Here are some healthy dog food brands.
There are many good, reputable dog food manufacturers out there. I’ve picked a very small sample to show you.
DRY FOOD – KIBBLE
Acana Heritage Free Run Poultry, Red Meat, Meadowland – all Acana is good for your dog.
Go! Daily Defence
Horizon Complete or Horizon Legacy
Merrick Backcountry
Origen Original
Wellness Complete Health
Here’s the kind of ingredients you want to see
Acana Heritage Dog Food
Fresh chicken meat (12%), chicken meal (12%), turkey meal (12%), red lentils, whole green peas, field beans, chicken fat (5%), fresh chicken giblets (liver, heart, kidney) (4%), herring meal (4%), fresh whole eggs (4%), fresh whole flounder (4%), herring oil (2%), sun-cured alfalfa (2%), green lentils (2%), whole yellow peas, pea fiber, fresh chicken cartilage (1%), dried brown kelp, fresh whole pumpkin, fresh whole butternut squash, fresh whole parsnips, fresh kale, fresh spinach, fresh mustard greens, fresh turnip greens, fresh whole carrots, fresh red delicious apples, fresh bartlett pears, freeze-dried chicken liver, freeze-dried turkey liver, fresh whole cranberries, fresh whole blueberries, chicory root, turmeric, milk thistle, burdock root, lavender, marshmallow root, rose hips, Enterococcus faecium, supplements: zinc chelate, vitamin E (preservative)
WET FOOD – CANNED
Fromm Grain Free varieties, including grain free chicken and duck pate; shredded beef in gravy, etc.
Go! Fit + Free variety of flavours that sound pretty darned good – turkey and trout stew anyone?
Holistics Select Grain Free Beef Pate, Chicken Pate, etc.
Merrick Grain Free and Chunky Grain Free canned foods including flavours like Pappy’s Pot Roast Dinner, Cowboy Cookout and more.
Nature’s Variety Instinct – chicken and beef formulas are available.
Wellness Core canned products including homestyle grain free beef stew with carrots and potatoes.
A good canned food
sample label, from
Go! Fit + Free
Chicken, chicken broth, turkey broth, chicken liver, turkey, turkey liver, potatoes, dried egg whites, potato starch, carrots, peas, trout, sweet potatoes, salmon, herring, red peppers, guar gum, flaxseed, sodium phosphate, potassium chloride, apples, calcium carbonate, minerals (zinc amino acid chelate, iron amino acid chelate, selenium yeast, copper amino acid chelate, manganese amino acid chelate, cobalt amino acid chelate, potassium iodide), salt, vitamins (vitamin E supplement, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin A supplement, riboflavin supplement, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin D3 supplement), choline chloride, sunflower oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), tricalcium phosphate, Yucca schidigera extract
Seems like only very expensive brands make the list. My vet told me not to purchase a dog food that is only available at certain stores. I use Purina Puppy Chow. Very healthy puppies and pregnant/lactating mommies. Why is this not mentioned???
Hi Kimberly,
Thanks for your comment. Glad to hear your puppies and moms are doing well.
Yes, better foods can be expensive, but ironically so can some crappy foods. Cesar’s wet foods are an example. With the thousands of choices available in dog food, there’s no one best-size-fits-all. Picking the right food for you and your dog can be a real challenge. Here’s an example.
Purina Puppy Chow relies on a lot of plant-based ingredients. The “first five” ingredients are:
whole grain corn,
corn gluten meal,
chicken by-product meal,
beef fat naturally preserved with mixed-tocopherols,
soybean meal.
Corn as I’m sure you know is controversial. Some experts believe that dogs don’t digest it well, while others say it’s a digestible protein, even if it’s not a high “biological value.” (Biological value = how much protein can be used, divided by how much protein is available. 100% of an egg’s BV can be digested, but only 48% of corn)
The third ingredient, chicken by-product meal, is the dry, concentrated meal made from slaughterhouse leftovers. So it can include beaks, feet and other parts that aren’t very savory to US…. but to dogs, meal is a highly concentrated form of protein. So that’s a good thing.
Beef fat in the food is a quality ingredient, a clean product of processing beef.
Soybean meal, the 5th ingredient, is like corn. It has a lower BV or percent of useable protein.
Overall guaranteed protein in puppy chow, 27%
Alternatives – Price
In comparison, Purina makes a good product called Purina One SmartBlend True Instinct Grain Free (Dry). Its first five ingredients are:
chicken,
chicken meal,
cassava root flour,
canola meal,
pea starch.
Chicken and chicken meal are quality parts of the chicken, not beaks and feet. Cassava root flour is what we normally call tapioca, and provides carbs for energy that aren’t plant-based or grain based. Like other carb ingredients, the overall nutritional value of cassava root isn’t very high for a dog.
Overall guaranteed protein in Purina One SmartBlend, 30%
At the high end, is Wellness CORE Grain-Free Original Deboned Turkey, Turkey Meal & Chicken Meal Recipe Dry Dog Food.
It also contains quality ingredients in the “first five”:
deboned chicken,
chicken meal,
turkey meal,
potatoes,
peas.
Top quality proteins in the first 3 ingredients. Potatoes are limited value to dogs, but provide carbs for energy, like corn or tapioca in other foods. Peas are another carb and provide some fiber as well.
Overall guaranteed protein in wellness, 34%
Best!
Deb@MorkieNation.com