Dog Food Ingredients to Avoid

Dog food ingredients to avoid

If you have ever tried to determine what, exactly, you are feeding your dog, chances are looking at the dog food bag did not help. While there are a few brands of dog food that list ingredients in easy-to-understand terms, the vast majority of them are quite perplexing. If you are trying to make sure that your dog or puppy gets the nutrition it needs, it’s vital that you understand what the ingredients listed mean, and whether or not they are what you want to be feeding your dog.

Dog Food Ingredients

There are many different ingredients that may be found in your dog food. Among the most popular are as follows:

• By-products – Whether it is listed as chicken by-product or poultry by-product, meat by-products consist of organs and other parts of the animals that (generally speaking) are not condemned nor ideal for human consumption. Such parts may include intestines, ligaments, bones, heads, feathers, feet, lungs and blood.

• Meat and bone meal – This term usually describes inexpensive sources of animal protein. If there is a large amount of bone meal, the food may not provide sufficient nutrition, and may also be difficult for your dog to digest.

• Corn – While corn is a common ingredient used dog food, you may be surprised to find that corn is not actually beneficial for dogs. Usually, corn products are difficult for dogs to digest. Nevertheless, corn and cornmeal is very common in dog food, primarily because it’s used as an inexpensive filler.

• Brewers rice and wheat bran – These food fragments are essentially waste products (or by-products) of other food manufacturing processes. Thus, they are another inexpensive filler that provides little nutritional value.

• Animal fat – If your dog food lists the general term “animal fat”, then it’s likely to include some kind of rendered fat sources, such as oils or restaurant grease considered inedible for humans. If, however, your dog food mentions a specific type of animal fat, such as poultry or chicken fats, this is a much better option, as it usually indicates a naturally preserved material that may well better fit for consumption.

• Sweeteners – Sugars such as cane molasses and corn syrup are typically added to a lower-quality food to make it more appetizing for your dog. Not only do sweeteners aggravate medical conditions such as diabetes, they also indicate that you are feeding your dog something they would not eat otherwise – a sizable clue that the quality of food may be poor.

• Chemical preservatives – Commonly found in dog food, BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole), BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene), propylene glycol, propyl gallate, and ethoxyquin should be minimized. Long-term effects of these preservatives are unknown and may potentially be harmful; ethoxyquin, BHT, and BHA are even potentially carcinogenic for pets.

Additional Reading – The Ultimate Dog Food Guide

If you examine your dog food ingredients and find that the food is mostly composed of the ingredients listed here, you may want to re-think your dog’s diet. Ideally, you’ll feed your dog a food that lists a specific type of meat (ie chicken, beef, lamb, fish) in the first two ingredients, no sweeteners, low amounts of corn and meat/bone meal, and even lower amounts of chemical preservatives. Generally speaking, look for ingredients that you would find largely acceptable for a human to eat (in theory, anyway). In these dog foods, you’ll find a healthier option for your beloved pet.

 Photo:  Courtesy of JnL via Flickr (CC by 2.0)
 

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.