What kind of dog food is best in your opinion for a healty diet?

Question

My dog is about 1 years old. And small.

Answer 1

PURINA DOG CHOW
I know there are people that don't agree with me but, I have had dogs live a happy, active, enjoyable life eating it. My boxer lived to be 16 years old and my lab lived to be 14 years old. I had a shepherd mix to also live to be 14 years old. I now have a german short haired pointer and a mountain cur. Yes, they both eat Purina dog chow. I start them out on puppy chow for the first year. They also have an active adult food and a senior citizen food.
No matter what brand you pick, remember do not switch back and forth. Dogs can't handle this and need to be introduced to food slowing by mixing the old with the new gradually. Ever Purina puppy to Purina adult needs to be switched over slowly. I also do not recommend people food. Table scrapes are a big no-no. Dog biscuits are good for cleaning teeth and to be given as treats. Most importantly, a dog should have fresh water 24/7.

Answer 2

Scoring Your Dog Food
*Please note that the following is for entertainment purposes only and has not been researched by DAN and may not be a "true" grading of food. If you have any questions regarding the food you are feeding your dog consult your veternarian.
This is a very interesting way to check out the quality of the dog food that you are feeding. It's interesting, because sometimes paying more, does not get you more and vice versa.
The scores are rather interesting.
How to grade your dog's food: (Some brand reviews already calculated here)
Start with a grade of 100:
1.For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points
2.For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat, meal
or fat) reference, subtract 10 points
3.If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points
4.For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source, subtract 5
points
5.If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five
ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", "brewer rice", "rice flour" are all
the same grain), subtract 5 points
6.If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than 2
meats in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points
7.If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points
8.If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points
9.If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 more points
10.If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 2
points
11.If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic
to other protein sources), subtract 2 points
12.If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points
13.If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to
wheat), subtract 2 points
14.If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to
beef), subtract 1 point
15.If it contains salt, subtract 1 point
Extra Credit:
1.If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points
2.If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or
nutritionist, add 5 points
3.If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points
4.If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points
5.If the food contains fruit, add 3 points
6.If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3
points
7.If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2
points
8.If the food contains barley, add 2 points
9.If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points
10.If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point
11.If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point
12.For every different specific animal protein source (other than
the first one; count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as only one protein
source, but "chicken" and "" as 2 different sources), add 1 point
13.If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point
14.If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are
pesticide-free, add 1 point
94-100+ = A 86-93 = B 78-85 = C 70-77 = D 69 = F
Here are some foods that have already been scored. If you don't see your dog's food here, ask and someone will score it for you.
Brand Dog Food scores:
•Authority Harvest Baked: 116 A+
•Bil-Jac Select: 68 F
•Canidae: 112 A+
•Chicken Soup Senior: 115 A+
•Diamond Maintenance: 64 F
•Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice: 92 B
•Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula: 99 A
•Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Ultra Premium: 122 A+
•Dick Van Patten's Duck and Potato: 106 A+
•Foundations: 106 A+
•Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold: 93 D
•Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium: 73 D
•Innova Dog: 114 A+
•Innova Evo: 114 A+
•Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables: 110 A+
•Nutrisource Lamb and Rice: 87 B
•Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy: 87 B
•Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice: 23 F
•ProPlan Natural Turkey & Barley: 103 A+
•Purina Beneful: 17 F
•Purina Dog: 62 F
•Purina Come-n-Get It: 16 F
•Royal Canin Bulldog: 100 A+
•Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult: 106 A+
•Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice: 97 A
•Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+: 63 F
•Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies: 69 F
•Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken: 110 A+
•Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold: 97 A

Answer 3

Well it is true that dogs on the streets eat out of garbage cans and etc... most probably don't survive long enough to see the detrimental effects of poor diet. With the argument in regards to dogs with poor quality foods living to be 21, That could have been due to other factors such as good genetics, or not over vaccinating, etc... Look at the comedian George Burns, he lived to be almost 100 years old and he smoked cigars all the time. That doesn't mean that it's healthy to smoke. There are too many studies that show otherwise. Also, you have to consider how the dog food industry has changed. Alpo and Pedigree may have been made differently years ago. Horse meat is actually a good quality meat, if people could get over their aversion to eating it, and livestock were not pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics like they are today. Also, companies are importing from countries like china where there are no regulations on the foods and protein sources. This is what caused the huge recall in 2007. I guess I just don't want someone killing my dog by their dog food making processes. Dog's also may have lived that long, but what was their quality of life? Were they spry and happy at 15, 17, 21? Or were they in rough shape with rotting teeth and fatty tumours? I feed raw to my dogs, because I consider this to be the healthiest and most natural way for them to eat. I had a customer where I work switch his 12 year old and 2 year old goldens to a raw diet and the improvements he saw in his dogs was remarkable. Their coats looked better than they ever did and the 12 year old dog was initiating play with the younger dog. That was something he'd never done before. So obviously he felt better than he did on kibble. I have a friend with a senior dog who has been feeding raw for a few years and when they did xrays to check for arthritis, the vet said she had the bones of a young dog. So I think that the food may not necessarily extend their lives significantly, but it sure makes the life they have a more enjoyable one.

Answer 4

Generally stay away from dry foods that are corn based. Check the ingredients for any corn meal and avoid it. A lot of corn in a dogs diet often causes severe itching and eventually skin problems. A rice based food is much better. Buy smaller bags at first and experiment with what he/she likes. You usually have to go to a pet store to find the better foods since grocery stores usually stock the more commercial brands which are mostly corn product based.

Answer 5

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Any dog food that says on the bag that it is 100% nutritionally complete. I give my dogs dry food with a bit of canned food also.Biscuits help clean the teeth.Rice is also good for dogs with boneless boiled meat mixed in such as chicken,,liver or beef.You should cut salt out of an older dogs diet,,some dogfoods do not contain salt such as a senior brand.But,,do not change the dogs diet suddenly.Slowly start by mixing the old with the new then taper off of the old kind.Older dogs should not eat rawhide bones either.Vegtables are ok for dogs as long as they are cooked.Be certain that all cooked food is cooled completely.Do not feed dogs,,chocolate,,products containing nitrate such as lunchmeat & hotdogs,,no sugar,,raisins,,grapes,,onions,,garlic,,fatty or fried foods or spicy..milk,,or bones.Bread has sugar in it & pasta turns into sugar.Always be sure that any dry dog food does not smell like mildew such as Diamond dogfood that had a recall,,it killed many.

Answer 6

The number one rule is not to get cheap, off-brand food, like the grocery store brand and so forth. You don't want to feed your pooch "junk food," the best dog food contains many ingredients, like duck, chicken, corn, peas, flax......Some good brands are nutro complete and chicken soup for the dog lovers soul (yes, the name is stupid). You want to feed dry food, not canned, to keep your dog's teeth healthy. You should buy the versions of food that have small dogs in mind, they have smaller pieces and are easier to chew/digest.

Answer 7

Blue Buffalo- there are others too, but spending more on the food is more economical in the end, pets are less likely to get sick etc. Most commercial pet foods are loaded with stuff, that you would never go near with a ten foot pole!

Answer 8

The best commercial dog foods are Wellness, Solid Gold, Blue Buffalo, Innova, and Canidae I think.

Nutro natural choice is a good food too. Foods like pedigree, beneful, iams, purina, and basically anything sold in your local grocery store is poor quality. I just answered this question (one almost identicle), so I'm going to link you to some other good answers... Raw food diet is much healthier than any commercial foods...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtqKBEj64ifQeOSJvfW4hy_sy6IX?qid=20060907140528AAnmKja
This is a cut and paste from my answer an hour or three ago.

The healthiest diet for any dog of any age is the Bones And Raw Foods diet. Any dog being fed a raw diet will be healthier than the same dog on ANY commercial dog food. As long as you prepare it correctly anyway...

As far as commercial dog foods go, some of the best are Nutro natural choice, Wellness, Solid Gold, Eukanuba (regular Iams is garbage IMO), and Blue Buffalo. In general, the higher cost does actually equate to better foods, but not always. Purina One is the only brand that is a decent dog food which is sold at grocery stores.

Spending more on dog food is a GOOD thing. Better food means first off that you actually feed less; so that a 20lb bag will last longer than a 20lb bag of generic food. But more importantly, feeding a quality food will decrease vet bills over the life of the dog. Better nutrition will also increase your dogs life span significantly. Read up on some sites about canine nutrition, don't ever buy a food when the first ingredient isn't meat. Ingrediants are listed in order based on thier % composition. A food listing corn meal first means a large portion of the food is corn, and your dog needs animal protein from meats. Things like corn meal are mostly fillers, and offer (almost) no nutritional value, they are just added to take up space and make the food weight more and look bigger.

If you are interested in absolute top canine nutrition research raw food diets like th BARF diet. When fed correctly (and you can get books/web pages with detailed instructions on daily and weekly feeding) your dog will be twice as healthy compared to a dog fed commercial foods. On top of that, a majority of canine cancers are either caused by or supported by commercial dog foods. The incidence of cancer in dogs fed a raw diet is more than five times less.

The additives in commercial foods are mostly poisons. A lot of the preservatives are unmodified insecticides that no one would willingly feed their dogs seperately. Ethoxyquin is the best, it is an extermely powerful insecticide and an extermely potent carcinogen, yet the Iams corp uses it liberally as a preservative in their foods. Most of the bad stuff never appears on lables, because FDA regulations only require directly processed ingredients to be listed on the lables. Anything used in preprocessing is left off the lables. Another fact about most commercial dog foods is that they use sub human grade ingredients. That is to say it would not be legal for those companies to sell those ingredients to a person, they would literally get huge fines and go to jail for it. Most of the meats in low cost dog food comes from Dead, Diseased, and Dying animals. You wouldn't eat it, and I wouldn't let my dogs eat it. Some foods (like wellness and solid gold) use only human grade ingredients and therefore are much healthier.

Answer 9

Nutro Natural they have wonderful products something all dogs from puppies to big guys. Many formulas too.. my dog has a very sensitve digestion, She's on the Lamb & Rice & she does not throw it up.

Answer 10

I feed my dog Pedigree. But he's big and I don't know if they make a small breed food. I had a little incident where, he ran out of food and I had to buy some weird kind at the variety store. He actually rolled his eyes at me as if to say "You expect me to eat THIS?"