Best kind of dog food and treats?

Question

What's the best/healthiest, kind of dog food and treats? I heard sience diet...and milkbones? I'm not sure though...do you?

Answer 1

Here are some guidelines for picking a super-premium dog food:

-make sure the first couple ingredients are whole meat, at least the very first ingredient

-No corn!(Dogs don't digest it well and many are allergic)

-No by-products (nasty sludgy left overs)

-not preserved with BHT or BHA (chemicals known to cause cancer!)

Research and pick one that is best for you and your dog, Some good ones are Diamond, Canide, Eagle Pack, Wellness, Back to Basics, Wysong, Innova, Flint River Ranch, Pinnacle, Chicken soup...and some more, but these are some of the better brands out there. I would not choose a very "popular" brand like Purina or Pedigree, or even Science Diet, too often these brands spend too much on advertising and not enough on quality ingriedents, some of the lesser known brands like canide etc...stated above generaly have much better ingredients.

Answer 2

You want to stay away from foods with ingredients such as corn, wheat, fillers, beef and by products. All of those ingredients are hard for your dog or puppy to digest.

Some bad foods are Iams, Purina, Alpo, Science Diet, Pedigree, Eukanuba and Bil Jack.

Some GOOD foods are Natures Recipe, Nutro Max, Lassie Natural Way and Royal Chain.

I personally recommend Natures Recipe. It is an all natural food and extremely healthy for your dog or puppy. It leads to a shinny coat and a healthy body. It also cuts down on shedding, bad breath and the amount of stool your dog produces.

Natures Recipe had different bags for different size dogs and ages.

Stay away from wet food as it sticks to their teeth and builds up in their system. It is ok for a treat once in a while but not daily.

Before switching foods you want to check with your vet and make sure your dog or pup has no health problems.

After that you want to switch him or her slowly otherwise it will make him or her sick.

For the first week do 25% new and 75% old
Second week 50% new and 50% old
Third week 75% new and 25% old
Then they can have all new food starting the forth week.

You can find those healthy foods at your local Pet Smart or Pet Co.

Also stay away from rawhide and human food as neither are healthy for your dog. Stay with his dog food and Natural or compressed bones.


Now as for treats Milkbones are fine but there are many more natural treats as well. Find a treat that your dog likes.

Answer 3

For food, we use Innova. It comes with a higher price tag, but is one of the higher quality foods (listed in the top 3 I believe).

Every day treats are usually made also by whatever dog food brand you choose, but we also buy Authority treats.

If you want to train, the everyday treat isn't going to be sufficient. It will be something your dog will be accustomed to getting without "working" for it, so I don't recommend using the every day for training purposes. For training, I use cooked cut up hot dogs, cooked stew bits or chicken, cheese and have even used goldfish crackers and canned dog food (we feed dry). The idea with "training treats" is to find something your dog is crazy about and to sometimes change it up a bit to keep the interest, but to only use for training.

Answer 4

I use Purina One Lamb and Rice. It's not Iams or Science Diet, but lamb and rice are the main ingredients (first and second on ingredient list) and it's cheaper than either. My dog looks healthy, his coat and eyes are shiny and bright and his skin is good, so it's good for him. As for treats, he has rawhide dental chews and Ol Roy dogbones and Milkbone training treats. The dogbones I figure I can cheat on since he only gets 1 or 2 a day.

Answer 5

The best feeds are the kibbles without grain in them. This is a good website to compare foods:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/

I like Natures Variety. Unfortunatly not all foods are available in all areas. These kibbles may be a little more expensive, but I find I do not feed as much food, nor do I have a large amount of poop.

Good luck in your research!

Answer 6

Depends of what breed and size of dog you have, best you can do is to go to a vet and ask...( sorry for my bad English ) For ex I have an Hungarian Viszla (medium size) and I give her some diet food from Royal Canine( with high content of soia ) mixed with some cheese and grain for digestion..

Answer 7

milkbones are some of the better treats out there but on the food
you should get some purina pro plan for growndogs or puppys
and that gives it the right vitamens and everything they need
i think it even helps thier teeth if i remmember right
you should consult a vet on what type of food is best for your dog

good luck ^_^

Answer 8

TIMBERWOLF, and CANIDAE are the best dog foods...... i like freeze dried liver treats

science diet is one of the worst foods

Answer 9

It's a long article-hope it helps. Science diet caused our Airedale to lose hair-we switched and the hair all came back. A lot of dogs are allergic to corn-Milkbone has corn meal -one symptom of a corn allergy can be hyperactivity-do not give a terrier Milkbone!!
Dogs love meat and they need protein. Unlike cats, who need high amounts of protein and no carbohydrates at all, dogs need as much as 50 percent carbohydrates, but reviews say meat should be the first ingredient, followed by more absorbable grains like rice. If you've read any dog-food labels, the term "by-product" appears a lot. Meat by-product consists mainly of animal parts that are not used for human consumption, such as bones, organs, blood, fatty tissue and intestines. If a label says "chicken by-product," all the parts must come from chicken; the same goes for lamb, beef, etc.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to by-products in dog food. Some say that because a dog in the wild would eat the entire animal when killing prey, including skin, organs and bones, some amount of by-products in dog food is just fine. What you don't want, say reviews, is unidentified by-products, often listed as "meat by-products." Experts say this could include zoo animals, road kill and according to Jessica Smith's article for NewsTarget.com, '4-D' livestock (dead, diseased, disabled, dying). Most shockingly, "meat by-products" can even include euthanized dogs and cats. In 1990 the American Veterinary Medical Association and the FDA confirmed that some pet food companies were using the bodies of euthanized pets as by-products in their foods. It turns out that this practice wasn't widespread, but limited to small rural rendering plants and a few other assorted links in the pet food manufacturing chain. For these reasons, reviews that do approve of some by-products in pet food say that dog owners should look for specific origin, such as 'chicken by-product' or 'lamb by-product.'

The other -- and prevailing -- school of thought is that by-products should be avoided entirely, and that a dog's diet should contain meat, vegetables and absorbable grains, not ground up bones and organs. These critics say that it's simply too hard to know what exactly is included in by-products, and some say that these unwanted animal parts may contain bacteria or even parts from cancerous animals.



Dog food companies are making moves to get away from using artificial preservatives in dog food. Chemicals used as preservatives, like BHA, BHT and Ethoxyquin, have been under scrutiny, and many companies are switching to natural preservatives like vitamin C (ascorbate) and vitamin E (tocopherols).
Dry dog food vs. canned dog food
Although dry dog food is convenient to store, pet nutritionists, say that canned food can be better than dry food, mostly because it contains fewer preservatives (since the canning process itself acts as a preservative). Canned dog food generally has less grain in its ingredients, and of course it has more moisture, which helps keep a dog hydrated and benefits the urinary tract. Most reviews say that a balance of canned and dry food is a good idea. Furthermore, there is no inherent dental benefit in dry dog food.

Dry dog food usually contains more filler and grain, and due to the manufacturing process, some experts say that dry food isn't very palatable to dogs all by itself. According to the Animal Protection Institute, that's why dry dog food is often sprayed with animal fat, sometimes obtained from restaurants disposing of used cooking oil. If you open a bag of dog food and it smells rancid, you should return it for a refund immediately.

Store brands vs. premium dog food
Pound for pound, store brand dog food is obviously a lot cheaper; a 40-pound bag of Natural Balance costs about $37 while a 35-pound bag of Alpo costs about $20. However, many pet-nutrition experts say that the initial cost difference doesn't tell the whole story. According to veterinarians due to the higher-quality ingredients in premium food, your dog will actually eat less compared to inexpensive dog food: "Immediately you will notice that when feeding a high quality, meat-based food, the dog will need to consume fewer cups of it per day than a cheap diet." An added benefit is that since more of the food is absorbed as nutrients, your dog will pass less solid waste.

Best dry dog food
In the dry food category, Natural Balance Ultra Premium (*est. $21 for a 17-pound bag) is notable for its organic dog-food ingredients, quality meats and lack of by-products. ingredients include chicken, brown rice, duck and lamb-meal.

Another top dry food is Innova Adult Formula dry dog food (*est. $20 for a 16.5-pound bag) , The top ingredients in Innova dry food are turkey, chicken and chicken meal, which far outranks typical grocery store dry foods such as Alpo, which lists ground yellow corn, beef, bone meal and soy meal as its top three.

The primary ingredient in Purina Dog Chow (*est. $14 for a 22-pound bag) is ground yellow corn rather than meat. The primary ingredient in Alpo Prime Cuts (*est. $9 for an 18-pound bag) and Pedigree Complete Nutrition (*est. $14 for a 22-pound bag) is also ground yellow corn. Nutro Max Adult Chicken and Lamb dry food (*est. $17 for a 17.5-pound bag) lists chicken meal, ground rice, wheat flour and corn gluten meal as its primary ingredients. This company uses natural tocopherols as preservatives rather than the more suspicious Ethoxyquin, one of the chemical preservatives that some critics say has been linked to cancer.

If you don't want to spring for expensive Natural Balance or Innova dry dog food, some store brands appear to be better choices than others. Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul (*est. $16 for an 18-pound bag) is less expensive than premium brands, but it has top-quality ingredients: Chicken, turkey, chicken meal, turkey meal, whole-grain brown rice and whole-grain white rice are its primary ingredients, and there are no chemical preservatives. It's more expensive than Alpo, but less pricey than Natural Balance.

Chicken Soup dog food costs less than Iams Dog Chunks (*est. $22 for a 20-pound bag) , yet it has better ingredients. Iams lists its primary ingredients as chicken, corn meal, ground whole grain sorghum, chicken by-product meal and ground whole grain barley. Science Diet has a reputation as a premium brand, and many owners say their veterinarian recommended it to them (vets get a commission for selling this food); Science Diet Lamb Meal and Rice Recipe (*est. $23 for a 20-pound bag) lists lamb as its first ingredient, but after that, there isn't much meat on the list: Brewers rice, rice flour, ground whole grain wheat, ground whole grain sorghum, corn gluten meal and cracked pearled barley. In fact, animal fat is the only other meat-derived ingredient on the whole list.

Canned dog food
Canidae's chicken and rice formula (*est. $1.15 per 13.5-ounce can) lists chicken, chicken broth, lamb, chicken liver, brown rice, barley and egg at the top. Eagle Pack Holistic (*est. $1.15 per 13-ounce can) also gets high ratings in reviews and from pet owners. In its beef formula, the first few ingredients are beef, beef broth, beef liver, ocean fish, oat bran, carrots, peas, potatoes and dried egg product. With both of these brands, there are no chemical preservatives.

In less expensive canned food like Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy with Beef (*est. 80¢ per 13-ounce can) , beef doesn't appear for quite a while on the ingredients list: Water, meat by-products, wheat flour, beef, whole rice and wheat gluten. Plus, Alpo contains unidentified meat by-products.

Pedigree Choice Cuts with Beef (*est. 80¢ per 13-ounce can) is better. After water (used for processing), top ingredients are actually meat: Poultry, beef, meat by-products, wheat flour and wheat gluten. But again, the meat by-products are not identified. Nutro Max is probably a better choice. Its Beef and Rice formula (*est. $1 per 12.5-ounce can) contains primarily beef broth, beef, chicken, beef liver and chicken liver.

Purina's new Beneful meals for dogs have been much hyped in the press and in ads, but there's evidence that Beneful is mostly about marketing. The primary ingredient in Beneful Beef & Turkey Medley With Green Beans, Carrots & Wild Rice (*est. $1.75 per 10-ounce tub) isn't any of these ingredients; it's wheat gluten (followed by liver, beef, turkey, green beans and meat by-products).