Best Dog Food?

Question

What is your opinion on the best food on the market? Why do you think it is the best? What foods would you consider the worst?

Answer 1

The Worst:
Beneful
Kibbles and Bits
Mighty Dog
Cesar
Ol Roy
Purina Hi Pro
Moist and Meaty
Dinner Rounds
Gravy Train
Cadillac
Alpo
to name just few.

The Best:
Natural Balance
Natures Recipe
Merrick
Wellness
Innova
California Natural
Solid Gold
Neutro
Eukanuba
to name just a few.
All of these products have meat as the main source of protien, not alot of fillers such as corn, some even have human grade ingredients.

Answer 2

Jess is right. Lizzy is wrong. What about the AAFCO definition of by products do you not understand? Major dog food companies are just like any other large company: they are in it for the money and look for the bottom line. By products can include all sorts of crazy things. That is not a myth and I've talked with several folks who have worked for or around rendering plants used in major pet foods. Not a pretty picture.

There is no best food for every dog out there. I personally feed raw with supplemental canned (but only stuff like Innova EVO 95% rabbit or venison and as a supplemental protein source). I say this as a behaviorist, a trainer, a grad student in biology, and a future vet, most vets don't know a damn thing about nutrition other than to sell what they sell in their office (AKA: Science Diet and IAMS, etc). Most vets forget that they have a bachelor's degree in biology and somehow ignore the fact that wolves and wild dogs don't eat corn, sorghum, soy, wheat, etc. Not even cattle, horses, and other ruminants do (they eat grass which is why grass fed beef, etc is generally thought to be healthier). So steer clear of any product made by Purina, Pedigree, Science Diet, IAMS, Eukanuba. Chicken Soup, Canidae, Innova, Natural Balance, Timberwolf Organics, The Honest Kitchen, California Natural, some of the Solid Gold and Nutro products, etc are good choices if you choose to feed a commercial diet.

Answer 3

for a couple of years now i have been feeding my 2 dogs (romeo is an aussie Shepard/huskie mix and theo is a basset) innova dry dog food. a lady at my local feed store told me about it and what turned me onto it was 1)the nutritional aspect eg protein, no by-product 2) degrades really fast....bc, I really really hate cleaning up dog pooh from the yard!!!!! Over the years on and off if I have ran out of my innova and had to borrow some from our neighbor (also a litter-mate) I've noticed bad gas from both dogs and nasty "piles" to pick up. As as as the other brands like iams and eukanba, i think that they are over priced purina, low protein, high by-products, I could be wrong....... Also, I'm not a big fan of canned dog food, but I have medium size dogs, I suppose can food is OK for small dogs......

Also, I think that "raw" foods or "cooking" for your dog is fine if you have the time and you do your research, animals need a specific diet, grilling a steak or chicken and steaming veggies I don't think is adequate for a dog, they need more, so you would need to read up on it.

Answer 4

The best foods on the market are foods like Canidae, Wellness, Innova, Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul, Solid Gold,California Natural, Timberwolf, just to name a few..in other words foods with no corn, wheat, soy, beet pulp, by products, chemical presevatives, dyes, sugars and that have meat as at least the first 2 ingredients.

The absolute worst foods are ones like Ole'Roy, Beneful, Kibbles n'Bits, Gravy Train...they are so loaded with cheap fillers, sugars and by products that they are virtually worthless as foods for dogs. It takes a ton of these foods for dogs to get proper nutrition.

Some low quality foods are Purina, Pedigree,IAMS/Eukanuba, Science Diet and other grocery store brands..These foods are also full of cheap fillers & by products but not as bad as the worst foods.

People should remember that dogs are carnivores, meat eaters...designed to extract nutrition from meats not grains. They do not digest grains well.

Answer 5

Some of the best foods are Innova EVO, Canidae, Natural Choice, Orijen and so on.

The worst is anything you can find in a supermarket, Iams, Eukanuba, Pedigree, Purina and so on..

Answer 6

Well there is no "best" in my opinion. Each breed/dog/lifestyle are different. I feed my dog Flint River Ranch Fish and Chips. Its a food made with all natural trout and sweat potatoes. My Minpin loves it.

http://www.frrco.com/indexFlash.cfm?101012445

Answer 7

It seems everyone has their opinions here. Some are to the point some feel the need to write a book about their personal preferences. So I'm not even going to give you mine. I think you should ask your vet and then ask the breeder you got the pup from. Then make up your own mind and see if it fits into your budget.
I have looked into many dog foods suggested on this site some are ok some I can't get in my area some are very expensive. None have made me change my mind as to what I will feed my dogs, which is a high quality food.
So I think you should make up your own mind and see what food is available to you and what you can afford.

Answer 8

In my opinion, there is no "best" commercial dog food. Raw is best. As far as commercial foods go there is low quality and high quality.

Anything you find in a supermarket, and most of your commonly known brands, Science Diet, Eukanuba, Iams, Purina, are all low quality foods.

High quality foods include Canidae, Innova Evo, Natural Balance, and Nature's Variety to name a few.

I also don't recommend "puppy" food for puppies. Instead I recommend a high quality All Stages food. These can be fed from puppyhood through the senior years. You'll find alot of high quality foods are this way.

Reason why puppy food is BAD for puppies is contains to much protein and calcium. This promotes fast growth. Fast growth leads to bone and joint problems later in life. An All Stages food promotes a much healthier slower growth, and thus helps prevent future bone and joint problems. Puppies should grow up slowly, not spring up like weeds.

Nothing you find at a grocery store is going to be a good food. High quality foods can be found at large pet store chains, or online. A couple of foods I like are Nutro Natural, Innova, Innova Evo and Cannidae.

There are other high quality dog foods. Here's how to spot them:

A high quality food will have little or no fillers such as corn, wheat or soy. These aren't very digestable for dogs, and are common food related allergens. Since you were seeing corn meal in the first few ingredients, those are not high quality foods. Foods list ingredients by content, with the ingredient it contains most of at the top.

A high quality food will not contain BHT, BHA or Ethoxyquin, these are all chemical preservatives that have been linked to cancer.

A high quality food will not contain by-products of any kind. Meat meals are ok as long as the source of the meat is listed, such as Chicken Meal.

A high quality diet should have meat as at least the first ingredient., and be made from human grade ingredients. Foods that don't use human grade ingredients often get their ingredients from less than desirable sources, such as meat from animals that were diseased, or euthanized.

There is another diet option other than dog food. Some people choose to feed a raw diet. This involves feeding the dog raw meaty bones and organ meat. However it is not as simple as throwing a couple chicken bones in a bowl everyday. If you wish to feed this type of diet, do lots and lots of research first. Switching to this diet without knowing what your doing can lead to nutritional problems for your dog. I'll give you some links as a starting point in research if you are interested in this type of diet.

http://www.willowglen.com/barf.htm.........

http://www.bestfrisbeedogs.com/diets.htm...

http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html.....

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html.....

http://www.rawdogranch.com

What's Really In Pet Food
http://www.api4animals.org/facts?p=359&m...

**I don't believe in half-assed answers, and I haven't even begun to write a book yet.

Answer 9

Science Diet Is The Best Food For Cats And Dogs.

Answer 10

home made food its the best. You can get an e-book on ebay about it. At least you know EXACTLY whats going into your doog food. You dont have to cook every single day. You canbulk meat and freeze it. Thats what i do and my 2 puppies are the healthiest in the whole world!! There most be a reason why I don't eat SPAM meat.... i have no idea whats in it.....