<p>The ingredient list is a major key to what’s really in that bag or can. Ingredients must be listed in descending order of weight (before processing). Unfortunately, the “before processing” piece of this rule, gives dog food companies a loophole to make their food appear higher quality than they are. For instance they may use a higher quality ingredient in a high moisture composition, and the low quality ingredients in dehydrated form. In this manner, the high moisture ingredient will appear on the label before the more abundant dehydrated content.

Meat: Dogs are carnivores, and do best on a meat-based diet. The protein utilized in pet food comes from a assortment of sources. When cattle, swine, chickens, lambs, or other animals are processed, lean muscle tissue is trimmed away from the body for human consumption, along with the few organs that folks like to eat, such as tongues and tripe. About 50% of each food animal doesn’t get utilized in human foods. Whatever remains of the carcass — heads, feet, bones, blood, viscera, lungs, spleens, livers, ligaments, fat trimmings, and other parts not generally consumed by humans — is utilized in pet food, animal feed, fertilizer, industrial lubricants, soap, rubber, and other products. These “other parts” are called “by-products.” By-products are employed in feed for poultry and stock as well as in pet food. Avoid the word “by-product” of any sort irrespective of what its source is, named or not!

Meal: Meat meals, chickens meals, byproduct meals, and meat-and-bone meal are common ingredients in dry pet foods. The term “meal” means these materials are not used fresh, but have been rendered. While there are chicken, turkey, and chicken byproduct meals there isn’t any equivalent term for mammal “meat byproduct meal” — it is called “meat-and-bone-meal.” It can be referred to by species,eg “beef-and-bone-meal” or “pork-and-bone-meal.” Avoid dog food with the words “meat” or “meat meal” listed without a particular animal identified.

Grains: The quantity of grain and vegetable products employed in pet food has risen dramatically over the last 20 years. Grain products now replace a substantial proportion of the protein that was employed in the earliest commercial pet foods. Most dry foods contain a giant amount of cereal grain or starchy vegetables to provide texture. These high-carbohydrate plant products also offer a cheap source of “energy”, what the remainder of us call “calories.” Gluten meals are protein-heavy extracts from which most of the carbohydrate has been removed. They are often used to raise protein percentages without expensive animal-source ingredients. Corn gluten meal is the most commonly used for this purpose. Wheat gluten is also used to make shapes like cuts, bites, slices, shreds, flakes, and slices, and as a thickener for gravy. In most situations, foods containing vegetable proteins are among the poorer quality foods. Stay away from dog foods that list excessive grains and fillers among the first few ingredients on the labels like ground corn, corn gluten, wheat gluten, soy bean, for example.

For more in-depth info there are a number of good dog food comparison sites online. You should be able to find more about animal fats and chemicals, recalls and other issues round the best food for your dog .

Lyn Jones has been breeding and showing for over 10 years. As a breeder of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels in Oregon she welcomes the opportunity to answer questions and to provide information to families looking for information about King Charles Cavalier puppies