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A Brief Guide to Dog and Cat Foods
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Dry/Kibble: The most popular type of food. Veterinarian recommended. Quality varies greatly among the many brands available. Usually contains 9-10% moisture, so that it can keep well when stored in a cool, dry environment. Dry foods cannot contain more than 50% meat or other animal products. It takes about 4 hrs for a dog to digest.
Semi-moist: Very palatable to many pets, these foods contain large amounts of preservatives and chemicals to enable them to maintain their "moisture" at room temperature without spoiling.
Canned/Wet: Is often the most expensive type of commercial pet food. Quality varies greatly among the brands available. This type of food contains a large percentage (70-80%) of moisture which may be misleading as to the actual nutritional content. Unused food MUST be refrigerated. It takes 2 hrs to digest.
Raw_Diets: These are becoming more popular with owners as they become more readily available. Only recommended if formulated by a nutritionist.
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Choosing A Pet Food
There are some hallmarks that high quality foods have in common:
1. Superior source of protein: whole, fresh meats, or single source meat meal.
2. A whole meat source as one of the first two listed ingredients. ( whole fresh meat contains a lot of water) and the extra weight usually pushes the fresh meat to the top of the list of ingredients ( which by law, are listed in order of their weight contribution to the food). If a list of ingredients begins with whole chicken, followed by 3 or more grains and no other proteins, it is likely that the food contains much more grain than meat.
3. Whole grains and vegetables
4. Balanced Omega fatty acids. A 5:1 ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 is considered ideal.
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High quality foods should contain very little of the following:
1. Food fragments. Fragments are lower cost by-products, such as wheat bran.
2. Meat by-products. Keep in mind that feathers are considered a poultry by-product.
High quality foods should NOT contain:
1. Generic fats or protein. Examples: "animal fat"or "animal digest".
2. Artificial preservatives. These usually appear as BHA, BHT, and/or ethoxyquin.
3. Propylene glycol. Petroleum product added to food to keep them moist.
4. Sweetners. (Corn syrup, sucrose, ammoniated glycyrrhizin). Dietary sugars can aggravate health problems in dogs and cats, including diabetes.
The following is a list of some of the better quality pet foods available locally.
DOG FOODS CAT FOODS
Iams (canned/dry) Iams (canned/dry)
Natural Balance Nutro Max Cat
Nutro Natural Choice Blue Buffalo
Eukanuba Evanger's
Blue Buffalo Evolve Holistic Cat
Lamaderm ( Natural Choice) Natural Balance
Neura
Innova Evo
Merricks
Royal Canin
Pinnacle
Solid Gold
Organix
Timberwolf
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