Just What Are These Dog Food Ingredients – Part 2

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In the previous post on dog food ingredients, I talked about preservatives and meats. And don’t worry if it is too confusing at first. It took me several times of going to the store and looking at all the dog food ingredients, before I really got a feel for how to quickly judge a quality vs. crap dog food.

In this post I’ll talk about grains, fruits and vegetables, and vitamins – or the rest of the stuff in the dog food ingredients list.

Dog Food Ingredients: Grains

In a non-quality dog food (i.e. crap), the first ingredient in the list will be a grain. Why? Because it is cheap! Actually it is even cheaper than cheap because it probably isn’t even human-grade if it is going into a dog food and is the first ingredient (the companies that use human-grade grains will almost always have meat listed first and second too – because they obviously care about what your dog is eating).

Now grains will boost the protein level in dog foods, but most experts agree that dogs can’t metabolize non-meat proteins as well as meat proteins – their bodies just aren’t designed to. So basically what you are giving your dog is filler – something to fill up their tummies without providing much nutrition for their bodies. And to be gross for a minute, you can see this in their poop. If you dog is processing and utilizing most of the food he is consuming, he should not have huge amounts of waste and it shouldn’t stink too bad.  We adopted a 11 m.o. mastiff, who ate regular dog food, and her poop filled up about 1/3 of a  plastic grocery bag! After we switched to healthy dog food, her poop is probably half that now and it doesn’t stink as much.

Grains/Carbohydrates:
There is great debate over whether dogs even need any grains. Some say they can exist solely as carnivores, but then again, some people feed their dogs a strict vegetarian diet. And both ends of the spectrum can have healthy dogs. But the fact is, it is expensive to feed your dog just meat, and I personally feel they probably won’t be getting everything their bodies need.  I do feed grains to my dogs, but not all grains are equal.

Corn, Soy, Wheat
These grains are some of the biggest causes of dog food allergies. Some experts speculate that it is because we feed SO much of it to the dogs, day after day, year after year, and their bodies really weren’t built to process that much of it.

Why Are There So Many Different Ways to List Dog Food Ingredients?

Now there are different types of these grains and usually they are listed separately in the dog food ingredients list. Let’s take corn for example. Corn can be listed as corn, corn meal, corn germ, corn flour, corn bran, ground corn, corn gluten, corn gluten meal, and I’m sure there are others that I’ve left out. Each of these refers to either a different part of the corn or a way it was processed.

So what does this mean in your dog’s food? If you see corn flour as the 2nd ingredient, and corn bran as the 4th, and corn gluten meal as the 7th, then there is probably quite a bit of corn in your dog food! But since each is listed separately, they aren’t as high in the dog food ingredient list, but the presence of corn is definitely high.

Oats, Barley, and Rice
These are considered to be better forms of carbs for your dog and are typically used in hypoallergenic dog food. I use brown rice and oatmeal primarily. Every so often I throw in lentils or barley instead – just for a change.

Dog Food Ingredients: Fruits and Vegetables:

I love dog foods that have fruits and vegetables in them. To me, they are a great source of carbs, but are also full of fiber, vitamins and minerals, and anti-oxidants  – more so than grains, but then again, they are more expensive. If you are feeding homemade dog food, remember the Do Not Feed list of foods, which contain some fruit and veggies.

Vitamins & Minerals:

As you look down the list of dog food ingredients, you might find a bunch of added vitamins and minerals. You think, well good, they are making sure my dog is getting what he needs.  But I think, why isn’t the food itself providing all of these vitamins/minerals? I mean, a couple of added vitamins/minerals is good, but when half the list of ingredients is added vitamins and minerals??? Just another clue for me that this probably isn’t a great dog food.

Another thing to consider with added vitamins and minerals. As soon as you open the food, the potency of the vitamins/minerals start to diminish. This means that by the time you get to the bottom of the bag, your dog is not getting as much of these needed items as when you first opened it.

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