When you feed your precious little pooch well-balanced, high-quality food, you’re doing your part as a caring, loving, and responsible pet owner. It’s in your hands to make sure your furry friend is getting the right amount and kind of nutrients every single day. That said, what is the best dog food brand?
In a perfect world, all dog food manufacturers would be making high-quality dog food. Without adding cheap fillers, allergy-triggering ingredients, artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives, etc. But, unfortunately, that’s not the case. Even with human food brands.
So the task of choosing the best brand for your dog can get confusing. I mean you want to keep factors like nutrition, affordability, your dog’s specific dietary needs, and so much more in mind. After all, the food should boost digestion, promote a healthy coat and skin, improve joint health, etc.
Keeping all that in mind, here’s all you need to know when it comes to choosing a safe and reliable brand for your little four-legged creature.
Best Dog Food Brand – What Makes Any Dog Food GOOD?
Many pet owners prefer feeding canned food to their dogs. The thing about such processed canned recipes is that they’re loaded with all nutrients your canine’s body demands. For staying active and healthy. As long as the brand, even though commercial, is high-quality. It means they’re subjecting their foods to rigorous testing.
As for what’s in dog food, meat is the #1 ingredient. But dogs aren’t strictly carnivores, like felines. So they can also get their nutrients from vegetables, fruits, and grains. Keep in mind that not all non-meat dog food recipes contain fillers. In fact, the good ones are packed with essential minerals, vitamins, and fiber.
So a brand that prepares recipes with a combination of high-quality meat, fruits, vegetables, and grains is the best one.
Dog Food Nutrition
Let me tell you that not every commercial brand provides the same nutritional value for your dog. Likewise, not all dogs have similar nutritional needs. This is largely based on your dog’s age, breed, weight, size, etc.
Speaking of which…
Best Dog Food Brand for Large and Small Breeds
The larger dog breeds are more susceptible to developing musculoskeletal problems. So these breeds require formulas infused with ingredients that promote musculoskeletal function. Right from the start i.e. from puppyhood.
As for smaller breeds, they cannot chew and digest large kibbles. On top of that, small dogs have a very high metabolism rate. So they require calorie-dense recipes. Plus, you should be feeding them 3-4 times a day.
As is evident, nutritional needs are not the same. So this is a factor you should not neglect at the time of buying.
Best Dog Food Brand – Choosing A Dog Food for Special Dietary Requirements
Does your dog have special dietary requirements or restrictions? Such as sensitive tummy, grain allergies, etc.? Or is your dog very active, not much active, old, a puppy, or a fussy eater? All these factors have to be kept in mind during the selection process.
Speaking of choosing dog food based on purpose, the one brand that comes to mind is Victor Dog Food. No doubt, this is one of the premium dog food brands out there. Their reviews of the best dog food formulas include recipes based on more than just purpose. The brand offers formulas based on the protein level as well. Along with classic and canned food recipes.
Best Dry Dog Food
Kibbles are the most widely available as well as the most affordable. Am I right? Also, they don’t need to be refrigerated. And that’s what gives dry dog food the upper hand over its wet version. Kibbles include 90-percent dry matter with 10-percent water content.
Most dry dog food recipes are prepared by blending and cooking meat and grains. Of course, there are grain-free options as well. In case your dog’s tummy is sensitive to grains. The blending and cooking process also includes converting starch into a form that’s easy to digest. While also eliminating toxins, along with flash sterilizing all the ingredients.
Best Wet Dog Food
As for canned dog food recipes, they’re the perfect alternative. But these are more expensive. However, the upside is that wet formulas stimulate the dog’s appetite. And this is very useful in case he/she is a fussy eater.
The ingredients are the same as what goes into dry dog foods. But the quantities of those ingredients aren’t. Canned formulas have more fresh fish, meat, animal by-products, and poultry. They also contain more grain-derived textured proteins.
And once you open the can, you have to refrigerate it.
Best Dog Food Brand – Ingredients
No matter what, always check the list of ingredients. No matter how popular or commercial the brand. Because not all manufacturers use the right kind or quality of ingredients. In fact, some of them split the ingredients for more equal distribution.
For example, kibbled corn, ground corn, and flaked corn are listed separately at times. And what this does is lower the position of corn on the ingredients list. But that doesn’t change the fact that the recipe is loaded with corn.
Likewise, meat is also a tricky ingredient. You should know that whole meats have a large quantity of water. This means, after processing, the meat percentage is lower than what appears.
As for meat meals, they may be less appealing. But at least they’ve got higher meat content in comparison to whole meats. Since there’s zero water weight involved with meat meals.
[YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0lFwdNm_Go&t=6s]
Conclusion
More often than not, vet recommended dog food is always the best dog food brand. So feel free to talk to your vet about it. I’m sure he/she will be able to offer a more suitable choice. Based on your dog’s health, age, weight, etc.
The goal here is to select a brand that uses only high-quality ingredients. Make sure you Google dog food brands to avoid. There’s a reason why those brands are a part of the list. So keep your little pooch away from unhealthy ingredients and cheap fillers.
Author Bio:
Lisa Ha, the creative mind behind Top Tips for Her, considers herself a pet expert now that she has spent so many years researching what’s best for the health of dogs, cats, fish, guinea pigs, and more. All her pet-related articles that contain both reviews and useful tips come from authentic, science-backed sources. She also creates invaluable content for cooking, gardening, sewing, and arts & crafts.
