Your dog’s health is largely dependent on the dog food you are feeding. Understanding your dog’s nutritional requirements will go a long way in keeping them healthy and happy.

In order for your dog to grow, they need essential nutrients. Without these nutrients, your dog may experience poor health, stunted growth, shortened lifespan, and allergy symptoms.

Dogs, like any other animal, need five basic nutrients to survive: protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. These nutrients provide different functions and are necessary to sustain the health and well-being of your pet.

Proteins consist of amino acids and are the building blocks of your dog’s health. Although some of these amino acids can be synthesized by the dog, not all are. That is where your dog’s food come into play – they must contain the essential amino acids that the dog cannot produce.

You therefore need to have a satisfactory amount of protein in your dog food to help your dogs grow and stay healthy. But too much protein can be a cause of obesity, as excess can be stored as fat, and has even been linked to temperament problems in dogs.

Fats are used to deliver other nutrients to the body as well as a source of energy. So much bad press about fats in diets has most of us thinking to avoid them as much as possible. But this is not true. Fats are necessary in diets, for both humans and their canine companions. It’s the kind and amount of fat that can lead to health problems and obesity. Your dog needs the correct fats for proper kidney function, to transport fat-soluble vitamins to cells, and for a healthy skin and coat.

Carbohydrates are a main source of energy for your dog. But not all carbohydrates are created equal, and some are more common allergy triggers in sensitive dogs. Corn, wheat, and soy are common carb sources in dog food. By themselves, they are acceptable sources. However, if your dog is only getting by-products of these grains, they are not getting all the nutrients they need.

Vitamins and Minerals are the last area of necessary nutrients for your dog. These should be supplied naturally through your dog food. However, some dog foods will need to add in a lot of vitamins and minerals because they get destroyed in the manufacturing process of the food. But these vitamins and minerals will start to diminish in both quality and quantity the longer the bag of food is opened – so you won’t get as much by the bottom of the bag as you do when you first open it. To ensure optimal health for your dog, you should provide a specially formulated vitamin supplement.

Just like with humans, dogs need a balanced diet – the correct ratio of proteins, carbs, fats, vitamins and minerals. And it is up to you to make sure his dog food is healthy. To learn more about healthy dog foods and how to read dog food ingredients, visit the Healthy Dog Food blog – helping you learn how to keep your dog healthy through nutrition.

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Have you looked at the variety of dog food in the markets lately? Browsing over all the bags, they all brag about the great quality of meat they have inside and how healthy the dog food is. But how do you know? You have to learn to decipher the dog food ingredients label to find out.

What is a healthy dog food? A healthy dog food can be broken into 2 components: the right type of food for your particular dog, and the quality of the ingredients. The first part depends upon what kind of dog you have. Is he active? Does he have a medical condition? Is she nursing pups? You first need to determine the type of dog food that best suites your dog.

Independent of the type of dog food, the actual ingredients need to be understood. Are you really feeding nutritious ingredients to your dog or not? A great source of confusion comes when trying to decipher the meats – the main source of protein – as they can be stated as a type of meat, meal, or by-product.

What is the difference between a Meat, Meal, and By-Product? An identified animal meat, chicken for example, means the clean flesh from a chicken. Meal is simply the ingredient that has be dehydrated and ground. So chicken meal is dehydrated, ground up chicken meat. By-product is what is left over after all the usable meat has been removed (like the neck, feet, intestines, etc.) Chicken by-product would be processed and ground up chicken necks, feet, and who really knows what else.

Which is Better – Meat or Meal? Now you look at your dog food ingredients list. Naturally, most people would assume seeing the meat listed as the first ingredient would mean the best food. But in actuality, you want to see the meat in the meal form.

All dog food ingredients must be listed in order of weight. Since a meat still has all of its moisture, it will be heavier than a meat meal. To put it another way, take two pieces of meat that weigh the same. Now dehydrate one. Which one will weigh more – the meat will. The tricky part is that once the dog food is made, all meat is first processed and made into meat meal.

Named Animal Meat vs Generic Category Meat. If the animal protein is from chicken, the label will read chicken, chicken meal, chicken by-product, etc. Now if it is from more than one type of animal, it may say the category of the animal, such as poultry. This means the manufacturer does not know the actual meat origins, just that they are of the poultry family (geese, turkey, chicken, etc). Worse yet, when any and all types of animals are used, it is just listed as ‘meat’, ‘meat meal’, or ‘meat by-product’.

The bottom line is that if a specific animal source cannot be identified, the dog food manufacturer is probably more concerned about their bottom line than the health and well-being of your pet.

There are lots of things that come into play when determining what is the healthiest dog food for your dog. Learn more about how to read your dog food ingredients label at the Healthy Dog Food Blog: assisting you in figuring out what makes a healthy dog food.

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