Our top 10 Dog Foods Part 1

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When it comes to feeding your furry kiddos, you probably have a pet food brand or two that you stick with. However, you might be in search of a new brand of food if you just got a new pet, or simply want to change up your pup's dinner recipe a little. So we decided to make it easier on you by seeking out recommendations online.

Our plan was to search for a great list of quality pet foods, find it, add it to this post, then proudly admire our good deed. However, while scouring the web in search of a list of America's best dog food, we discovered something we didn't expect. We found that there are several lists of (we're talking tons) "The Best Pet Foods" all over the internet. They have been created by many different companies, as well as individual veterinarian bloggers who know their way around pet food ingredients. So we decided to choose a "Best Pet Foods" list, then explore what each brand themselves, as well as, their customers are saying about their well loved foods. There are so many that we will need to feature the other lists in later blog posts. But for now, here is the featured list for this post.

10 of Our Favorite Dog Food Brands from reviews.com

If you are a pet parent searching for a specific kind of food for your furry kiddo, know that we added each company's unique benefit claim to the list below, to make your search easier.

  1. Orijen (Biologically appropriate)

  2. ACANA (Biologically appropriate)

  3. Eagle Pack (No fillers or artificial preservatives)

  4. Fromm (First to create a complete dog meal in kibble form in 1949)

  5. Nature's Logic (Whole food recipes)

  6. Stella & Chewy's (Raw food recipes)

  7. Wysong (holistic recipes)

  8. Pinnacle (Grain free recipes)

  9. Primal (Raw food recipes)

  10. Hi-Tek Naturals (Careful ingredient sourcing)

Next, we visited each brand's website and listed information we thought would help you decided whether this brand was the right one for you and your furry family. We featured three facts for each brand that they listed on their webpages.

1. Number of brand categories of food

2. Number of varieties offered

3. The company's unique benefit claim, or Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

To let you in on what customers thought of their products, we also added links to their customer reviews. 

Read Part II

 

 

 

 

5 Groups of Controversial Dog Food Ingredients

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The wrong ingredients in the wrong combinations can lead to a host of health problems, both physical and mental.
— https://www.reviews.com/dog-food/#Intro

One day, while I was on a walk, a neighbor stopped me to ask for some pet care advice. He told me that his three small dogs had all been suffering from skin rashes for over a year. He explained that he had changed their shampoo, and even "upgraded" their food from Purina, to Nutrish by Rachel Ray. I then broke the news to him that even though switching from Purina (the company involved in a class action law suit in 2015 because thousands of complaints of kidney failure were connected to their line of Beneful dog food), was a good move, feeding Rachel Ray's dog food may not have helped much. This is because it has been sited as containing chemicals and synthetic ingredients, (including L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate, menadione sodium bisulfite).

I then suggested that he start feeding his furry kiddos a brand of dog food that was made with healthier ingredients, and that did not contain harmful ones. I also let him know that using a homemade lemon water rinse on their skin after their baths should also help clear up the rashes. Some time later, we talked again. He told me that after he started feeding the higher quality grain free food I recommended, and adding a lemon water rinse to his dog's bath time routine, the skin rashes went away and his dogs seemed to be in much better moods as well.

Thankfully, he was aware that the first step in investigating a cure for his dog's illness was to adjust their diet. And usually, that is the best place to start.

"The wrong ingredients in the wrong combinations can lead to a host of health problems, both physical and mental." Unhealthy ingredients that are in some dog foods can cause allergies, that result in skin rashes and digestive disorders. So if your pet is showing any of these symptoms, before rushing to the vet for pills and other forms of medication, you might want to take a closer look at the ingredients in his food. 

Here is a list of some of the controversial ingredients to look for when examining the labels on your pup's foods.

 

1. BHA, BHT Ethoxiquin, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Selenite

2. Meat, meat meal & by products

3. Corn, wheat, soy & beet pulp

4. Products from China and rendering plants

5. Onions, grapes, garlic and avocados

Sources: https://www.law360.com https://www.reviews.com/dog-food/