Pet Food Label Basics - Ingredient List

Do you know how to read pet food label? We realize that many of our customers are pet food savvy and already know this, but I went to a very interesting seminar on dog nutrition and pet obesity yesterday, and decided to share some basics on how to read pet food label.

What Is Your Dog Really Eating?

All pet food products, including our organic dog biscuits, must list ingredients on the back label. It's the law! If you grab a food or treat or any food items for your dogs and cats and the ingredients are not listed, not good news! Manufactures must list them in the order of descending weight (in most states). So the first ingredient on the label is what your dog is eating the most out of that food. Then, second is the second most thing in that food, third, and so on. This is true to any types of pet food, whether canned food, kibbles, treats, biscuits, etc.

Now we know that the first few items on the ingredients is what you'd like your dog to eat, because most likely that's the most food your dog is eating on daily basis. In case of dry food, it should be some sort of high quality protein.

High Quality Protein

What is high quality protein? Well, it should be protein source that you recognize from your grocery store. Beef, chicken, lamb, venison, rabbit, salmon, whatever it may be but make sure it's specific and make sure it's not "by-products" of animal source. Not all "by-products" are bad because it can be nutritional parts like liver. However, if a high quality food is using liver, it's probably listed as "beef liver" or "chicken liver" rather than "by-products". In general, "by-products" are probably mixed with not so appetizing body parts like chicken feet, beaks, etc.

It's probably a very good idea to avoid food that lists "meat meal" or "meat and bone meal." You may ask, "what meat is in the meat meal"? Exactly! In "meat" meal, we don't know what sort of meat it is because they don't have to specify it as far as it's some sort of "meat." It can be road-kills, diseased animals, talk about scary! Same is true with "animal fat." What "animal" are they talking about? Well, we don't know... So remember, animal source in "meat meal" and "animal fat" are MYSTERY CREATURES! FYI, here at Organic Doggy Kitchen, we do not use any mystery meats. In fact, most of our dog biscuits are strictly vegetarian!

Additives & Preservatives

Sugar and salt are not necessary, either. Another thing you may want to avoid is food coloring. Why does dog food have to look bright red and yellow? Does your dog care? No! It's there to please your human eyes.

When you bake cookies, you know it's done because the dough turns brown-ish in color. As dog bakery, we know how much coloring you need to put in a dough to keep that bright color in order to overcome baking (browning) effects. Occasional food coloring will probably not do harm to your dog, but if you are feeding bright colors to your dog every single day for a long-period of time, you may want to be careful...

You'd probably want to avoid certain chemical preservatives, too. Some of the infamous ones are BHA and BHT which are added to preserve fats. These chemicals are proven to be harmful to lab animals. But it's probably a good idea to avoid them to be on the safe side. It's also notable that the amount of BHA/BHT allowed for pet food is much higher than the amount allowed for humans, so we may want to be careful!

Another preservatives to be careful of is Ethoxyquin. There are more than a few reports identifying this chemical preservative as possible cause of illness/health problems in many dogs. You can do a quick Google search on Ethoxyquin and dogs, and you'll be surprised. Organic Doggy Kitchen does not use any of these additives in our organic dog biscuits.

In Short...

It is kind of scary, but we don't mean to scare you. It is our sincere wish that your dogs eat healthy quality food to live a happy long life with you! Here's good news! You don't have to worry about these ingredients or memorize them if you shop at natural pet supply stores. All of our customer stores care so much about your pets' health that their shelves are stocked with only high quality pet food. You can select any of the items from their shelves without any worries. And if you have any questions, staff members at these stores are very knowledgeable and they can answer your questions and help you choose the right food for your dogs.

If you find this helpful, please tell your doggy friends. The same is true with cat food, so please feel free to let your kitty friends know how to read pet food labels!