Which Dog Food Brand is Best?

[Freedom]

You need to be educated about dog foods.

For me, the best way is to look at this site: www.dogfoodanalysis.com

Read some reviews (menu is across the top), for 6 star foods.

Then read some reviews for 2 star foods.

Then read the review for what you are feeding!

Just as with human food, you have to learn how to read the labels!

For most dogs, the best food is going to be grain free, with no BHA, or colorings or preservatives. A dry kibble with toppings, either canned / soft wet or add your own.

BTW, the 6 star foods are mainly for working dogs -- herding or dogs in Agility and such. For most house pets, those 6 star foods will be too high in protein. I use a 5 star food, which is made in a human factory (one which makes food for people), with all human grade ingredients. Earthborn Holistics has never had a recall.

Vets have little or no training in nutrition and hence they are not able to guide us very well about foods.

[Lady's Human]

Honesty, I've never used the dog food comparison charts.

We use food from Blue Seal, which is a regional company in the northeast, and have never had any issues with it.

The "highly rated" foods which we started Angel out on didn't agree with her at all, so we went back to Blue Seal and have had no issues.

Whatever works for the dog's digestive system and your budget is the best food.

[Jessika]

To put it simply.. there is no single "best" food out there. A brand that works for me may not work for you. All I can do is encourage owners to do their research; learn how to read ingredient labels, study up on what dogs' nutritional needs are, and just educate yourself in canine nutrition in general.

My rule of thumb is... grocery store brands are the worst, higher end chain pet store brands are better, and foods at boutique stores are generally best. Obviously there are exceptions to every "rule", but in general I find this to be pretty true.

Good luck!

Oh... something to keep in mind!!!! When factoring out "cost" for everything, remember that IN GENERAL the more "premium" brands of food are more caloric-dense, meaning you will need to feed LESS of it to satiate the dogs' caloric intake for each day. So while you may be feeding 3 cups a day of a lower end food, you may only need to feed 1-2 cups a day of a higher-quality food. So don't just compare prices to bags of food, you have to do a little math to figure out how much of the food you'd be feeding. So a $20 bag of food may end up being more expensive to feed than a $40 bag of food.