Roxie and her weight part two

Yesterday we discussed about Roxie and her weight. Today I am here to share a few websites and a few finds on dog food. 

Know what’s in your dog’s food:

Just like people food, you should know what is in your dog food. Take a look at the back of your bag of dog food, check out what ingredients are in your dog’s food. Remember that the lists of ingredients are from greatest ingredient in your food to least. To find out more information on your dog’s food, or if you do not want to compare in store, go to their website.

Here’s an example: Take for instance Purina Dog Chow:  Once you click the website, on this page you will find everything that you need to know!  

How to read the label:

Know what the label really means. Just like human food, if the label says low salt it really does not mean low salt.  Take a look at this website: it explains the difference of the dog foods product names.

A summary:

Understand that if the product name starts with meat and ends with something else, duck and liver, the main ingredient is duck. If you have a name that starts with something else and ends in meat such as: liver and duck, your dog food may only be made up of 25% duck.

Make sure to read the website and while there take a look around for other helpful tips!

What to avoid:

Not only should you know what is in your dog food but you should know what ingredients to avoid.

You should avoid ingredients such as BHA, BHT, Propylene Glycol, Propyl Gallate, Rendered Meat, animal fat, any type of “meal” and corn (dog-food-aid.com).  For the reasoning’s on why take a look at this website  

Common question:

Is pet food regulated? To answer this I will say yes. Almost every website I searched explained how pet food is one of the top food products that is regulated. Some websites even expressed that pet food was regulated stricter than human food. However, when it came to finding who, what, where’s and how’s. I slightly came up empty handed. However I found the FDA’s explanation of their regulations on pet food. Check out their site

How to choose your food:

While choosing your dog’s food there are many options to consider.

1.       Do you want to feed your dog grains? (a common allergy)

2.       Do you have preference on dry, raw, or canned dog food

Other possible options to consider might be: can you buy it locally, do you have to ship it and price.

This is where D really came in with his researching skills. He found a really good website that showed ratings of dog food by brand. Take for instance Purina Dog Chow : it has star rating as one, a ton of controversial ingredients and a bad “bottom line”.

We found that the best website for dog food ratings was Dog Food Advisor. Every brand you can think of and all listed in alphabetical order.  You can follow them on Facebook or Twitter for special alerts and new information.

Here is the official website: for Dog food Advisor: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

As we started our search for the correct dog food for our two pups we found and believe that Drago had an allergy to grains. So it was a must to get a grain free dog food. We also felt that canned food was a bit pricey for as much as Drago eats. While feeding two dogs the price would get way out of hand. As for raw dog food EW! So with price per bag not really being an issue and narrowing our search down to a grain free dry dog food we picked Taste of the Wild.  

What we found after changing foods:

Roxie had been eating Purina Dog Chow for approximately five years of her life. During this time she lost energy, was on two sets of pills, always slept, gained weight, and was very sluggish.  Once we changed her food to Taste of the Wild she became more energetic, still sleeps a lot (LOL), lost a ton of weight and a possible reduction in dosage of medicine soon. Not only that but in my, my moms and sisters opinion Roxie's coat feels a lot softer and looks shiner than before.

A few FYI’s and Reminders:

1.       Dog food should always be a brown color. If dog food is colored this means your dog food is dyed.

2.       You do not have to buy the BEST dog food on the market. Find one that is within your budget and still healthy for your dog.  

In conclusion:

I hope that with me sharing this with you, you educate yourself on your dog’s food.