Pet food and how to feed your dog is becoming a controversial subject with vets from all over the world; regarding feeding, your dog raw meat or cooked meat. Some vets and nutritionists believe that dogs should be eating raw meat for its pumped-up value in vitamins, minerals and overall health quality, while some vets believe that cooked meat for domesticated poochs is best.

Pet food manufacturers are always finding clever ways to market their products. Product branding and labelling is governed by guidelines stated in the Australian Standard Manufacturing and Marketing of pet food but unfortunately, they’re far from stringent. If a food is advertised “with beef”, it does not necessarily need much beef in it. “With chicken” might mean it has chicken fat in it, but no chicken meat.

Corn has become a very controversial grain in pet foods, some manufacturers labelling it as maize instead which is a corn substitute or ground corn powder.
It’s worth watching out for nondescript ingredients, such as “meat” or “fish” as these will be the worst and lowest quality ingredients in the category. It’s even worse when they’re by-products.
Ingredients, at least the top 5 in the ingredient list on the back of the product don’t tell you the percentage of each ingredient. If a product contains a grain in the number one spot, and a meat ingredient second, then we can’t say for certain what ratio there is between these two ingredients. We may be able to gain an idea by looking at the guaranteed analysis, but that depends on other ingredients in the food. Here are two examples:

1) If a portion of food has meat as the first ingredient, then 4 carbs, then we can be rather certain the protein % comes from the meat source.

2) If the first ingredient is meat, then corn and corn gluten meal, we can deem the volume of the protein will come from the corn, which isn’t as good as a meat protein.

Many people believe a highly-priced dried food has to be good because it costs a lot of money, that makes sense, right? But this is not true. You will often see vets carrying a high-priced dried dog and cat food, but that doesn’t mean it’s Vet recommended, it’s just what they carry in the clinic. If asked, a Vet will often say the type of ingredients your pet may need for optimum health and that this is what you should be looking for, but they will often not recommend a brand. Some of the worst products are the most expensive.

If you are feeding your dog a dried food-only diet, then, you will have to pay attention to the quantity you feed them. There should be a chart on the pack with the weight of your dog and the weight of dried dog food you should be feeding your dog/cat. When a dog/cat eats dried food you will often find that they will go straight to the water bowl for a drink. This is because dried dog food is exactly that, dried dog food, and when it hits their stomach which is full of liquid/acids the dried dog food will expand and give your pet that full feeling. Giving a dog/cat too much dried food will most certainly give them a tummy ache and you will inadvertently be putting your dog in pain.

Most manufacturers use the words premium, super-premium and holistic regardless of the quality of the food. Some are justified but most are not. Manufacturers can use these terminologies as there aren’t any standards that are adhered to.

“By-product” means that it will be what is left over from human standard meats. By-products may contain organs, feet, stomachs, feathers, fat etc.
The “meat by-products” may contain roadkill, rats, pig noses or even hooves, you may see meat by-products on a label, and there is a reason the manufacturer doesn’t want to disclose what is actually in the product.

“Animal Digest” is cooked up of stuff that we really DO NOT want to know about. It can include some of the by-products, but also skin and the contents of the animal’s stomach after it was slaughtered.
It is much better so you can make a better choice if the ingredients are mentioned, like Chicken, Beef, Lamb etc. The digest is used to add flavour and does not have any nutritional value whatsoever.

Again, it’s better to see named meat, such as “chicken digest”, but it’s still cheap and nasty. Digest is normally used to add flavour, certainly not for nutrition.

Barley is a good quality grain in pet foods and most pets who have allergies won’t be allergic to Barley. Barley is easy for your pet to digest and would be acceptable to have it as an ingredient.

Brewer’s Rice is leftovers from the alcohol-making process, often sold to pig farms to fatten the pigs before slaughter. It is empty calories and has absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever, as all the nutrition was used to make the alcohol. Pet manufacturers use it as fillers. This is found in one-third of pet foods available in Australia.
Recent studies show “brewer’s yeast” can provide some nutritional merit, which somewhat justifies it as an ingredient.

Beef Tallow is pure, greasy white cow fat and is cheap and nasty, you will want to steer clear of this ingredient.

Canola Oil is a decent fat and most households will have it in their pantry, but it really isn’t the best as we know. Although Canola Oil isn’t the best any fish oil or sunflower oil would be preferable.

Corn Gluten Meal is one of the worst ingredients and will most likely be the cause of some allergies. It is high in protein, but most dogs and cats will struggle to digest it. This is a filler that most pet food manufacturers will use as it’s cheap and it also has a reasonable amount of protein without using expensive meat ingredients. Nothing about this ingredient is for the benefit of our pets.

Eggs are a great source of protein for humans and our pets. It is one of the best things when whole eggs are written in the ingredient list. “Dried eggs” or “egg products” will also be a good source of protein.

Nothing makes me happier than when there is “Meat” named on the label. It’s only a good thing that it doesn’t have a “by-product” behind it. Unfortunately, you must remember that the meat is weighed before dehydration or cooking where it can be reduced by at least 80%.

Peas and pea starch are a great source of carbs and contain omega-3 fatty acids. They are a good addition to any pet food.

Sweet potatoes are a good addition or an alternative to grains. This is a good carb just like for us humans it is a good carb source for our pets.

Whole grain rice or brown rice is generally thought of as a good grain as it is a good source of fibre for animals. We all could use some good fibre in our diets.

Excess salt is not good for humans and it is certainly not good for pets either. If you see the word Salt on any product then just put it down and walk away from it. At LBPT no salt is added to any products as all stocks and bone brother is made in-house, so we know what is going into your pet’s food, what you see on the label is literary what you get.

We all know that Sugar and animals do not make good partners. Manufacturers add this to make it palatable for animals which is unnecessary.