Best Rated Dog Foods

On this page I will discuss what does not go into the best rated dog foods. Rather than looking for good ingredients, it’s better to recognize bad ingredients and avoid these foods. Being a web site developer, I occasionally get online dog food coupons when I get these coupons I will try to share a couple at the bottom of the page so you may try one of the top rated dog foods with less financial burden.

If you are looking for particular brands of best rated dog foods visit my Top rated dog food page, then select the type of food your interested in feeding, IE. Top Ten, Organic, No Grain, Freeze Dried, Etc.

Variety , Variety – Dogs need a variety of foods and it is recommended that you change your dogs food at least every few months. One great way to do this is to start feeding your dog in a rotation. Use a bin add the food you are currently feeding then buy another high quality food and mix this with your current food, when your bin is about half empty buy a different high quality food and ad this, just keep rotating the foods. This is great for people on a budget as you can shop sales or use coupons for the higher end food, yet pay the same as using low quality store brands. You may think your feeding high quality? Yet, Science Diet, Purina, Purina One, Pedigree, or Beniful, are not high quality and it’s time to do some research.

When choosing best rated dog foods, it is essential to read the label. Ingredients that should absolutely be avoided are - Chemical preservatives, such as BHT, BHA, and Ethoxyquin. Do not feed any food containing these disease and cancer causing preservatives! These additives have been banned from human consumption and proven unsafe in humans and animals.

By Products – If your dog food contains meat by products or meat by product meal it may contain things such as – Hooves, Stomach Digest, Hide, Manure, Beaks, Undeveloped Eggs Etc, Etc. By Products is all of the stuff unfit for human consumption, the stuff rinsed away, and swept up after processing meat this is the stuff they can’t even use in cheap hot dogs.

Middlings, Mill Run and Hulls – No matter what type of Carbohydrate source this is from; weather it’s corn, wheat, soy, peanut, oat, etc. This is the sweepings and dust left over after processing. Also avoid Cellulose, Cellulose most commonly comes from wood processing.

Artificial Coloring – Does your dog really care, that the food has red and yellow tidbits in it? Some of these artificial dog food colorants have been proven to cause cancer.

Rule of thumb - First, make sure the dry dog food your purchasing meets AAFCO guidelines (this should be a prominent label on the dog food), Next the first ingredient in your dog food should be meat, Better yet, if there are more than one meats in your dog food and both are listed first, you can be secure that the main protein source comes from meat. Dog food companies have a little trick to deceive consumers, they have the first ingredient be meat and the next two will be something like Corn meal and Soy Meal. Because there are two grain meals that contain protein the protein content of a food like this will largely be from inferior grains rather than meat. Please also note that the weight of meat products are taken prior to processing, with 70-85 percent of this meat being water, you are likely getting less meat protein than the dog food label would lead you to believe.

Good Quality, best rated dog foods will have the first and maybe even multiple meats listed first on the ingredient list, next you should see whole foods, like sweet potato, carrots, peas, potatoes, eggs, apples, rice, brown rice, etc. When these ingredients are followed by words like meal, concentrate, or flour, these are less than optimal ingredients. When ingredients are preceded by words like brewers or ground, these again are less than optimal.

Here are a couple of online dog food coupons; these best rated dog foods are considered good choices in a dry dog food. Have you ever considered feeding your dog a different style of dog food? Frozen Raw foods are the best, followed by freeze dried dog food, then canned dog foods. Dry dog foods come in last on the list, as they contain very little water, and have to be cooked and processed into their dry form. I completely understand that dry dog food is extremely convenient however, try giving your dog some frozen raw, dehydrated or even canned food from time to time. You could also do like I do, try Making your own dog food.

Save up to 20% off Canidae Dog Food at PetFood.com

Although Nutro is not considered to be the best of the best, it is a decent middle ground food, and certainly better than the grocery store brands.

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