Why do you need to understand your dog food ingredients label? Because what you don’t know about what is in your pet’s food could actually be harming your beloved dog! You think you are feeding your dog food for optimal health, when in fact, you might be poisoning him.

How in the world are you supposed to figure out what all these ingredients mean? You’ve heard of corn, but what is corn gluten meal? Is it good for your dog? The dog food companies spend lots of money in advertising telling us they are feeding our dogs exactly what they need. But unfortunately, we found out the hard way, with all the pet food recalls, that the pet food companies care more about their bottom line. The good thing that came out of the pet food recalls was that more organic and natural dog food alternatives are now available to us.

What you need to do is learn how to compare your dog food to other brands. There are a couple of tips to help in deciphering the dog food ingredients label:

1. Ingredients are listed by weight, by law. So the first 5 – 10 ingredients listed are the main ingredients in the dog food. Good ingredients will equal a good dog food.

2. Look for the chemical preservatives BHA, BHT, or Ethoxyquin. These preservatives have been banned from use in human food as they are linked to kidney and liver damage. However, they are still used in inferior dog foods. Look instead for natural preservatives, like vitamins C and E (ascorbic acid and tocopherols).

3. When looking at your ingredients, be aware of multiple ingredients in the same “family”, corn for example. You may look and see ingredient #4 is corn bran, #7 is corn flour, and #8 is corn gluten meal. This makes the corn look like it is less of a major ingredient. But if you added the weights of #4, #7, and #8 together and called it corn, it could jump up to the #2, maybe even #1 spot. Is it legal? Totally. Is it sneaky? Definitely.

4. It makes sense that a quality food food will have a meat listed in the first 2 ingredients. But you really want to see a meat meal. The meat meal is the same as meat, but most of the moisture/liquid has been removed first. Therefore an ounce of meat weighs more than an ounce of meat meal (and is higher in the ingredient list), but there are more nutrients and protein in an ounce of meat meal than an ounce of meat. But when the dog food gets processed, the meat is first dehydrated. So you would be getting less of the actual meat if meat is listed instead of meat meal. Very confusing!

So you really do need to read and understand your dog food ingredients label to figure out your dog food. You might be surprised to find out your current food is garbage, or that it is a fantastic food for your beloved pet. Whatever you do, though, don’t look at the dog food packaging. Instead, look at the actual ingredients label. The bag may say it is made with fresh chicken and vegetables, but a look at the ingredients list will tell you the truth.