Commercial Dog Food

If you must use commercial pets dog food here are some tips on what to look for on the labels.
* No generic fats or proteins
* Avoid foods that use corn gluten meal, a cheap waste product from the human food industry that provides incomplete protein for dogs. I consider this ingredient to be one of the hallmarks of poor quality foods. Wheat gluten meal, one of the ingredients that caused illness and death due to contamination in the recent Menu Foods recall, is similar -- a cheap source of poor quality protein used primarily by the lower-quality foods. Rice protein concentrate, which was also involved in the pet food recalls, is a little better quality than the other two, but still provides incomplete plant protein rather than the more desirable animal protein. Soy protein has the same problem.
* No meat by-products or digest (meal is OK). T
* No BHA, BHT or Ethoxyquin (artificial preservatives), another sign of a low quality food. Ethoxyquin is banned from use in foods for human consumption except for the use of very small quantities as a color preservative for spices.
* No artificial colors, no sugars and sweeteners (such as corn syrup, sucrose, ammoniated glycyrrhizin), no propylene glycol (added to some chewy foods to keep them moist, toxic in large amounts).

Bad foods for dogs

* Chocolate
* Grapes
* Raisins
* Onions
* Tomatoes
* Caffeinated beverages
* Garlic
* Macadamia nuts
* Cooked bones (chicken, turkey, pork, beef)
* Walnuts
* Xylitol (sweetener in many sugar-free gums and candies)

Remember with Premium pets dog foods you feed less food per feeding than regular food, so you get more bang for your buck and your Dog benefits from it. You need a food that provides complete and balanced nutrition for the life and good health of your dog.