All commercial pet food is regulated by the AAFCO. This agency sets the standards and does the testing on the ingredients that pet food manufacturers use in their food products. Because of the number of different food products and ingredients used, these standards can be somewhat vague. This gives manufacturers much leeway in meeting up to these standards. So having the AAFCO stamp of approval on a dog food label does not mean that the ingredients used to make that product are good for our dogs.

How then are we as consumers going to know what is the best dog food to serve our pets? Dog food labels provide us with much information. Some of it can be misleading. So if we want to feed our dogs with a nutritious meal, it is important for us to gain some knowledge in how to read and interpret what a label is really telling us.

Many of us are loyal to certain brands of dog food mostly because of the many marketing programs we have been subjected to. We think that we are buying a good product. However, many of us don't know that if a product name has an ingredient in its name (beef chow,) then 95% of that products weight must be of that ingredient, if it is a dry food or 70% if it is a wet food product. If the label mentions the word dinner or formula (chicken dinner,) then 25% of the weight of that product must be of that ingredient.

The ingredients of a particular dog food product are listed by weight in descending order. So if we were to read the ingredients of say a "chicken dinner" product, then by the percentages mentioned above, the chicken is only 1/4 of the product and therefore probably not the main ingredient. The main ingredients are more likely to be corn and bone meal. Both are undesirable as main ingredients and are mostly found in generic or discounted brands.

Most often times the main ingredient is never mentioned in the product name. We will see words like flavored like in "beef flavored." Products using this type of labeling are not required to have a certain percentage of the mentioned ingredient. Premium is another word we see on labels. Manufacturers of premium dog food maintain a strict following to the AAFCO standards and are products that we can rely on being nutritious. "Natural" is another word used on labels. It just means that this product contains no preservatives or artificial ingredients.

One of the best ways to find a good quality dog food product when checking out the list of ingredients is to identify the first fat ingredient source. Many times we will see on the ingredient list items such as beef fat or chicken fat. The ingredients listed prior to the fat source are the product's main ingredients. The more ingredients listed the lower quality of the food product. The items listed after the fat source are just fillers and flavorings used to enhance the product.

If we are feeding our dogs a commercial dog food brand, then the most important thing that we can do as a dog owner is to learn to read dog food labels. When reading through the list of ingredients if we come across an item that doesn't sound like something we would like to eat, then we should think twice about feeding it to our dogs. Let us take a little extra time to learn what we are really feeding our dogs.

As dog owners we are in total control when it comes to feeding our dogs. Knowing what the best dog food is, what are the right dog food ingredients and what dog food nutrition they provide can sometimes be confusing. Find out more about commercial and homemade dog food recipes by visiting www.onlinedogfoodrecipes.com.

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Written by Moraima Del Sol using tags: dog, dog food, dog food ingredients, dog food nutrition, dog food recipes, dog food review, Dogs, Pets