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One of the most frequently asked questions we at southern California Pomeranian Rescue is “What should I feed my newly adopted Pom?” mommy used to answer that question with “Whatever dog food it will eat that you are comfortable with buying!” but she has changed that answer after a few years of dog ownership and some pretty big vet bills after making some very common assumptions that were very expensive mistakes.
Balance in dog food is essential. A completely balanced food will contain the right portions of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals and vitamins that dogs need to nourish their brains, hearts, bodies, and bones. balance is possible to achieve with a home-cooked diet as well, but because my very busy mommy just does not have the time to do all of that measuring, weighing and cooking, she relies on the know-how of the commercially prepared dog foods. Commercially prepared foods offer choices that include raw pet food, freeze-dried, dry pet food, and canned pet food. once you have decided what you want to feed your dogs, there are even more decisions to make in deciding what is the best. If your dog has health issues or allergies that require special ingredients, follow your veterinarian’s instructions. I have been studying some of the resources available online to help you compare the different commercial dog foods and will be telling you more about them here in this blog.
When searching for dog food reviews, avoid the sites that are sponsored by the dog food manufacturers because they will not be free of bias. Instead, seek out reviews that are not placed online by dog food manufacturers. You can Google “compare dog food quality” and you will get over 3 million results. look carefully to see if the word “ad” appears, and if it does, move on down. dog food manufacturers can pay for placement at the top of the page in order to get you to click on their link. here is a screen print of that Google search:
You can see that the three results at the top of the page are highlighted on a yellow background and at the top it tells you that they are ads. skip those if you are looking for unbiased information.
The resources that mommy looked at are dog Food Advisor, dog Food scoop and best dry dog Food. At these three sites you can find very user-friendly charts and ways to search based on brand names for both canned and dry commercially prepared foods.
Some things I learned from using these sites is that one can get completely different results on one brand of food; one enthusiastically recommended our favorite brand of kibble, while another explains why it has been booted it off their top ten list. another thing I learned is that some of the brands you see advertised very heavily on TV are actually ranked low because of poor quality ingredients.
If and when you get really serious about becoming educated on the topic, then go ahead and have a look at The dog Food Project. This site is a serious, intensive, and very educational site that explores the topic deeply. anyone who reads and can comprehend the material shared here deserves a doctorate degree in Dogfoodology.
What do you feed your dogs? look for it on the charts on the two sites that I have recommended. how many stars (or scoops) does it have? I was shocked to learn how some of the brands most heavily advertised on TV rank very poorly; if the TV ads are the only thing that has influenced you, then rethink your choices. look at the ingredients list and then read about them on The Pet Food Project. Not all ingredients are created equal, and some are pretty disgusting. Lastly, if you feed your dogs a dry kibble, always add water–it is the ONE ingredient that they all are missing. If cost is critical, the chart on the best dry dog Food site will give you a price-per-pound comparison–you might learn that a better grade of dog food is actually cheaper per pound than the supermarket or box store brand that you have been buying.
Bella