What is Your Dog Eating?

I recently learned that the food we were feeding our dogs contained, well, mystery meat. When I initially started my pups on this food, I had read the ingredients to check for items the vet recommended, but did not know to look for others! There are ingredients, such as "animal fat", that are really scary in my opinion. This ingredient doesn't mention any specific animal, so it could range from beef, chicken renderings, to grease, diseased cattle, euthanized pets, or road kill. That alone turned my stomach. When I heard this, I ran straight for my dog food bag and learned that, sadly, that was exactly what I was feeding my dogs. No more.

So the search for new food began. I was at a loss as there are so many ingredients that sound ambiguous at best — kind of like reading our own food labels. To add to that, there are so many brands, and depending on which vet you talk to, they all recommend something different. It's dog food! It shouldn't be complicated! Isn't there something out there to make it all make sense?

Well, yes.

I was so happy to stumble upon dogfoodadvisor.com, which reviews wet, dry and raw dog foods based on their ingredients. The list of ingredients highlights the problematic ones with an explanation of the potential issue. The site is very extensive and user friendly. Check your pooch's food out and see how it compares!