Just as I’m suspicious of processed foods for humans, I am (almost) equally concerned about what I feed my doggie.

This isn’t to say I’m a complete crazy person. Yet.
But I am crazy enough that I regularly cook for my dog. #yikes

Here are my three concerns:

1. Nutrition. What nutrition does the dog food contain?
   • Some commercial dog food is messed up.  And by messed up, I mean messed up beyond belief.
2. Health Concerns. My dog is tiny, and tiny dogs are prone to three issues specifically:
   • weight gain;
   • knee problems;
   • anal gland problems
3. Supporting Animal Cruelty. If you think about the cruelty that goes into making human food, I can only IMAGINE the cruelty that goes into making dog food. I want to vote with my wallet. To whatever extent reasonably possible, I’d like to avoid supporting cruel practices.

A Resource!

DogFoodAdvisor.com  is an excellent resource.  They use a 1-5 star rating system to help you find the ideal food for your dog.

Whether your dog eats Wet Food, Dry Food, or Raw Food – you can easily find the top rated products. You can also use the search feature to look for more details on a specific food.

It’s very simple. Each category of food is broken down according to the site’s rating:

What I LOVE about this site is the level of specificity that they apply to each analysis.

• Their database is EXHAUSTIVE
• They examine each and every ingredient of a given product
• But they also offer a bottom line w/ regards to each product so that you don’t get bogged down in the details
• They offer levels of confidence with regards to statements they make about the safety and/or nutrition of any particular ingredient
• They even show a recall history for the brand you’re looking at

One of the foods I regularly feed Herman is Primal Freeze-Dried Raw Food.  Here is just a small part of their analysis on this product:

More to Learn

Just as there is more to learn about human nutrition, there is also more to learn about the perfect doggy diet.

That said, we probably know what a perfect doggy diet ISN’T. It’s not a diet full of processed junk and filler.

Some dog foods can be prohibitively expensive, so we can only do the best we can. But this is great resource to figure out where to get started.

How does your dog food stack up? 

*EDIT* If anyone knows of a similar resource for cats (or other pets), please share the wealth. I’ve just found BestCatFoodAdvisor.net, but I don’t have any personal experience with it.

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