If you shop for dog food without looking at the nutrition information, then you’re guilty of neglecting your canine’s health. Dog nutrition is a crucial aspect that should not be overlooked by any pet parent. For all the love that your pooch has given you, he surely deserves the best care and the best quality Read...

If you shop for dog food without looking at the nutrition information, then you’re guilty of neglecting your canine’s health. Dog nutrition is a crucial aspect that should not be overlooked by any pet parent. For all the love that your pooch has given you, he surely deserves the best care and the best quality dog food.

A little bit of research is all it takes to understand canine nutrition and to actively avoid foods that are dangerous to your dog. To further supplement your knowledge on which foods are best for your dog, here are some nutrition facts you should now.

1. There are key essential nutrients

Your dog has to receive the right combination of nutrients to stay healthy. When buying dog food, the label should include “complete and balanced nutrition” and a mix of the following ingredients:

· Proteins – Out of the 23 amino acids which are the building blocks of proteins, the dog’s body only makes 13 of them. Since body tissues are a buildup of proteins, your dog needs to obtain the other 13 amino acids from plants and meat.

· Fats – Besides giving energy, fats also keep your dog’s hair and skin healthy. The dog’s body cannot create enough fatty acids on its own, which is why why your pooch needs to obtain food that has them. Important fats that you can feed your dog are omega-3 (linoleic acid) and omega-6 (DHA and EPA) fatty acids.

· Carbohydrates – When your pooch is able to eat vegetables and grains, he gets fuel for his body tissues and his intestines are kept healthy.

· Vitamins and Minerals – These are vital for building and keeping bones strong. However, the dog’s body doesn’t produce all vitamins and minerals. A complete and balanced dog food should include vitamin A, D, E, and K, B-complex vitamins, phosphorus and calcium.

· Water – Even if your dog loses half his protein and all his body fat, he can survive. But without water, your pal could die – even if he loses only one-tenth of liquid in his body. Don’t rely entirely on dog food for water as it’s not sufficient enough for your pooch. Make certain that your pet always get fresh and clean water at all times.

2. Dogs have a carnivorous nature

Carnivores are animals whose diets mainly consist of meat. Although your dog may enjoy eating vegetable and fruits, his anatomical makeup shows that he has evolved from a carnivore.

With an acidic and short digestive tract, your dog’s carnivorous biological makeup allows him to digest animal fat quickly. Also, your dog secretes huge amounts of hydrochloric acid which assists meat breakdown and kills the bacteria in raw meat. In contrast, plant matter takes much longer to break down in his body.

3. Pet parents must be wary of food fragments

These are usually low-quality leftovers from some types of food that you should avoid. When looking at dog food labels, you should also avoid the following:

· Middlings or mids

· Cereal food fines

· Millrun

· Oat Hulls

· Potato product

· Rice Hulls

· Corn Bran

· Distillers grain fermentation soluble

· Peanut Hulls

· Ground up wood particles (cellulose)

You will rarely see the items above on dog food labels. Nevertheless, it pays to be careful whenever picking out your dog’s food.

4. There are diverse qualities of meat proteins

Among meat proteins, there are still some which are easier for your dog to digest than others. If two food ingredients have a similar protein percentage on a dog food label, your pooch may be able to able to absorb one food better than the other.

· Muscle Meat – Consists of beef, chicken and lamb which are 92% digestible.

· Fish Meat – This has around 75% of digestibility.

· Organ Meat – The heart, kidney and liver are 90% digested by a dog’s body.

· Plant – Plant-based sources of protein such as rice, soy, oats, corn, and wheat have the digestibility of between 54 to 75%.

5. Sugar and artificial sweeteners can do harm

These ingredients make food more pleasant for dogs. However, they put in additional calories which are unnecessary and have no value for nutrition. What’s worse, sugar can lead to nervousness, tooth decay and hyperactivity.

To effectively manage your dog’s weight, you also have to avoid the following ingredients:

· Sorbitol

· Sucrose

· Cane molasses

· Glucose

· Corn syrup

· Propylene glycol

· Fructose

· Ammoniated glycyrrhizin

· Xylitol

Understanding what makes a good diet can help you promote the best pet health for your beloved dog. Feed your pooch good quality food on time and allow small amounts of fruits and vegetables in his diet. Remember, although dogs are originally carnivores, they need more than just meat to stay healthy.

AUTHOR BIO

Farah Al-Khojai is the Managing Partner of Pet’s Delight. A passionate entrepreneur, Farah holds a Bsc in Government from the London School of Economics. She is always on the lookout for new opportunities to develop and grow the pet and equestrian retail and wholesale market in the UAE and beyond, and is proud to be at the helm of the first and the largest pet care provider in the market representing world-class brands including Orijen, Applaws, Hunter, Savic, Flamingo, Ruffwear and Rogz.

A little behind on posting but Day 30, final day, of feeding Racheal Ray Nutrish Peak Grain-Free Natural Wetlands. My overall impression is for the price ($41.98 for a 23lb bag) I’d expect a bit more but this is a high protein (30%) food, mid-high-range fat content (15%), it just seems middle of the road Read...

A little behind on posting but Day 30, final day, of feeding Racheal Ray Nutrish Peak Grain-Free Natural Wetlands.

My overall impression is for the price ($41.98 for a 23lb bag) I’d expect a bit more but this is a high protein (30%) food, mid-high-range fat content (15%), it just seems middle of the road to me.  Like there are other options out there at a better price point.  I feel like the jacked up price is due to the celebrity name.

Personally, I’m a person who doesn’t normally buy things endorsed by celebrities because I feel like it’s a marketting ploy to get people to buy their product.

We have many mouths to feed and probably will not be buying this food ourselves in the future.  Our girl didn’t have any negative effects of course but really didn’t find anything of interest that would keep me feeding it over what I was at a better price.

So, here we are, day 18 of the 30 day evaluation of Rachael Ray Nutrish Peak Grain-Free Natural Wetlands.  This is a continuation of our previous post. My girl, Chanel, is keeping her weight on with 4 cups a day.  I have been adding water to her feedings since she was waking me during the night Read...

So, here we are, day 18 of the 30 day evaluation of Rachael Ray Nutrish Peak Grain-Free Natural Wetlands.  This is a continuation of our previous post.

My girl, Chanel, is keeping her weight on with 4 cups a day.  I have been adding water to her feedings since she was waking me during the night wanting water.  I don’t know if this is because of the food or just her.  I’ve also been told that adding water to dry kibble can also help digestion, dogs (& cats) actually can benifit from wet food because dry kibbles don’t offer the amount of moister required in their diet so they must keep up with the moisture through drinking water.  Warning, TANGENT:  Today’s cat diets are extremely dry and can lead to urinary & kidney issues moreso for a cat than one who eats more wet foods.

I’m not seeing really any differences in poops, coat, etc compared to SportMix Wholesome Chicken & Rice.

Rachael Ray products are made by Ainsworth Pet Nutrition.  In doing some research on what is being said about this food from other consumers I stumbled upon Petful.com, the page I linked has some customer comments that are making me rethink this food as a long term option.  It was also found that some of their wet cat food was recalled in 2015 for potentially high levels of Vitamin D but nothing reported that I could find on any dog foods.

I also found this comment, by Tom Ryan, a year ago on the Petful.com link:

We just started our pooch on this food, “real beef and brown rice recipe”. Only a few days and she seems to like it a lot. One thing we have noticed, however, she seems to be drinking much more water since we started it. Does anyone else have this issue?

Now this has me a little concerned since I’m seeing a bit more drinking from my girl while everyone else, left on the SportMix they’ve been eating are drinking regularly.  I will keep a watch on this.

Please leave a comment about your experience with this brand below, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re excited to be doing a 30 day review of Rachael Ray Nutrish Peak Grain-Free Natural Wetlands, requested by Chewy.com.  We started feeding on April 1st, no fooling 😉 Disheartened about Ingredients… According to Dog Food Advisor, they rank Rachael Ray Nutrish Peak at a 4.5 Star food.  That ranking is based on the two Read...

We’re excited to be doing a 30 day review of Rachael Ray Nutrish Peak Grain-Free Natural Wetlands, requested by Chewy.com.  We started feeding on April 1st, no fooling

Disheartened about Ingredients…

According to Dog Food Advisor, they rank Rachael Ray Nutrish Peak at a 4.5 Star food.  That ranking is based on the two other flavors offered and not specifially the Wetlands variety which is labelled ‘New’ in the line.  The recipe is labelled as “Chicken, Duck  & Pheasant” but I’m seeing Turkey [meal] listed long before it gets to Duck or Pheasant, see below:

Viewing the ingredient list:

Chicken, Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Dried Peas, Pea Flour, Pea Protein, Whole Dried Potatoes, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Whole Flaxseed, Cranberries, Duck, Pheasant, Pork Flavor, Menhaden Fish Meal, Natural Flavor, Salt, Tapioca, Sweet Potatoes, Zinc Proteinate, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Proteinate, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (Source of Vitamin C), Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Biotin, Choline Chloride, Niacin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin A Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium Iodate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid.

When reading ingrediants on a dog food bag, they are labelled in the order of abundance.  Usually the first 6 ingredents are the highest percentage within the food.  I also see Pork [flavor] & Fish meal being shown down the list.  Overall a bit dissapointed in the ingredients claimed to be in the food but so far down the list it may as well not be there, the bulk of this food is Chicken & Turkey, Turkey is’t even listed in the title of the food.

Some people have found that foods containing Peas and/or Flaxseed may have an affect on reproduction, breeders tend to try to avoid them or at least have them futher down the ingredient list (meaning less in food).  Starchy Peas can also be considered as a filler option (takes up 3 spaces in first 6 ingredients), along with Beet Pulp (#8).   A good thing is I see no mention of any extra dyes.

The Kibble

The kibble itself is a medium size, dark brown, round bite.  The food is an ‘all life stages’ and ‘all breed’ formula, the kibble is pretty standard size for other foods labelled as such.  All the kibble is a consistant color so the claim of ‘no dyes’ should hold true unlike some of the multi-colored kibbles on the market.

Price Point

At $41.98 for just 23lbs (that’s $1.83 a pound, so you don’t have to do the math), I find this price pretty pricey for our clan.  But even if we weren’t feeding a pack of dogs I doubt I’d look twice at this food at this price considering the ingredient findings, or lack there of. 

The Dog

We’re feeding one of our Berger Picards this food for 30days.  She’s a small dog for the breed and tends to run her weight off easily. She’s taken to this food well so far, we’ll see how she does as the month progresses.  

Greenies Dental Chew is a very popular brand of doggie dental ‘treat’ advertised as a breath freshener and aid in cutting down on professional cleaning.  The Greenies Smoochable Breath green toothbrush shaped bones are pretty soft in comparison to some chews on the market so not 100% sure how they are supposed to cut down Read...

Greenies Dental Chew is a very popular brand of doggie dental ‘treat’ advertised as a breath freshener and aid in cutting down on professional cleaning.  The Greenies Smoochable Breath green toothbrush shaped bones are pretty soft in comparison to some chews on the market so not 100% sure how they are supposed to cut down on professional cleaning.  I don’t feel the texture would help in the removal of tarter anymore than eating dry kibble on a daily basis. Greenies Dental Smoochable Breath chews are gobbled up quickly by my crew, I received the ‘regular’ size which is recommended for medium breed dogs, we have Rat Terriers & Berger Picards.  These treats are gone as fast as a milkbone.

Nutritional Info

Overall, I’d probably feed them again but not sure I’d go out and directly purchase them again, I’m more of a general bone fan, or pig ears etc.  I feel like the texture of pig ears and bones are more benificial to cleaning teath.  Also, if your pooch has raunchy breath it’s probably best to get checked by a veterinarian anyways because gum disease and tooth decay can turn deadly quick for your companion.  That nasty breath maybe a warning sign that something is seriously wrong, don’t just try to cover it up without looking into the potential problem. Let us know your thoughts on the Greenies!