Figuring out what to feed your pet can be a challenge for any pet owner. If you go into your local pet store nowadays, you see aisles and aisles of dry food, canned food, frozen food, dehydrated food…aagghh how do you decide?
You just want Fido to have fresh, healthy food with good ingredients. But if you read the ingredient labels on most foods, you need a science degree to figure it out. How do you tell what’s healthy and what’s not?
At Petnet, we are experts in pet foods and since we started the company, advising our customers on the optimal foods for their pets has been one of our missions. We are about to release a recommendation tool that will allow you to not only see which foods we would recommend for your pet based on their breed, size and activity, but you will also be able to order the food and have it delivered to your door.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s get back to healthy ingredients.
We’ve already written a few posts on some good ingredients (carrots, blueberries, eggs, turmeric) to get us started. In this series, we are going to continue in that vein and write regular posts on specific ingredients to look for and maybe even some to avoid. If there is a specific ingredient you would like us to research, please email us to let us know.
All pet foods whether wet, or dry will have a list of ingredients, it’s required. This list is more important than the brand name, the picture on the bag, or the name of the food…the list shows what is really in the food. Just as with human foods, pet foods MUST be listed in order of volume, so the foods that appear first in the ingredients list are the ingredients that make up the most volume.
Also, just like with human foods (if you are trying to eat healthy), you want to look for REAL foods, not ‘meal’ or by-products or chemical sounding names. You want to see things like Salmon, Beef, Rabbit, Chicken and Squash, Blueberries, Asparagus. REAL food. And, the smaller the ingredient list, the better. If you feed your pet a balanced diet, you don’t need all of those fillers or additives – some of those things with chemical sounding names.
Many additives are included to preserve the food or are added because they are cheaper than adding the whole food ingredients that would make the recipe more complete and balanced for your pet. Furthermore, It’s not just your pet’s food that you should be watching, it’s the treats that you feed them too – so read those treat ingredients with the same critical eye.
For a simple rule of thumb, think of it this way: if it’s not something I could or should eat myself, I don’t think I want to give it to my pet.
Healthy Ingredients for Your Pet:
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