Imagine this: You are a writer and editor for Parenting Magazine, and you write about infant toys, vaccination schedules, and nutrition for infants and toddlers. A friend texts you from the grocery store and asks, “What should I be feeding my 8-month-old baby?” And she genuinely expects that you can give her the name of a product that will supply all her baby’s nutrition for years to come.
This scenario is ridiculous – of course! – and for several reasons, most notably:
- No parent in their right mind would consider feeding their infant or toddler the same food every day for months or years.
- No parent in their right mind would save important infant-nutrition decisions for the moment she or he was standing in the store, about to buy food, with no clue as to where to start.
- No knowledgeable writer/editor would think they could advise someone by text about something as important as nutrition!
There’s No One-Size-Fits-All When It Comes to Nutrition
While parents may read informative articles about infant and toddler nutrition in Parenting Magazine and others, one would hope they make notes about any questions and discuss them with their pediatrician. Because, while the writer/editor is knowledgeable about infant nutrition, she doesn’t know anything about the specific baby’s health. She doesn’t know if her friend, the baby’s mom, is knowledgeable enough to know how much food she should be feeding her baby, or to recognize signs of a food allergy or intolerance. And sure, she might be familiar with some great brands of infant formula and baby cereal, but does she want an offhand text to be the basis of her friend’s child’s health?
She does not!
Obviously, I’m asking you to consider this scenario because I get asked for dog food recommendations all the time, and I really don’t see a difference between this request for advice and the one described above. If anything, a food fed to a dog for a year will impact a greater percentage of the dog’s life than an infant formula given to a baby for the same length of time will impact hers; dogs’ lives are short!
Consider Your Dog’s Needs
A suggestion for a dog’s toy or treat can be responsibly conveyed in a short text or phone message. But a recommendation for a dog’s sole diet should not be conveyed via text – perhaps not even via a long email! There are many factors to consider, not least of which is the dog owner’s ability to observe the dog’s response to a diet and take appropriate steps if the dog has adverse reactions to the diet.
When I’m asked in a casual way for dog food recommendations, I usually push back a little by asking the dog owner some questions. How old is your dog? How active? How is his weight? How is his health? What are you feeding now? Why did you arrive at this food? How long have you been feeding him this food? Are there ingredients that you know you need to avoid feeding to that specific dog?
And here are the clinchers: How much fat is in the food and how much protein? What are the six top ingredients in the food?
Choose What’s Best for YOUR Dog
If they can’t answer those questions – all of them – then I can’t give them a recommendation for another food or two to add to what I hope is their rotation of three or four products from at least three or four different companies. Actually, the fact is, I’m not going to give them a recommendation of a specific food anyway. What I will do is try to educate them about the factors they need to understand about the foods they have already chosen for their dog, and what they can do to improve matters. As just one example, if the dog is overweight, they should know what the fat content is in the food they give their dog, and look for foods with less fat. That single factor is far more important than what brand they buy, so don’t ask me about brands unless you know all the other, more important factors behind your food-purchasing dilemma!
yes lots of labels he is nine years old.
My eyes are crossed from reading labels. Any recommendation for a dry dog food that will help reduce the weight of my nice year old rescue mix that weights 106 lbs, Rescue center listed him as a hound. I ‘ve so many labels I am totally confused. Thanks Dante thanks you too.
I am a new subscriber. I am very interested in both wet and dry dog foods. Thank you for the listings. However, I haven’t seen any comments on raw dog foods. There are several now that have ‘complete’ mixes that come raw. Do you have a listing, any thoughts, and recommendations. Thank you. Noreen Suriner
Has anyone seen or used the new vegetarian dog food – Wild Earth? I’m surprised to see a new (expensive) dog food that has no meat! What about DCM in dogs? What about all the studies on the need for meat in dog food the past several decades? There has been a ton of information- and one thing that seems to be constant is that dogs need real meat (and eggs). No wonder we’re confused. At least my dogs are having a great time with the “feeding stuff.” 🙂
In recent study Grain free is not a good food for dog. So that I am feeding Diamond Natural All life stage with grain which is good and my baby loves it.
My dog is a female boxer shepard mix. She is currently 65-70lbs. She is 6 years old. She is not very active, at most she wonders the back yard for short periods of time throughout the day (20-30 minutes). I do know she has osteoarthritis in her shoulders and hip dysplasia. I am currently feeding her Purina One High Protein as it has glucosamine in it. I do not have her on any medications or vitamins. I feed her 4-5 cups of this kibble a day. I want to get her on a homemade diet but am unsure of how to get started. Please any information would be greatly appreciated! I do plan on taking her to the vet soon to see how these conditions have progressed.
Purina is horrible food! Not sure which one you are feeding but here are the first few ingredients of Purina One High Protein:
Chicken, Corn Gluten Meal, Brewer’s Rice, Animal Fat Preserved with Mixed-Tocopherols (Form of Vitamin E), Poultry By-Product Meal (Natural Source of Glucosamine), Whole Grain Corn, Corn Germ Meal …
Corn meal is terrible for dogs and it is the second ingredient. By products, whole grain corn and the list goes on.
Allergy problems. Changed food, giving him medicine from the vet. Still comes and go’s. Any suggstions? I have another one that is A-OK. Lost…
Not an answer or advice, but a question: we have two rescued dogs, a 10-year-old Miniature Poodle who is blind and gluttonous and a perhaps-five-year-old half-Cocker, quarter-Shih Tzu and quarter Lhasa Apso, both adopted less than a year ago and both getting a mix of Natural Balance “kibble” and Pedigree “Healthy Choice” canned. Other advice and warnings aside, I’ve noticed in the last month that the “gravy” in the Pedigree has suddenly increased noticeably. We’re now considering a change because of the Mars Company’s (the owner of Pedigree) has clearly increased the cost deceptively by reducing the solids in the can with thickened broth, but I am wondering if other or all manufacturers pull this kind of trick on customers to the detriment of their pets.
I would like to know this cooked recipe. Can u share it with me?
Does anyone have any knowledge about a high protein diet and “aggressive” behavior issues? It’s been hard for me to find actual scientific evidence one way or another about this. Apparently older studies show that there could be a link between a high protein diet and “aggression,” but more recently some question if this is really borne out by current research. My lab mix rescue (3 1/2 year old) has problems that have improved immensely with lots and lots of training and guidance from some wonderful trainers (KPA certified and the like) and Prozac (I really tried not to have to use this, but when I finally turned to it, it made enough of a difference in his arousal level that I could “reach” him to do the behavior training that helps him to be more calm.) All of this has helped a great deal, but we still have issues with him becoming too aroused in some situations. I feed him one meal of kibble (vary the brand and variety with every large bag, use brands from list of WDJ higher rated ones), and one meal is either Primal or Nature’s Variety raw. Only using one meal of raw is an attempt to reduce expense of food. If it leads to improved behavior, I would switch to all raw because I believe it more closely resembles natural canine diet, but raw is very high in protein, and I don’t want to do that if it is contributing to his problem behavior, and would eliminate or change it if I thought it would help. I don’t necessarily trust veterinarians to have training with nutrition, and agree that Royal Canin and Science Diet do not seem to be of a quality I plan to feed my dog. Just to be clear, after consultation with many trusted dog trainers, we all believe that my dog’s behavior problems are deeply seated and probably due to prenatal or neonatal issues. Our friends have his sister and she exhibits all of the same behavior challenges. I believe there is an answer to this, but I haven’t found all of the puzzle pieces yet.
U should watch the dog whispered episodes on how to break his arousal habits I rescued a pit who showed arousal tendices. He will show u how to break this. I tried alot of things but this his ways seemed to work. It took me several months of carrying g treats on me to break this habit key is u have to react as soon as u see the behaivor. I would very quickly say ” leave it” and reward him with a treat. Then at times I would stand next to him and just say leave it a d give him a treat. Even if he was showing the behaivor. I wanted him to learn that leave it means treat I did this over and over then when I started to apply it when he did do the behaivor it clicked in him. I hope this make sense. Now my dog is starting not to want to
Go after my cats line he did at the beginning . Go on u tube and watch some of his shows it might help
I think it’s silly for people to ask for feeding advice online – and really unfortunate for folks to respond UNLESS it’s clearly in a “here’s what worked for us” NOT a “here’s what you should do.” fashion.
What breed is your dog? Age? Activity level? Healthy weight? Any allergies or sensitivities? There are dozens of criteria that determine what might work best for your dog.
One thing I will offer AS MY OPNION is that I believe that a strong possibility why many dogs do better on grain-free foods – especially in terms of allergy issues may be the same reason many people do better on a gluten-free diet. I think it has to do with the use of glysophosate on grain crops. I have been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and a related rare issue called Arthritis Mutilans, which are both immune system issues. I have found that I do much better on non-GMO and organic foods. I grow as much of my veggies and fruits as I can, and we’re blessed to raise a few steers and both meat and laying chickens which we feed organic feed and our own organic hay.
We have found that our dogs are healthier, have hardly any allergy issues, and live longer since we’ve been feeding quality grain-free feeds supplemented by the scraps, skin and cartiledge from our own organically fed beef and poultry. I’ve been following the heart issues they’ve been attributing to grain-free foods, especially as our dogs are three Golden Retrievers and a Doberman, which are most impacted accoding to the studies. I do question that the foods called out by the FDA are almost all the best rated, high end foods with the lowest recall rates. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that the sponsors of the studies turned out to be Purina and Science diet. But again, all my opinion.
Sometimes people are curious and need support. So I truly think it is silly that you make such a harsh judgment, about inquiries, Just my opinion.