Choosing the best dog food can be extremely intimidating. There are hundreds of different dog food formulas available for purchase, all of which claim to be a superior source of nutrition for your dog. Navigating the world of dog food can be difficult, though can also be made much easier if you have access to the right information. By keeping up-to-date with the latest dog food reviews, you can gain a better understanding of which dog food formulas are best for your dog.
Where to Find Dog Food Reviews
The best place to begin searching for dog food reviews is online. There are many sites which are devoted to collecting customer responses to specific dog food brands and formulas. However, it's important to be careful when navigating these sites, since some of them are funded by certain dog food companies. In order to ensure that you obtain a generally unbiased dog food review, try to compare customer responses to a product on several websites. This will allow you to obtain a better understanding of benefits/problems that people associate with a specific dog food formula.
You can also find out about the best dog food by simply asking fellow dog owners. Chances are, a few of your friends or neighbors also own a dog. Don't be afraid to ask them about their experiences with different dog food formulas, as well as any brands that they recommend.
Best Dog Food Formulas
In general, it's possible to figure out the quality of a dog food formula simply by reading its ingredients. For most dry dog food, reading the first five ingredients will give you a better understanding of the formula. This is also true of canned dog food formulas, though canned dog food has a higher water content. At least two of the first five ingredients should be based off of a high quality protein source. Avoid any dog food formulas that include corn in their first five ingredients. Corn can cause digestive upset in many dogs, as you may be able to tell from dog food reviews of some low quality formulas. Corn is often used as a filler ingredient, in order to cut the cost of manufacturing a dog food formula.
Dry Dog Food Reviews
Dry dog food is generally more popular than canned dog food, so it is a bit easier to find dry dog food reviews. Dry dog food is generally well received due to its ability to keep a dog's teeth clean, as well as promote healthy growth of jaw muscles during early development. However, since dry dog food needs to maintain a "kibble" shape, it sometimes contains more carbohydrates than your dog's digestive system can handle. Be wary of any dry dog food reviews that cite a formula as being full of starchy ingredients, or causing indigestion in dogs.
Canned Dog Food Reviews
Since canned dog food formulas are more expensive, they tend to be less popular than dry dog food formulas. However, they are also sometimes much higher in nutritional value, since they don't need to add filler ingredients in order to maintain their shape. To find canned dog food reviews, you can do a quick search on the internet for the specific formula that you're looking for. Try to obtain dog food reviews from several different sites, and not only from sites that are directly selling the product.
Reading Dog Food Reviews
When reading dog food reviews, it's important to keep a few things in mind. First, people are much more inclined to write a review of a product to say something negative. Watch out for reviews that don't state a particular reason for giving a dog food formula a low rating. By contrast, be wary of positive dog food reviews that are suspicious. Sometimes, a dog food company will hire people to write fake positive reviews, in order to artificially boost their rating on a specific site. This is the main reason why it's extremely important to thoroughly research a dog food formula before deciding if it's the right type of food for your dog.
Grain Free Dog Food
Many dog owners aren't familiar with the concept of grain-free dog food. Due to the increase in dogs developing diabetes and other disorders, some dog food companies have decided to produce formulas that are completely free of all grains. Most grain free dog food formulas are subject to positive dog food reviews, due to the higher nutritional content and lower amount of filler ingredients. However, switching your dog to a grain-free dog food formula can result in digestive issues at first, if the switch is not done gradually. This is why it's important that some of the digestive problems that are present in grain-free dog food reviews may be due to a sudden change to the formula.