Most families feed their dogs kibble. While there are better alternatives, here’s our advice on how to get the best from kibble.
You get what you pay for
This is definitely true with kibble. Cheap kibble is usually corn based. It’s garbage food.
Fillers and binders in kibble add little to the dog’s nutrition. They pass right through and make for big, bulky and stinky poops.
Watch for allergies
Many Portuguese water dogs develop allergies to dog foods. You’ll notice scratching, itching, dry coat and paw licking. Usually, they’re allergic to chicken or other fowl. If your dog is scratching, eliminate chicken and chicken eggs from their diet first. Almost all dog kibble contains chicken or eggs.
Grain-free dog foods
We recommend grain-free dog foods. Not long ago, the US Food and Drug Administration blamed grain-free dog foods for the increased incidence of heart disease in dogs. Veterinarians started recommending avoiding grain-free diets.
Then the FDA recanted! But some vets haven’t gotten the message.
Bottom line: the cause of canine cardiomyopathy is unknown. There is no evidence tying canine cardiomyopathy to grain-free kibble or any other cause.
Rotate dog food choices
We recommend you rotate dog food choices between three manufacturers until the cardiomyopathy issue is better understood.
The most recent theory is canine cardiomyopathy is caused by legumes used to replace wheat and corn in grain-free diets. I doubt legumes as the cause will hold up to scrutiny.
There’s another reason to avoid peas and other legumes like peas, lentils, pea flour, etc. in your dog’s diet: Legumes contain phytoestrogens. A diet high in this hormone can interfere with your dog’s fertility, sometimes permanently. Because we have breeding dogs, we feed a limited ingredient diet of fish and potato from Pet Supermarket called Ultra.
The AVCO designation is a low bar
AVCO designates a complete dog food. To get an AVCO designation, a bunch of beagles is fed the diet for six months. If none dies, it passes. That’s it. It’s a very low bar!
Diets based on corn like Iams and Pedigree will pass and get an AVCO rating. We do not recommend them.
Look for specifically named meat or meat meal
On every bag of dog food, ingredients are listed in order of weight. If salmon is the first ingredient, it is the primary ingredient by weight. Next might be other types of meat, generally followed by rice, beet pulp, etc.
The meat should always be specified: venison, lamb, salmon, etc.
A good kibble will have named meats in the first three ingredients. High-end dog kibble like Orijen will have five meats in the first five ingredients.
The do’s and don’ts in choosing a kibble
- Do choose a kibble with a named meat or meat meal as the first ingredient (fishmeal, lamb, venison, salmon, etc.). Even better, choose a kibble where the the first three ingredients are meats.
- Do feel comfortable with kibbles with fishmeal. Fish meals are denser than fish. Your dog gets more meat and less water. So, meal is good!
- Do choose grain-free kibble. Grain-free essentially means no wheat or corn, which are highly allergenic to many dogs. Other grains are present, but.
- Don’t buy a kibble that includes byproducts. These are unclean ingredients like hooves and nails and can include roadkill and sick animals.
- Don’t buy a kibble with artificial coloring or artificial preservatives.
- Don’t buy a kibble with unnamed ingredients like “meat”. Look for specific animal protein like lamb.
- Do look for ingredients sourced in the USA or Canada. Avoid treats and products that come from China like the plague! The Chinese have killed thousands of American dogs by putting things like plastic in their formulas. Really.
Do choose a 3.5 to 4-star kibble.
You can look up any kibble on dogfoodadvisor.com. Search for grain-free puppy chow online.
Remember, you want to rotate foods and manufacturers to deal with the mystery of what is causing the increased incidence of cardiomyopathy in dogs.
Save with autoship
You can have your dog food delivered with autoship through Amazon or Chewy.com. This is convenient and saves you money. You need to order $50 worth to get free shipping. Two bags with each order should do it. It doesn’t start to degrade until opened.
What we feed our Porties
We feed our puppies Taste of the Wild Pacific Salmon for Puppies. We recommend ordering that brand as your first bag, then choosing two others to rotate.
You now know more than 99 persent of dog owners and some vets as well. Vets often get their infomration on nutrition from dog food manufacturers
Kibble is heated to 400 degrees, essentially destroying most nutrients which later have to be added back artificially. This is why raw feeding is becoming more popular with dog owners but not veterinarians, who seem to be universally opposed to a raw diet.
What we add to the kibble is called “toppers”. Toppers can include table scraps. Generally, if you can eat it, so can the dog. But don’t give them the fat you trim off meat. Fat can cause pancreatitis in dogs (lesson on foods poisonous to dogs to follow).