Does quality dog food make a difference?

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So, does dog food quality really matter? Yes, absolutely yes.

There is a reason that I put so much work into making homemade dog food myself, even for my 75-lb doberman mix. Feeding a dog well positively impacts their health, their mental/emotional wellness, their physical fitness, and usually their enthusiasm for food. A good dog food can make training go smoother and improve cognitive function and physical health.

A great example of this is my experiment taking my new addition, the aforementioned doberman mix, off the generic kibble he came to me on, and putting him on the high-quality kibble brand, Ketona from Keto Natural Pet Foods.

Our Ketona experiment, which you read about in detail in my article, We Tried Ketona Dog Food for 30 Days, tracks Milo’s progress switching to a food with an adequate level of protein and higher-quality ingredients. In one short month, Milo put on muscle, his coat filled out, and his energy throughout the day became more steady and reliable. The results were undeniable.

If you’re interested in trying out Ketona for yourself, you can use our coupon code LUGARU for a discount off your purchase.

The point is, picking the right dog food is absolutely crucial for any dog owner who wants to bring out the absolute best for their pet. Providing adequate nutrition for your dog is not just for their own happiness and comfort; it can save you tons of money on vet bills, supplements, and other expenses that can arise from poor nutrition.

Prevention is the best medicine, and as the saying goes, “you are what you eat.”

What is low quality dog food?

The unfortunate truth of the matter is that most commercial dog foods are what we would consider “low quality.”

But it can be really difficult for mindful dog owners to discern exactly which foods are “bad” and which dog foods are “good.”

And what’s more is that not all dog foods stay consistent. Brands routinely get bought up by bigger companies (and some of these big companies also run a handful of large veterinary hospital chains…talk about conflict of interest). Brands get purchased by other companies, formulas change, ingredient quality fluctuates depending on what’s available at the time, and recalls happen on something of a routine basis.

This can make it really difficult to even trust brands that aren’t well-known for being low quality. It’s not like we as dog owners get a play-by-play of updates of our dog’s kibble brands.

However, there are rules of thumb that can help you discern if a dog food brand should be avoided entirely, or if it’s worth looking into more.

Be wary of any brands readily available at your local grocery or “feed” store, as they typically have lower-quality ingredients and a lot of filler. Most of the brands that you see on the shelves of your local grocery store or farming supply store are going to be treated as exactly that: “feed.”

This means it’s meant to provide enough to keep your dog alive, and is not particularly concerned about whether or not your dog is thriving as a result of said food.

Also be cautious of any brands of dog foods that normally seem “quality,” but that you end up seeing at your local discount stores. A brand popping up at a discount store or grocery usually means that there are some issues going on behind the scenes with pet stores, and the food that isn’t getting purchased is being sold to discount grocers.

This can indicate a lot of things, one of which is a quality issue or repeated customer complaints.

Additionally, there are things you can look at when it comes to labels and nutrition info that can clue you in to whether or not you are looking at a top-notch dog food or something that is more along the lines of “feed.”

What do you look for in kibble?

There are a few core aspects of a dog food that I look for in regards to the label itself, when determining a quality product vs. a low quality dog food.

The first is the ingredients list. I like to see some sort of meat as the first ingredient. The reason I want to see an animal protein as the first ingredient is that dogs process animal proteins more efficiently, and the amino acid profile is more beneficial to dogs than those from plant proteins. That doesn’t mean that plant protein is bad for dogs, but it does mean that a wider variety and larger quantity of plant proteins is necessary in order to provide adequate nutrition to dogs.

The second is the calorie information. Sometimes this information will be listed on the bag, other times it takes some digging. The calorie information is helpful so that you can adjust to your dog’s needs outside of the recommended feeding instructions.

For instance, when I was feeding Milo his Ketona Chicken Recipe, I fed him well over the recommended amount because I knew from his FitBark GPS dashboard that he needed more calories than that, given his size, body composition, and activity level.

Third is the guaranteed analysis, which provides information on macronutrient content, moisture, and fiber. This information is so helpful as part of the nutritional info because you want to make sure that your dog is getting an adequate amount of fat and protein.

Protein is necessary to repair and build muscle, and it’s also what a dog’s skin and coat is made up of. Making sure your dog is getting adequate protein is super important for their health.

Fat, despite common belief, is actually incredibly important for dogs. Do not ever give a dog a fat-free diet. Many crucial micronutrients are fat-soluble and absolutely need an adequate amount of fat in order to metabolize and for your dog to reap their rewards.

The information on moisture can also be very helpful; moisture levels do not necessarilly indicate a high or low quality to a kibble, but having the information is helpful so you can make adjustments to the food if needed, like adding in some bone broth to foods that are very dry.

As a rule of thumb, if the exact nutrition information and calorie content is difficult to find (ie, not clearly available on the brand’s website) then that kibble should be avoided until the information becomes accessible. There is simply no reason for a quality kibble to be making their nutritional content difficult to find, so if you can’t find it from a quick internet search, then that is a big red flag.

What ingredients should I look for when buying dog food?

As mentioned earlier, a solid protein source is going to be the first thing to look for. On dog food labels, ingredients are listed in order of amount or content percentage. So if you see “chicken” first, that means that chicken is the number one ingredient. If it’s then followed by “pea protein,” then that means that the second-largest ingredient in the dog food is the pea protein.

Animal-based proteins like chicken, fish, and beef for example are the best for dogs, because the amino acid profiles of animal proteins are more in-line with a dog’s specific dietary needs. If you end up getting your dog a food that takes a significant percentage of its protein from plants, make sure you at least pick one with several different protein sources to fill out the amino acid profile as much as possible.

I may deviate from internet norm here in saying that I do not freak out if I see “meal” on the label; chicken meal, for instance, is simply chicken meat and skin that has been consolidated and ground up. Usually this is a byproduct of the meat industry, where scraps that won’t be sold to humans for some reason or another are ground into a meal. There are meals that are just fine, and others that are lower quality.

Of course, it is preferable to see just the protein source, rather than a meal, and I still like to see the protein source as the first ingredient regardless. But if some sort of “meal” is on the label, I usually just make note of it and consider it with the rest of the product.

It’s also great if you see a string of recognizable vitamins or minerals. Ingredients like Biotin, Iron Proteinate, Lecithin, Ascorbic Acid, and Calcium Pantothenate are all great things to see on a dog food ingredient list because it means that the food comes with all the necessary vitamins and minerals your dog will need.

How do I know if my dog food is high quality?

Checking the ingredients yourself is always going to be the best way to go when it comes to figuring out whether or not a dog food is high quality.

These ingredients and other nutritional information should be available on the bag of food to preview before purchase. If all of this information is not available on the back of the dog food bag, a quick search online for “X brand nutrition info” should bring up the nutritional profile, usually on the brand’s website.

If the information is not easy to find, run the other way.

If you are ever in doubt about picking a quality kibble yourself, we always recommend browsing the selection over at K9 Cuisine. K9 Cuisine has an entire catalog of various high-quality dog food brands, and search tools to help you filter by certain preferences, such as “grain free,” “vegetarian,” and “limited ingredient.”

While I myself make my dogs’ food from scratch, I have used (and occasionally still do use) a few of the dog foods available on the K9 Cuisine website and know that any brands carried on their website are exactly what I would consider “high quality” for a dry dog food. I tend to keep a bag or two of one of their high-quality kibbles around for emergency use and to feed any board-and-train or foster dogs that need a little extra.

When switching to a high-quality dog food, you can either use the K9 Cuisine website as an informational resource to help you decide on a dog food brand that you know will be high-quality, or you can buy directly from their website and use their autoship program to get your selection sent to your door before it ever runs out.

Plus, K9 Cuisine caters to both dogs and cats, so you can also pick out a higher-quality option for your feline friends, as well.