Is there one food that is the BEST???

This seems to be the question of the hour and occupies a great deal of pet owner’s mental energy when it comes to their pet's care. 

We are bombarded with slick advertising from commercial dog food companies (grocery store brands) that tell us that their foods are wonderful for our pets. The people at the local pet supply (stores that normally carry the “better” brands of food) are generally quite knowledgeable about available products but may have biases based on their personal opinions.  And the internet offers a plethora of information all presented in a way to lead us to believe that what we are reading is the fact – which it may not be. 

None of these resources are able to tell us what the best food is for our pet – they may claim to be able to do this – but they can’t.  There is no single best pet food for every pet.

My recommendation is to learn as much as you can and keep in mind that most everything you will hear or read is designed to “sell” you something - an idea or a product.  I am no different.  My job is to sell pet food and I will do my best to do that.  I am here to listen to you, to hear what your pet’s individual needs are and I hope that I can match a food or supplement to meet your pet’s specific needs. 

Based on current research it seems that what is good for people is also good for our pets… whole foods, fresh foods, a variety of foods. 

For most of us cooking for our pets (or feeding a homemade raw diet) involves too much time and too much research to come up with an appropriate combination of ingredients. We need the convenience of a prepared food that provides our pets with appropriate healthful nutrition.  We are back to what is the best food?  Unfortunately there is no single answer to that question …

Each prepared food has advantages and disadvantages.  Many brands overlap in terms of attributes and we would then turn to the disadvantages to determine which is the best for our pet.  Some examples of disadvantages would be:  cost, protein and fat levels higher or lower than what we think is ideal for our pet, the inclusion of an ingredient that we don’t like such as white rice, the lack of an ingredient that we would like to see in our pets food. 

Overall my recommendation is to learn as much as you can about the choices that you have and pick several that you like; foods that have wholesome ingredients and foods that do not have any overwhelming disadvantages.  Rotate between the foods.  One of the advantages to rotating diet is that what one food lacks another makes up for. 

Please see Label Reading 101 for specific information on reading labels.