When it comes to buying dog food, you want what’s best for your canine. This is because your dog will eventually become what it eats. Some brands are cheap while others are expensive. If you use price as the criteria for buying the best food, you may end up compromising on other important factors. Below are some tips that can give you a head start when shopping for dog food.
Balanced Diet
Dog food should come with a wide array of nutrients. It should include, water, carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins. This is because all these nutrients are needed by the body. Water is needed for metabolic processes while carbs are needed for the generation of energy. Besides that, proteins are used for repairing worn out body tissues. You should therefore settle for dog food that contains nutrients from the three groups. If one kind of nutrients is over emphasized, the dog will end up with a deficiency of the other nutrients.
Buy Food that has Been Tested
New brands of dog food are introduced into the marketplace everyday. Some brands don’t contain the necessary nutrients. Don’t believe what the sales people tell you because they only want to make a kill out of you. You should only buy dog food that has been tested by reputable organizations such as AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials). Any brand that bears the approval of AAFCO has definitely been tried on other canines.
Quality and Safety
The quality and safety of dog food is dependent on the materials that are used to make it and the environment they are produced in. Dog food can only be safe if it’s handled with a lot of care. If it’s not stored in the right place, it’s likely to go bad. Besides that, there are some dubious manufacturing companies that compromise on the quality of materials with the aim of making huge profits at the expense of the consumer.
This is common in situations where one company has contracted another company to manufacture dog food for them. You should therefore avoid brands that indicate “manufactured for” and stick to “manufactured by”. A company that manufactures food without involving a second party is likely to maintain high standards of quality and safety. Such companies actually have quality control officers.
