Are The Best Dog Foods All Natural?

My friends know all about my healthy obsession with healthy dog food and ask me what are the best dog foods. Should they be all natural dog foods, or maybe holistic? There is a lot of confusion just in the naming of foods alone. I have a fairly good grasp on it and it still makes my head spin!

For me, it’s all about getting the best dog food I can for my budget. We are still raising two kids at home so I can’t just go out and buy the best dog food – which for me, would be raw meat with freeze-dried or dehydrated, all-natural and organic kibble with a multi-vitamin supplement thrown in. And maybe when our kids are off on their own, we will be able to feed our dogs like this. But for now, I just compare dog foods and find the best ones I can without going over my budget.

So are the all natural dog foods the best? I personally would pick an all-natural dog food for my budget. All natural means no artificial/chemical preservatives, flavorings, or coloring. Think about those things.

First, do you really want a dog food that can sit on the shelf for 1 to 2 years? That is what the artificial preservatives like BHA, BHT, and Ethoxyquin do for your dog food, along with being linked to certain health problems in dogs. Natural preservatives are the only way to go: Vitamin E (tocopherols) and Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) are the top natural preservatives.

Next, why does your dog food need flavorings? If there is a substantial amount of meat and good quality grains/vegetables/etc, then there is no reason to have to flavor anything. The truth is, the artificial flavoring put on dog food is there because your dog will not eat it. The flavoring is fat, sprayed on the outside of the kibble, strictly to entice your dog to eat it. Kind of like flavoring kids’ medicine, no purpose other than to get it down. Do you really want to feed your dog something like that?

And finally, artificial coloring. Who do you think that is for? Do you think your dog cares one bit about whether the kibble is brown, red, or green? The dog food companies do that so that when WE look at it we see ‘red: meat’, ‘green: vegetables’, and ‘brown:grains’. Your dog doesn’t care about what it looks like, but their immune system must deal with an artificial coloring that they may be sensitive to (as many humans are.)

So for me, the best dog foods are definitely all natural and the only way I go with my dogs. But once you pick out an all natural food, you must look at the ingredients and figure out if it is any good. Sorry, sometimes I feel like all I ever say is ‘look at the dog food ingredients’, but until there is stricter legislation on dog food labeling, this really is the only way.