Dog Food: Different Types and Sources

Dog food is any plant and meat you feed to your dog. Some dog owners feed their dog with whatever they eat. Others make their own dog food. Yet others rely on a more practical commercially available pet food.

As if it is not enough, there is also a special kind of dog foods given as a reward, and not as a staple. This type of food is useful for dog training. It is usually called dog treats.

For thousands of years, human owners feed their dogs with leftovers and scraps from their plates. There are arguments about the appropriateness of the foods compared to commercially available dog foods.

The question is, which one is the most suitable for your dog?

Homemade, Canned, Dry, Premium and Raw Dog Food

A dog's eating habit are controlled by its brain, its experiences, and its environment. Your pet can get accustomed to the food you feed her to certain extent, so it is wise if you balance the nutritional properly.

There are many different recommendations on what dog diet is the best. Some argue that commercial or premium dog foods contain materials or meat of lower quality. Others even say that they are dangerous to your pet. Despite what others have said, I never see nutritional diseases in dogs fed commercial dog food.

People who are opposed to commercial dog foods prefer raw pet food. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) do not recommend a raw diet though, but owners who insist on it should follow basic hygienic guidelines for handling raw meat.

Different homemade diets are recommended by various experts, from natural diets consisting primary of raw meat to vegetarian diets. When making raw food diet for dogs, there should be a balance in nutrition. Vegetarian diet for dog requires mixtures of ingredients such as brown rice, brown pasta, and vegetables.

Given their choice, most dogs prefer canned diets. The flavor, aroma and palatability of dry dog food do not match that of canned.

Commercial and Premium Dog Food

Commercial dog food can be categorized into three different types, based on its water content (from less than most):

• Dry dog food: contains 6-10 percent moisture by volume. This type of food for dog is more convenient for the pet owners because it allows them to left the food out for the animal to eat at will over the course of several days. Usually dry food is also much cheaper than other types of food. Let's not forget that dry dog food is also less likely to spoil than canned food.
• Semi-moist dog food: contains 23-35 percent moisture by volume. Semi-moist food comes in the shape of pork chops, burgers, or other meaty foods. The food is the least nutritional of all dog foods and contains many artificial flavors and colorings. This type of food is only suitable as occasional treat for the animal.
• Moist dog food: contains up to 78% moisture by volume (usually canned food). The food has a longer shelf life than most dry food. It can also contain more protein and fat than a similar kibble, if the moisture is ignored. Moist dog food is sterilized after being canned.

Contents of Commercial Dog Foods

Most commercial dog foods are made from materials considered unusable or less desirable for human consumption. These may include:

• Meat by-products. These are ground and cleaned slaughtered meat carcass parts such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, bones, heads, and intestines (and a small amount of feathers in the case of chicken meat).
• Meat-and-bone meals. This is a product of a rendering industry. It is typically about 50% protein, 35% ash, 8-12% fat, and 4-7% moisture. It is primarily used to improve the amino acid profile of the feed.
• Grain by-products. These products have a lower cost per ton than animal proteins, but they are more palatable than animal proteins. Grain by-products tend to have lower protein levels compared to animal by-products.

Less expensive foods generally include less meat, and more meat by-products and grain fillers. The most expensive dogs foods may be made of ingredients suitable for human consumption, organic products or free-range meats.

The Making of Dog Food

Dried pellet dog food, called kibble, is made in two different ways: extruding and baking. During extruding, a mixture of raw materials is fed into an expander while pressurized steam or hot water is added. When removed from the pressure, the pellets puff like popcorn.

The pellets are allowed to dry, then sprayed with vitamins, grease, or any other ingredients that are not heat-tolerant. The down side of extruding is that the fats added after cooking often turn rancid and the vitamins may be destroyed by heat during storage or shipping.

Dog treats are usually higher in grease or fats. Due to its use, these are usually designed to be held in a person's hand without being messy, and are often designed in fanciful shapes and colors.

Alternative Dog Food

As the industry of dog food evolves, new alternative dog foods have emerged on the market. Most of the companies are targeting niche markets based on the lifestyle of the owners, convenience, nutritional value of the foods and so on.

Some of the popular alternative dog foods include:

• Frozen or freeze-dried. It comes in the form of raw or cooked, but not processed. Skipping processing causes less destruction of the nutrition. To lengthen the short shelf life, products are frozen or freeze-dried.
• Fresh or refrigerated. Fresh ingredients are lightly cooked and quickly sealed in a vacuum package. The process is called pasteurization. The products are refrigerated until the time they are served. Fresh dog food product has a shelf life of 2-4 month unopened.
• Dehydrated. Like frozen, this product also comes in the form of raw and cooked. The idea is to reduce moisture in the food to inhitbit growths of bacterias in the product. Air drying the product makes it look a lot like dry kibbles.
• Homemade. This dog diet product comes in a bucket or tupperware-like package. Many small companies begin to home cook dog dishes, package and sell them through specialty stores of over the Internet.

Dog foods for Allergic Dogs

Dogs also often suffer from allergies. The symptoms may include dry kin, fur loss, patchy fur, skin diseases, coughing and sneezing, wheezing, excessive nasal or eye discharge, sore paws, itching, sores, bumps, sore paws, vomiting and diarrhea.

Your pet friend can be tested for allergies by your veterinarian. You may experiment to find the right ingredients that will work for you dogs, or purchase hypo-allergenic food, which may be prescribed by the vet. The latter can be quite pricey though. It possibly takes some time before you see benefits from the new diet.

There are also dog foods specially formulated to dogs that are allergic to wheat, corn, and/or chicken. These foods usually contain lamb or fish meat. Some dog foods are designed for dogs with maladies such as urinary tract infections, and some foods are tailored to the dietary needs of especially young or old dogs. There also exist vegetarian dog foods marketed to owners who do not wish for their dogs to consume meat products.

Diabetic dog food is available for dogs who are unable to process insulin. With the right food, the dog doesn't need any more supplements such to increase fiber and antioxidants.

Pet Food Standards

Not all pet foods contain poor quality ingredients though. You have to read and understand the labels in order to make an informed decision. While pet foods must meet certain standards set by AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials), there are problems with the quality of the standards themselves.

Some pet food manufacturers use secret code that may be misleading. The labels that say "With Real Beef" or "Turkey Flavored Dog Food" may not necessary mean the foods are made of great proportion of beef or turkey.

In fact, manufacturers may put the "Flavored" label as long as the flavor is sufficiently detectable. And the "With" label can be applied if the product contains at least 3% of the listed meat, excluding water.

Low quality ingredients, poor labeling standards and excessive chemical addictives may lead to all kind of problems for your pet dog, from skin allergies to cancer.

Image credits: laffy4k, wonderferret, klynslis, johnmarkos.