Choosing Quality Dog Food

Look for a product which has a high named meat content. Meat should be the first ingredient on the ingridients list. The quantity of 'fresh meat' content also includes the moisture before processing, so actual meat content will be much lower

Products containing 'animal derivatives' can contain ANY part of ANY warmblood land mammal, and you cannot be sure exactly what is in the product

Look for manufactures who use a "closed" formula. This means the manufacturer cannot change the ingredients without first changing the labelling. You can be confident that the specification will remain the same from batch to batch

Manufacturers that use a "open" formula can change the ingredients according to what is available and often what is cheapest at the time.   Products with ingredients such as "meat and animal derivatives", "cereals" and "animal by-products" are often indicators that an open formula is being used.

Look for products that use named cereals.  Better quality cereals include Brown Rice, Oats and Barley.  Carbohydrates can also be derived from Potatoes.

Generic descriptions such as "cereals" means the source of cereal is not known and can change from batch to batch.   Wheat and wheat gluten is a cereal often used as a filler and can be the cause of some allergies in dogs.  .

Look for products that use natural additives and anti-oxidants such as rosemary and mixed tocopherals.

Use caution with products that use "EC permitted additives", BHA, BHT and Ethoxyquin.   Artificial colours are unneccessary and artifical flavours should not be needed,

Look for products that use a named fat.

Products which use the generic term "animal fats" means the source of animal fat is not known and this can change from batch to batch, so you cannot be sure which animal fat you are feeding