- Ingredients: What to Look for & Avoid

What to Look For...

The first ingredient should be a specific meat, meat meal, or fish meal (chicken meal, lamb meal, beef meal, mackerel meal, etc) and at least one more in the first 4-6 ingredients.

Potato-free and grain-free kibbles are less likely to cause food allergies.

Try This: Compare the Following Three kibbles

Using Healthy, Unhealthy, and Filler lists on the right (and common sense), scan down the product ingredients lists below until you no longer find meats. In some cases, you can't even get started.

Remember, like all ingredient labels, ingredients are listed in order of most-to-least weight (before processing).

Oh, and remember that these products are intended to feed a carnivore the same thing, every day.

So, which one is Healthiest for your dog?

This is easy. Right?

Healthy Ingredients. Specific meat meals are actually better choices than the plain meat. For example, turkey listed alone is before cooking whereas turkey meal is the turkey after cooking (less moisture and therefore more by weight).

Unhealthy Ingredients. These are just plain unhealthy - Avoid.

Filler Ingredients. These are cheap, readily available, take up space, help bind everything together, and then get pooped out. They are poor sources of protein (vegetable instead of meat).

Healthy Protein Ingredients

Orijen Adult

Boneless chicken

chicken meal

chicken liver

whole herring

boneless turkey

turkey meal

turkey liver

whole eggs

boneless walleye

whole salmon

chicken heart

chicken cartilage

herring meal

salmon meal

chicken liver oil

red lentils

green peas

green lentils

sun-cured alfalfa

yams

chickpeas

pumpkin

butternut squash

spinach greens

carrots

Red Delicious apples

Bartlett pears

cranberries

blueberries

kelp

licorice root

angelica root

fenugreek

marigold flowers

sweet fennel

peppermint leaf

chamomile

dandelion

summer savory

rosemary

Enterococcus faecium

Vitamin A supplement

Vitamin D3 supplement

Vitamin E Supplement

zinc proteinate

dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product

Pedigree Adult

ground whole grain corn

meat and bone meal (source of calcium)

corn gluten meal

animal fat (source of omega 6 [preserved with BHA & citric acid])

soybean meal

natural flavor (source of meatier flavor)

chicken by-product meal

dried plain beet pulp

ground whole grain wheat

salt

brewers rice

potassium chloride

dried peas

Vitamin E supplement

zinc sulfate

choline chloride

niacin [Vitamin B3]

biotin

dried carrots

BHA & citric acid (a preservative)

blue 2

yellow 5

yellow 6

d-calcium pantothenate [source of Vitamin B5]

riboflavin supplement [Vitamin B2]

red 40

pyridoxine hydrochloride [Vitamin B6]

copper sulfate

potassium iodide

Vitamin A supplement

thiamine mononitrate [Vitamin B1]

Vitamin D3 supplement

Vitamin B12 supplement

Beneful

ground yellow corn

chicken by-product meal

corn gluten meal

whole wheat flour

animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols

chicken

soy flour

rice flour

propylene glycol

sugar

tricalcium phosphate

salt

phosphoric acid

potassium chloride

animal digest

mono and dicalcium phosphate

dried carrots

sorbic acid (a preservative)

dried tomatoes

avocado

calcium propionate (a preservative)

L-Lysine monohydrochloride

choline chloride

Vitamin E supplement

zinc sulfate

ferrous sulfate

yellow 5

manganese sulfate

niacin

red 40

Vitamin A supplement

blue 2

copper sulfate

Vitamin B-12 supplement

calcium pantothenate

thiamine mononitrate

garlic oil

yellow 6

pyridoxine hydrochloride

riboflavin supplement

Vitamin D-3 supplement

menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity)

calcium iodate

folic acid

biotin

sodium selenite

  • Turkey & Turkey mealChicken & Chicken meal

  • Lamb & Lamb meal

  • Beef & Beef meal

  • [Named] fish & fish meal

  • Other [named] meat and/or meat meal (buffalo, deer, etc.)

  • Eggs

Unhealthy Ingredients (avoid)

(most are linked to descriptions)

Filler Ingredients (avoid or minimize)

* = Often cause of food allergies

  • Corn*, wheat*, soy*, oatsPotato*, rice, barley, peas

  • [any] Starch, bran, or flour

  • [any] Pulp or pumace

  • Cellulose

About Allergies

As noted earlier, a dog's first line of defense against pathogens is her immune system (see here and here). The immune system is strengthened by feeding nourishing food.

Allergy symptoms are typically the result of: Environment, food, or external parasites such as fleas. Don't jump to conclusions about the cause of allergy symptoms. Instead, do a little investigating and observe licking, scratching, chewing, etc.

  • Fleas. For most dogs, fleas are the easiest to spot. Check the skin in most likely areas (ears, shoulders, rump at tail, belly, etc.) for live fleas or evidence of fleas. Most common evidence is tiny black flea droppings.

    • If you find evidence of fleas, do two things:

      • Vigorously treat flea infestation both on the dog and in her environment (Whole Dog Journal, Jan 2014 issue).

      • Improve quality of food to strengthen dog's immune system

  • Food. Once you have eliminated fleas as the allergy source, consider the food. If you think that the meat ingredients are the first place to look, think again. The source is likely one of the filler ingredients notably potato, corn, wheat, or soy.

  • Environment. Common environmental allergens include, but are not limited to, grass, pollen, mold spores, dust, and dust mite droppings. A healthy immune system will help protect the dog against environmental allergens.

There is at least one other possibility for licking, chewing, and scratching...

Raven, my Flat-Coated Retriever, will occasionally chew on her back at a few specific locations either on or near her spine. It took me awhile but I finally figured out that she was trying to deal with the pain associated with her spondylosis. Now, when I notice this behavior, I massage her back using massage techniques I learned here. That technique lasts for hours.