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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
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
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
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)
[all] By-products[any] Gluten or gluten meal
Non-specific meat or fat
BHA, BHT, Ethoxyquin (preservative)
Salt
Sugar (or other sweetener)
Food coloring
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.
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