The Pet Food Jungle—What Should You Feed Your Dog?

Walk into any pet store and you’ll see aisle after aisle of dog food, most of it dry, some canned, some dehydrated, and maybe there is a freezer of raw food. Every package claims to be the best for your pet; low calorie, grain-free, high protein—it’s enough to make your head hurt and just grab the nearest bag.

The age category should be easy, puppy, senior, but active dog? Is a 7-year-old cocker spaniel that walks around the block a few times a day active or senior?

Most people will ask their vet instead of researching all the types of dog food, or maybe do both. Some people choose the cheapest brand at the grocery store. Some ask friends, or dog trainers.

What’s a dog owner to do?

In the 1990s, I fed my dog Science Diet for many years—its science based right? It has to be good, and it wasn’t the cheapest, which I also thought made it a fairly good quality. Then one of my dogs got into agility and started competitions. Her trainer suggested Canidae, which was a good brand and had few, if any, recalls on the American Veterinary Medical Association recall list.

After a dozen years and the passing of my agility dog, I decided to ask my vet what to feed my aging, couch potato cocker spaniel. She, of course, made a recommendation of a brand that she sold. After a year, that brand was no longer available, so another dog food switch.

Variety may be the key

Few articles seem to discuss varying a dog’s food. We don’t eat the same thing every day, so why should they? Plus variety would reduce the problems that a particular food might have, like slightly imbalanced nutrition for what your particular dog needs.

I always added some “people food” leftovers to create variety. Although my vet always frowned on the idea of people food for dogs, isn’t that what they ate for the past ten thousand years when humans tossed dogs their food scraps? Dogs’ guts are probably more adapted to human food scraps than raw food. I have tried a raw dog food topper, which didn’t work so well for my senior dog. You can read about my experience here.

Now there’s a movement to make home cooked meals, which probably is the best thing to do. My husband started cooking dog food out of necessity when his over abundant garden needed harvesting. He first started with brown rice, but now uses an oatmeal base, which is healthier. He makes a big pot mixed with bone broth from chicken, and then adds oatmeal, and plenty of veggies. We freeze it into small containers that last about a week. Here is my husband’s recipe, although now he switched to oatmeal instead of rice.

I don’t feed my dogs only one type of food

A few years ago I watched the docu-series The Truth About Pet Cancer which recommended home cooked meals or a raw diet. They said if nothing else, add some fresh fruits and vegetables to your dog’s food. Yes, dogs are not strictly carnivores; they can eat, and may enjoy some veggies and fruits.

Every day my dog gets half of her food as dry and half homemade dog food mixed with human leftover food. Plus she gets a bit of fruit or salad, which she loves.

Variety is key—not to just feed your dog the same thing every day.

Dry dog food mixed with water or bone broth provides balanced nutrition, so I don’t have to give supplements. Then I add homemade food which provides fresh nutrients and fiber, and also a little bit of people food to add variety.

What do you feed your dog?

For more reading, check out these links:

https://dogtime.com/dog-health/general/1251-giving-people-food-to-dogs https://moderndogmagazine.com/articles/what-best-dog-food-you-can-choose-your-pup/124547