There are many companies that proudly display their products on the supermarket shelf and compete for your business when it comes to dog food. Some of these companies offer the convenience of having a dry food diet. Other times, the dog food companies are boasting a diet that is canned and ready to eat. They may even throw you, the dog owner, a proverbial “bone” to get you to buy a dog food that is made from “real” chicken or lamb.

Before picking out a food for your pet, let’s discuss what a dog actually is supposed to eat. Dogs are considered to be omnivores. That means they eat both plant and animal material. Technically speaking, the dog is a scavenger, which is why we observe behavior such as a dog eating grass, dead or rotting meat, or even fecal matter. This is very different from a similar animal such as a wolf, or even another domesticated animal like a cat. Cat’s are purely carnivores and do not eat any plant material at all.

A dog will periodically eat vegetative material such as grass. They are also known to chew on things such as bark, sticks, or even dead branches. A dog may occasionally eat a fruit like a berry or a grape, but generally speaking they tend to take little interest in such things.

Meat is a food that most dogs absolutely love. It is in the nature of certain breeds of dogs to hunt for food. That is why some dogs will kill rodents, birds, or even some, very few will fish. Large dogs may even take on larger animals such as deer or even bears. A dog will always kill its food before consuming it. That is why a dog doesn’t tend to care if it eats something that has been dead for a couple of days. As far as most dogs are concerned, such a find is a perfect way for a dog to mask its scent.

Now, the key to picking out the best diet for your dog is to observe what it eats in nature and then prepare those foods for your dog. In the supermarket or even specialty shops many kibble style dog foods are over abundant in starches or grain, many don’t even include a meat source. Many are made of corn, which is low cost and has a long shelf life along with starches, which are commonly utilized in “grain free” diets, which are totally misrepresented by their advertising. Many companies’ labels or bag designs look beautiful with fresh meats or their commercials have a wolf seeking prey or a lovable dogs just gobbling up a diet in a bowl. Fresh meat in today’s established, accepted, law bidding practices are actually liquid forms of that specified “meat” in a slurry, or gel so that it can be effectively processed by factory machines. It is very far from the meat we know in a butchers shop. Wet dog foods that are canned have water (enough for processing) as a first ingredient, without saying too much, how much canned meat do you eat? What is best for your dog is either for you to prepare a dish for the dog yourself, or purchase a richer higher digestible diet and supplement with raw product such as hamburger or chicken regularly, once in a while or whatever works for your lifestyle. In many instances it actually can cost the same or even less to feed a better quality product, as you feed less of a quality product resulting in better digestibility, which usually results in a healthier level of being, thereby minimizing unscheduled medical costs.