Choosing Your Puppy's Food

It is hard to recommend a specific dog food that your puppy should be on. Different people swear by different brands of dog food. And different brands work better for certain breeds over others. Keep in mind that dogs are just like individual people – some foods may not agree with your pup and cause allergies or stomach upset. One thing that is safe to say – if you are buying your dog food in a grocery store or major chain like Wal-Mart, you are definitely feeding your dog the wrong stuff. Always check the ingredient list on the package. Dogs do not readily digest corn, soy or wheat, so if those are the first ingredients on the dog food – run away. Put the bag down and carefully, but quickly back away from it. You want as many whole,natural ingredients listed first on the bag as possible, with a meat source being listed first. It is worth it to spend a little time researching the proper food for your dog.

What to Feed Your Pup
There are literally hundreds of different brands of dog food on the market. It can all be a little confusing and overwhelming when trying to decide which one. An excellent dog food site: Dog Food Analysis can help take out some of the confusion. They have comprehensive ingredient listings as well as analysis and information on the ingredients and their proportions in the food. Ideally, you will want to choose a grain free dog food. Grains are not a natural part of the canine diet.

You may balk at paying more for a high quality five or six star food, but generally speaking, you feed less food than the lower grade dog foods, so it’s not as expensive as you may think. The dog foods found in the grocery stores or chain pet stores amount to the equivalent of doggie junk food. Many of those foods not only contain corn and wheat as their primary ingredients, but also artificial food coloring and sugar! With these foods, you have to feed your dog more to keep him satisfied, therefore you go through more dog food every month. And besides, the more that goes in, means the more that comes out and more that you have to pick up later.

Treats
Though it may be tempting to buy treats for your puppy, make sure any treats you buy are specifically made for puppies. Puppies’ digestive systems are still maturing and are not as tolerant of different foods as adult tummies would be. Stick to training treats and dog biscuits specially made for puppies. If you are looking for training treats, you can even use some of your puppy's kibble as treats.

A Word About Grocery Store Dog Food
As mentioned earlier, it cannot be stressed enough how bad the dog food is that you get in a grocery store. It may seem easy just to pick up Fido's food while you're getting your own, but please don't. The dog food you get in the grocery stores, major retailers and even some of the large pet store chains are not good foods. The dog food you find there is mostly manufactured by subsidiary companies of human food companies. What they use is the waste products, otherwise known as by-products of the human food industry to make their dog food. By-products are what's left at the end of the manufacturing process after everything good has been stripped from the food. It is an attempt to squeeze every last dime out of their ingredients. The result is an inferior food that has little nutritional value to it and is even unhealthy for your pet. Much of this food is preserved with chemicals that aren't allowed in human food because they are suspected of casuing cancer. Don't get fooled by words such as "Premium", "Natural", "Fresh" or "Holistic". There is nothing redeeming about these foods. Most contain at least one of the Unholy Dog Trinity of corn, wheat and soy as fillers. Dogs cannot digest these grains and they are also known to cause allergies, health problems and hyperactivity. Remember to read the label before you buy!