Dog Diet Quality - What Makes A Healthy Dog Food?

Healthy Dog through Diet

While dogs need an adequate amount of food for optimal health, what kind of food they eat is often of critical importance for their health and well being.  What is the best food for dogs?

Choosing one with a meat listed FIRST on the ingredient list on the dog food container or bag.

A Meat Should Be Listed First

Ensure the first ingredient listed is a meat when looking for a quality food for dogs. Most commercial grade dog foods list wheat, corn, meat by-products, meal, or soy as the first ingredient. Actually, often the first 3 or 4 ingredients are not a meat, but a filler. These are  nutritionally NOT the best food for your dog and, in fact, seem to encourage dog allergies and other health complications.

When looking at the dog food labels, choose a food that specifically says chicken, turkey, fish, beef, or lamb. Novel meats like rabbit, salmon, duck, lamb, or venison may be interspersed with the traditional meats or on their own.  If you think your dog has allergic reactions with one type of meat, try a different food with another meat featured.

A Perfect Blend Ratio?

Many veterinarians recommend a dog food that contains a 40/50/10 ratio. This ratio splits up required nutrition categories as 40% meat, 50% vegetables, and 10% carbohydrates. Instead of a beef or chicken meat, try using turkey or fish instead.

Try avoiding dog foods with animal by-products and preservatives like BHA, BHT, and ethoxyguin.  Since these specific preservatives are being looked into as possible cancer causing agents, it’s a good idea to stay away from dog food with these ingredients. There should be no fillers included in the list of ingredients nor any potentially harmful preservatives containing chemicals that may trigger dog health conditions.

Organic or Hypoallergenic?

Hypoallergenic dog food contains no fillers, preservatives, additives, or meat by-products. These foods are specifically blended to help your dog avoid food or fillers that often trigger health conditions like allergic reactions.

Some hypoallergenic dog food brands available on the market are Addiction Pet Food, Health Pro, Hills Prescription Diet, Holistic Blend, Purina Veterinary Diets HA Hypoallergenic Canine Formula, and Nutro Ultra Holistic.

Organic dog foods have no artificial colors or enhanced flavors. There are no harmful pesticides or any chemical additives added. Dog food that is called organic contains only quality proteins and good grain ingredients of high nutritional value. This concept supports your pets immune system and assists with immunity to skin infections.

Some organic dog food brands are Innova, EVO, California Natural, HealthWise, and Karma.

Supplements for Dog Allergies

Food supplements to complement your dog’s diet to help resist dog allergies are enzymes, fish oil or omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamins A, C, and E, and Selenium. Adding any or all of these supplements to your dog’s diet will help strengthen their immune systems. It will also help in minimizing or preventing pain, itching, and inflammation that having an allergy brings.

Probiotics will also assist in controlling the pain and discomfort that allergies can bring. Yogurt containing lactobacillus, a live culture bacteria, is a great food to give dogs with allergies. Plain yogurt can be mixed into dry dog food or given by itself. Yogurt can also be used topically to relieve dry, itchy, and inflamed skin.

While there may not be any one perfect food for dogs, if you use these guidelines, you will be able to pick a food that will lend the most health benefits to your dog.

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Using Diet to Treat Diarrhea in Dogs

Diarrhea is part of the canine condition. Most dogs do not have what could be called a discriminating palate. Their willingness to sample almost anything that vaguely resembles food is responsible for a large proportion of acute diarrhea cases (I know there’s nothing “cute” about diarrhea; in this context “acute” means “of short duration”).

Thankfully, diarrhea that results from dietary indiscretion is relatively simple to treat. Some cases resolve on their own, but most owners are looking for ways to reduce the severity and duration of their dogs’ symptoms. Minimizing diarrhea serves everyone’s best interests. Diarrhea is a quality of life issue for both dogs and the people who have to clean up the messes they make and/or get up in the middle of the night to let them out.

Two types of dietary therapy are helpful in the treatment of diarrhea. Which is best depends on the kind of diarrhea that a dog has. When the problem lies primarily within the small intestine, dogs develop what is called small bowel diarrhea (hence the name). Dogs with small bowel diarrhea typically produce large amounts of soft stool but do so just a few times a day. When abnormalities are centered in the colon, affected dogs will usually strain to produce small amounts of watery stool frequently throughout the day. This is large bowel diarrhea.

Small bowel diarrhea responds best to a bland, low fat, easily digested diet. White rice combined with either boiled white meat chicken (no bones or skin), cottage cheese, or tofu are all easy to prepare at home, and similar commercially available, prescription diets are also available. For large bowel diarrhea, a high fiber diet has been shown to be beneficial. Ideally, both soluble fiber (the type colonic bacteria use for food) and insoluble (indigestible) fiber should be included. It appears that fiber helps decrease straining and encourages the innermost surface of the colon to heal. Foods that are high in fiber are widely available (many are advertised to help with weight maintenance).

If you are unsure of what type of diarrhea your dog has (some dogs have symptoms associated with both), one way to hedge your bets is to prepare a bland diet as is described above and then add psyllium mucilloid (a source of soluble fiber) to it. Psyllium mucilloid (e.g., unflavored Metamucil) is available over the counter and can be given to dogs at a dose of one teaspoon per five pounds body weight.

Of course, treating diarrhea at home is only appropriate when a dog is otherwise feeling fine. If any of the following apply, it is safest to first consult with your veterinarian:

• The diarrhea is profuse, frequent, and very watery.


• The diarrhea contains more than just a streak of blood or is dark and tarry.


• The pet is vomiting, lethargic, depressed, and/or in pain.


• The pet is very young, very old, or has a preexisting condition that could make it unable to handle even mild dehydration.

Dr. Jennifer Coates

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