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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Can Dog Food Cause Diarrhea In Dogs

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Does People Food Cause Diarrhea in Dogs?

While most people feed their dogs commercial dog food, they do feed table scraps, which is considered “people food.” Some dog owners feed a cooked diet and some feed a raw diet. Both of these diets consist of “people food.” While there is no scientific research that people food is better for dogs, the many who do feed people food find that the dogs are healthier and happier with the varied diet.

People food may cause diarrhea in dogs if the dog is not used to a varied diet. If you have never fed your dog even a table scrap and the dog has a sensitive stomach, certain fatty foods may cause a bout a diarrhea in some dogs, while it will not bother dogs with hardy stomachs.

If you have always let your dogs lick plates and eat leftovers, converting the dog’s diet to people food usually does not cause a problem as they are used to the varied foods, including fatty foods.

Once you have decided to change your dog’s diet, whether to cooked or raw people food, you can approach the change in one of two ways. If the dog is used to eating different things (even different brands of commercial dog food), you can just start feeding people food to the dog. If you think you may have a problem, start out with one protein at a time. Problem dogs are dogs that have showed an intolerance to commercial dog food brand changes and dogs that have loose stools when fed table scraps.

Feed the single protein (i.e. chicken only, beef only, emu only) for a week. If the dog does not have diarrhea and does not itch, that protein is OK to continue feeding. You can then add a second protein. Keep adding proteins. If you notice the dog starts to get diarrhea after feeding lamb, for example, cut lamb completely out of the diet. If the diarrhea goes away, you can try adding lamb again. If there is still a problem, your dog is not going to tolerate lamb in the form you are feeding (if feeding raw; the dog may tolerate cooked).

Some dogs also get diarrhea when fed fatty meats. The skin and lumps of fat on chicken often cause dogs with sensitive stomachs to have diarrhea. You can feed just a bit of it at a time until the dog gets accustomed to the fat.




Feeding organs such as liver will also cause diarrhea in dogs. Start out with just a teaspoon of any organ and work your way up to about 10 percent of the meal as organ. A well-rounded “people food” meal will consist of about 10 percent organs every couple of days.

You can settle your dog’s stomach by cooking chicken and rice. Cook the chicken and rice together so that the rice is overcooked. Remove the bones from the chicken (the meat should practically fall off at this point). Strain the broth into a container (do not throw it away). Add a bit of the broth on top of the chicken and rice in the dog’s bowl. Put the leftover chicken, rice and broth in the fridge. For the next meal, lightly heat enough of the chicken, rice and broth for one meal.




Canned pumpkin (the kind without all the spices — it must be plain canned pumpkin) will also help firm up a dog’s stool. A teaspoon for a medium to large dog is enough. You can feed it directly to the dog, if it will eat it, or you can mix it right in with its food.

FOOD THAT ARE TOXIC TO DOGS

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Alcohol - I’m sure you’ve heard of the birthday parties where the dog accidentally gets into some of the spilled keg beer, and then gets all silly to the amusement of the crowd. While it may be funny to you, it’s not funny to your dog. Alcohol can cause not only intoxication, lack of coordination, poor breathing, and abnormal acidity, but potentially even coma and/or death.

Apple Seeds - Apple seeds are toxic to a dog as they contain a natural chemical that releases cyanide when digested. So, be sure to core and seed apples before you feed them to your dog.

Avocado - Avocados contain Persin, which can cause diarrhea, vomiting, and heart congestion.

Baby food - baby food by itself isn’t terrible, just make sure it doesn’t contain any onion powder. Baby food also doesn’t contain all the nutrients a dog relies on for a healthy, well maintained diet.

Bones - the danger with bones isn’t the nutritional content, nor is it necessarily the danger of chocking. Rather, you need to be careful with bones from meat sources such as chicken and fish because they can harm your dog’s digestive tract when the bones splinter inside the body.

Candy and chewing gum - not only does candy contain sugar, but it often contains Xilotyl, which can lead to the over-release of insulin, kidney failure, and worse.

Cat food - not that they would want this anyways but cat food contains proteins and fats that are targeted at the diet of a cat, not a dog. The protein and fat levels in cat food are too high for your dog, and not healthy.

Chocolate - You’ve probably heard this before, but chocolate is a definite no no for your pup. And it’s not just about caffeine, which is enough to harm your dog by itself, but theobromine and theophylline, which can be toxic, cause panting, vomiting, and diarrhea, and damage your dog’s heart and nervous systems.

Citrus oil extracts - can cause vomiting.

Coffee - Not sure why you would give your dog coffee, but pretty much the same applies here as to chocolate. This is essentially poison for your dog if ingested.

Corn on the cob - this is a sure way to get your dog’s intestine blocked. The corn is digested, but the cob gets lodged in the small intestine, and if it’s not removed surgically, can prove fatal to your dog. Additionally, too much corn kernels can upset the digestive tract as well so be cautious to not feed to much.

Fat trimmings - can cause pancreatitis.

Fish - the primary fish that you need to be careful about are salmon and trout. They contain a parasite that while not harmful to humans, even when fully cooked, can do a number on your poor pup so be cautious.

Grapes and raisins - this is one that lots of dog owners are unaware of. Grapes contain a toxin that can cause severe liver damage and kidney failure. We’ve heard stories of dogs dying from only a handful of grapes so do not feed your pup this toxic food.

Hops - an ingredient in beer that can be toxic to your dog. The consumption of hops by your dog can cause panting, an increased heart rate, fever, seizures, and even death.

Human vitamins - some human vitamins are okay to use – the key is comparing the ingredients (all of them – active and inactive) to the vitamins your vet subscribes for your dog (often you can get the human equivalent for much less money). Make sure there’s no iron – iron can damage the digestive system lining, and prove poisonous for the liver and kidneys.

Liver - avoid feeding too much liver to your dog. Liver contains quite a bit of Vitamin A, which can adversely affect your pup’s muscles and bones.

Macadamia nuts - these contain a toxin that can inhibit locomotory activities, resulting in weakness, panting, swollen limbs, and tremors as well as possible damage to your dog’s digestive, nervous, and muscle systems.

Marijuana - not that you would pass the bong to your dog, but if you do, you should know that it can adversely affect your pup’s nervous system and heart rate, and induce vomiting.

Milk and dairy products - while small doses aren’t going to kill your dog, you could get some smelly farts and some nasty cases of diarrhea. Why? Dogs are lactose intolerant (as are an increasing number of humans today), and don’t have enough of the lactase enzyme to properly digest dairy foods. If you really need to give them dairy, look into lactose-free dairy products.

Mushrooms - Just as the wrong mushroom can be fatal to humans, the same applies to dogs. Don’t mess with them.

Onions, garlic, and chives - no matter what form they’re in (dry, raw, cooked, powder, within other foods), onions and garlic (especially onions) are some of the absolute worst foods you could possibly give your pup (it’s poisonous for dogs, and its even worse for cats). They contain disulfides and sulfoxides (thiosulphate), both of which can cause anemia and damage red blood cells.

Persimmons, peaches, and plums - if you live in an area that is home to persimmon, peach, or plum trees, look out. Persimmon seeds and peach and plum pits can cause intestinal obstruction and enteritis. You’ll want to make sure there aren’t any wild persimmon or other fruit trees that produce seeds growing in your backyard. If you notice your dog pooping all over the place, and see a bunch of seeds or pits in their waste, you’ll need to break out the saw and chop down some trees.

Potato, rhubarb, and tomato leaves - these contain oxalates, which can adversely affect the digestive, nervous, and urinary systems.

Raw eggs - the most obvious problem here is salmonella. But raw eggs also contain the Avidin enzyme, which inhibits the absorption of vitamin B (Biotin). Your dog uses vitamin B to keep a healthy coat and skin.

Raw fish - another vitamin B (Thiamine) deficiency can result from the regular consumption of raw fish. Loss of appetite will be common, followed by seizures, and in rare instances, death.

Salt - just like salt isn’t the healthiest thing for humans, it’s even less healthy for dogs. Too much of it can lead to an imbalance in electrolyte levels, dehydration and potentially diarrhea.

String - while not a food itself, foods can often contain or be similar to string (ie. meat you’ve wrapped for the oven). If your dog were to eat a string, it could get stuck in their digestive tract and cause complications.

Sugar - this applies to any food containing sugar. Make sure you check the ingredient label for human foods – corn syrup (which is a less expensive form of sugar or glucose) is found in just about everything these days. Too much sugar for your pup can lead to dental issues, obesity, and even diabetes.

Tobacco - a major toxic hazard for dogs (and humans). The effects nicotine has on dogs are far worse than on humans. Nicotine can damage your pup’s digestive and nervous systems, increase their heart rate, make them pass out, and ultimately result in death.

Yeast (on its own or in dough) - just like yeast rises in bread, it will also expand and rise within your pup’s tummy. Make sure they don’t get any. While mild cases will cause gas, lots of farting, and discomfort – too much of it could rupture their stomach and intestines.