Josh Elledge - Chief Executive Angel
Today’s pet parents are concerned about the safety and quality of the ingredients they find in their dog’s food, with many going to great lengths and expense to avoid food that could have contaminants and pose health risks to their beloved companions. As a consumer advocate and dog lover myself, I wanted to find out how I could cut through all the massive amount of information and choices in the dog food world to find the right food for my doggy, Levi.Techniques like simply listening to dog food commercials, or even perusing specific websites for major dog food manufacturers, only led to more confusion. With so many varieties and brands in the marketplace today, and many claiming that their dog food is the best, safest, and most nutritious, I was getting nowhere. To get some help with this important task, I turned to DogFoodAdvisor.com.
The editor and creator of the website, Mike Sagman, started his journey to discover the truth behind dog food manufacturing and ingredient sourcing from his own personal loss. In the late 1990s, Mike and his family had adopted a frail, frightened shelter dog named Penny. Penny was nursed back to health by the family and became their beloved companion. But then tragedy struck when she was taken from them in 2007 by illness borne in the largest pet food recall in U.S. history; one that took the lives of thousands of pets. But Mike was unprepared for the shocking truths his research uncovered.
Mike states, “Pet food companies aren’t legally required to disclose anything about where they get their ingredients. So, even though a pet food label says ‘Made in the USA’, the ingredients themselves could legally come from just about anywhere… including China.” Mike goes on to say that he discovered that manufacturers of dog food can use numerous ingredients that are appalling, including: agricultural waste, food industry by-products, diseased and dying cattle, out-of-date grocery store meats… the list goes on and on.
With all this scary and overwhelming information, Mike needed a way to warn other pet parents. Thus DogFoodAdvisor.com was born. Enlisting the assistance of two dedicated research assistants, an experienced person in social media, and an extraordinarily knowledgeable veterinarian, Mike and his team have collaborated over the past 6 years to publish over 950 reviews and ratings – representing over 4,000 different products, including dry, wet, and raw foods. You can find almost any brand, and/or variety you need. But, admittedly, this can still be very overwhelming to wade through. So Mike gives a couple ways to more easily get the answers pet owners seek.
One of these ways is Mike’s three quick tips to narrowing down the best food for your dog:
Tip #1: Never buy any dog food that contains unidentified meat ingredients. To spot generic items, look for names like: meat meal, meat by-products, meat and bone meal, animal fat, and animal by-product meal.
Tip #2: Never buy any dog food that does not include the words “Complete and Balanced” on its label. This is a Nutritional Adequacy Statement, regulated by federal law, so it immediately eliminates dog foods that cannot legally make this claim.
Tip #3: Never buy any dog food that contains excessive fat. You do want a reasonable amount of fat as that is healthy for your dog, but too much of it can be a sign that your dog’s food may have been made with inferior ingredients. To evaluate the fat content, simply divide the amount of fat by the amount of protein. This gives you the fat-to-protein ratio. The higher the ratio, the higher the fat. Most dog foods fall between 50% and 70% ratio, anything higher is a red flag.
I highly recommend you research your dog’s food. Some foods I looked up on DogFoodAdvisor.com weren’t a surprise at all – but others were. I noticed that price was not necessarily a direct indicator of quality and safety. The positive and encouraging take-away I discovered is that you can find a good, quality food to fit almost any budget. And that makes both pet parent and pooch happy.
