Your dog is a part of your family and you want your pet to live a long and very healthy life. Your dog is always there for you, ready to play, snuggle, always loyal. Your pet relies on you, as their owner, to take care of them, give them a warm place to sleep, water to drink and healthy dog food to eat. They are not able to choose what is best for them.

Are you looking to buy the generic brand to save a few dollars? Are all dog foods the same? The answer is no, they're not. There are so many ingredients put into dog food that you can't even pronounce. Saving a few dollars now could cost you later at the vet's office when your baby starts to have some health issues. Surprisingly some premium pet foods are comparable in price because you actually feed less as they are more nutrient dense than their cheap counterparts. So many dog foods have mainly fillers that they label as protein. They are things such as soybean meal, corn meal, corn gluten meal, and maize wheat. These may be sources of protein, but they are not enough for your dog's health. They need meat.

There are also food colorings in dog food, and oddly enough, the dogs don't care what color the food is, all the marketing is for us, the pet owner. Food dyes can be made from chemicals. There have been many dog trainers that correlate food dye with hyperactive dogs, as it has been associated with hyperactive children. Chemical preservatives like BHA and BHT should not be on the ingredient list and should be avoided.

Another form the pet food manufacturers use is the by-product protein. These include necks, feet, intestines, lungs, ligaments, head and undeveloped eggs. Some pet foods contain no active cultures and other digestive aids. This is why some dogs have bloating, gas and bowel issues. Without this very important ingredient you pet might not be absorbing what nutrition is in the food! In the long run this can be very unhealthy.

The first ingredient should be a meat as it the most natural protein source for dogs. As do humans, animals benefit from fruits and vegetables and proper carbohydrate consumption. The free radicals that affect are health; affect your pet's health as well. That is why to neutralize them antioxidants are so important to have in their diet.

Nutrition or lack of can affect your dog's health which can include their coat, teeth, ears, nails, breath, energy and brain. Unfortunately it can also affect how long they live and the quality of life they live. All too many times I have seen dogs that have eaten not so healthy food. At first nothing seems wrong but just as humans if you keep eating ?junk food? it will eventually show some sign of distress like high cholesterol, lack of energy, hair dry and falling out, bad teeth, moodiness, obesity and more.