If you know you’re going to be getting a puppy, shopping for its needs before you bring him into your home is the ideal situation.  However, I know that for many of us, this is not what happens.  Nevertheless, there are some products you definitely need to pick up for your pup’s first night home.  Here are Magellan’s picks:

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Today, I spent some time researching into what you should be looking for in your dog’s food. I did a lot of investigating into dog food comparisons, because our puppy is nearing the end of his current brand (Nutro Max for Large Breed Puppies).  We decided on Innova Large Breed Puppy dry food,** because we feel it is a good fit both our pup’s lifestyle and needs. 

I really feel like I’ve increased my knowledge, but at the same time, I feel pretty confused and overwhelmed by all of the available information (and sometimes, the lack of information). I thought I would summarize some of what I’ve learned today.

• Approved ingredients do not necessarily mean they’re GOOD for your pet. Unlike with humans, the dog food industry doesn’t have to adhere to the same strict standards nor do they have nearly as many competing interests to cope with. Also, many influential people may not even have sufficient nutritional knowledge to make good decisions.
• Don’t eliminate preservatives from your choice of dog food (if you are going packaged), because no perservatives can cause food to go rancid. There are both synthetic and natural preservatives, and obviously, the natural ones are better.
• All protein or all-meat diets are not better than a mixture between protein and non-protein. While it is true that wild dogs ate quite a bit of protein, domesticated dogs don’t do nearly as much activity-wise as those wild dogs.
• Just like in human food ingredient lists, you don’t want to see a lot of ingredients you can’t pronounce. You also don’t want to see words like “byproducts.”

Dog Food Ingredients

• Good protein ingredients you want to see are: chicken, chicken meal, turkey, turkey meal, lamb, lamb mela, duck, duck meal, beef, beef meal, eggs, etc.
• Limit these proteins: byproducts, corn gluten, corn gluten meal.
• Avoid these porteins: byproduct meals, generic meat ingredients (e.g. poultry byproducts, meat meal), corn as the first ingredient, corn gluten or soy meal as main ingredients.
• Good fats and oils you want to see are: chicken fat, ehrring oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, flax oil.
• Avoid fats and oils that are vague, like animal fat or poultry fat, and mineral oil.
• Good carbohydrates you want to see are: whole grains like rice, oats, barley, potatoes, peas. Corn can be included when in reasonable amounts and not a main ingredient.
• Avoid carbohydrates like: potato products, middlings, cereal food fines, etc.
• Avoid fiber ingredients like: corn bran, peanut hulls, rice hulls, soybean hulls, and oat hulls.
• Good preservatives you want to see are: Mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E), Rosemary, Sage, Clove Extract, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin C
• Avoid preservatives ilke BHA (Butylated Hydroxysanisole), BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene), Ethoxyquin, TBHQ (Tertiary Butylhydroquinone), Sodium Metabisulphite.
• Avoid products with sugars, like cane molasses, corn syrup, sugar, sucrose, etc.

For more ingredient help, visit the Dog Food Project. For some easy and simple, try Natura’s chart (Yes, they sell pet food, but their list concurs with many of the resources and texts I’ve read).

** We are aware that some people believe “large breed” labeling is bull–but I am not convinced that it has negative results, only potential positive ones, so why not err on the side of caution?

I used the following websites both in my personal research as well as writing this article; they are incredibly helpful for those wanting to know more.

• 22 Dog Food Myths
• More Dog Food Mythbusting
• The Dog Food Project
• Dog Food Analysis Reviews