Compare Dog Foods The Right Way -
The Five Vital Ingredients to Look For

Did you realize that if you feed your dog high quality dog food it can live up to five years longer? So you want to buy the best dog food for your best friend, and you have tried looking at dog food reviews, but how can you compare dog food brands when you are not even sure what you should be looking for?

You daren't trust the dog food comparison sites on the internet, because you believe that they often work on behalf of one of the pet food companies and cannot be trusted -- and very often you are right.

But in fact to compare dog foods you only have to look for five essential ingredients: protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins.

• Ingredient #1: Protein: Dogs can make some of their own amino acids, but there are ten of them that they have to get from their food because they cannot make them. These amino acids come from proteins; suitable examples are meat and eggs -- and your choice of protein should be animal, not vegetable protein. However the animal protein must be real meat -- check the list of ingredients to make sure the source of protein is animal meat, and not "animal by-products"; your pet needs good-quality protein in his diet. In fact, protein should always be the first item listed in the ingredients because it should be the main one.
  
• Ingredient #2: Fatty acids: these are another essential part of your dog's diet since they cannot make them themselves. Your pet needs fatty acids for various health reasons including healthy skin and coat, fighting diseases, and basically living a long and healthy life. Fats are also a great source of energy -- but make sure they burn off any surplus!
  
• Ingredient #3: Carbohydrates: A second important source of energy for your dog is carbohydrate found in vegetables, grains, and fruit and other similar dietary fiber. However avoid corn gluten and wheat gluten, since your dog may have problems digesting it.
  
• Ingredient #4: Minerals: there is a long list of essential minerals, but they include calcium, magnesium, sodium, iron, potassium, zinc, copper, phosphorus, and selenium. Talk with your veterinarian or pet shop to check the full list, but ensure that any diet you feed your dog has some or all of these minerals.
  
• Ingredient #5: Vitamins: Dogs are just like humans in that they need a set of essential vitamins to keep them healthy; the most important of these are Vitamins A, B1, B5, B12, D, E, and K, plus riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, and folic acid.

So in fact dog nutrition is simple: all of these ingredients should be present in your dog's diet to ensure they stay healthy and live a long and productive life.

When you are comparing dog foods and recipes for your pet, ensure you feed your dog a diet that contains all of the five nutrients listed above. If you can find more than one source of such nutrients, that's good since it gives you the opportunity to vary the diet, plus gives you a fall-back if your dog becomes picky about his food.