Watch the latest Alpha Paw episodes with host Bernie Zilio as she tackles your pet parent questions, along with our board of pet experts. In this episode, she discusses the essential ingredients in healthy dog food. You can watch the video and read the transcript below!
The Transcript
Bernie Zilio
Finding the perfect dog food for your pup can be rough, but here’s what you should look for in your dog’s food to make sure that they’re getting the nutrition they need.
Welcome back to Alpha Paw, your destination for everything dog. I’m Bernie Zilio and I’m on a mission to answer every doggone question you’ve ever had about your fur babies and today we are talking about how to find the right dog food for your pup.
The Lowdown on Dog Food
There are a few things you definitely need to look out for when searching for kibble that will keep your dog healthy and happy. The first thing you want to look for on your dog’s food ingredient list is real foods! It’s important that your pup is getting real, high-quality proteins, grains, and veggies…and not just a bunch of preservatives, fake colors, artificial flavors, or low-quality foods.
This brings me to the next thing you should look for in your dog’s food: the right balance of protein, fat, carbohydrates, and nutrients. Because our pets’ ancestors are carnivores, you want to make sure that the first ingredient on the list is protein and ideally meat.
Why Do You Need Protein In Dog Food?
Protein is essentially a combination of amino acids—which plays many roles in the body, including maintaining muscle, fur, skin, and nails. It’s responsible for making critical components of the immune system and forming enzymes that catalyze chemical reactions in cells.
It is a crucial source of energy for pets. Although some dogs can have a vegetarian diet, it’s better if it is some form of meat. Now if you’re like me, when you first got your pup, everyone and their mom were probably telling you that you have to put your dog on a grain-free diet or a raw diet or something like that.
Can You Feed Your Pup Raw Meat?
But as you’ve probably heard our in-house vet, Dr. Ross, talk about on the show before, this is actually pretty bad for our pups. Raw diets can give our dogs things like salmonella and according to the FDA, grain-free diets have a higher incidence of heart disease in dogs than diets that do have grains.
Leave them in the comments section. Again, I’m Bernie Zilio and this is Alpha Paw, be sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss a single doggone episode and we’ll see you next time!
