glenmar
Posted : 8/18/2008 7:04:17 PM
Agreed.This is an excellent resource and you need to spend some time and really understand what you are looking for. But, in a nutshell, the ingredients that I don't like are corn, wheat, soy, grain glutens, grain fragments......incomplete sources of protein, extremely difficult for an animal to digest as well as common allergens. I won't use foods with animal by product. It's not BAD for a dog, but not as easily digestible as meat sources and in my opinion, real meat is better. I use no product that lists simply "meat byproduct" or "animal fat". I want to know specifically what the darned meat or fat IS. Poultry fat could be a number of things, chicken, turkey, sparrow.......
Your first ingredient should be a named meat, ie: chicken, turkey, lamb, etc, followed immediately, or very closely, by that same meat MEAL. Meal is the meat with all the moisture removed, so a more concentrated form of the meat. Many people, including myself years ago, don't know what meal is and think it must be a bad thing. To the contrary, it is a very good thing and it's absolutely fine to have that listed as a first ingredient, so long as it isn't immediately followed by a bunch of grains.