Best ingredient....

Can I answer all three? Okay, I'm going to...

*The first ingredient has to be some type of meat meal- like chicken meal, turkey meal, etc.

*There are a lot of ingredients that prevent me from buying a food, but I'll just list one- brewer's yeast.

*I would like to see them add coconut oil.

 

fish n dog

What is the most important ingredient your dog needs that you must have in a kibble ? Or you won't buy it...  

     In all honesty, I tend to look at what is in the vitamin premix moreso than indivigual ingredients. Because a fancy lsit is great, but at the end of the day, kibble is still a cooked product and does need certain nutrients & fatty acids added to balance out what was lost in the cooking process, or what vitamins/minerals are not naturally in the ingredients. I'm very particular about where folic acid is on the list, because in my personal experience, this is a gauge of the quality & results a food will give. In cheap feeds, you will see folic acid waaaay down the list as the last or next to the last ingredient. Diamond is a prime example of this - they make many great looking feeds at a reasonable price, but the vitamin premix is just ok. Nothing so great about it, folic acid is always last on all their products. It's such a critical vitamin that I've become a folic acid snob, and won't use a food that doesn't contain it in reasonable amounts. Really. I actually look @ the last ingredient first, to check that it's not folic acid

 

fish n dog

What is the one thing you see on an ingredient panel that prevents you from buying it ?(such as an allergen)

     Pork is always a deal breaker. I have one whose seizures are triggered by pork, even the most trivial amounts. Raw, cooked, he just can't have it, and since all the adults are on the same food, nothing with pork for us. Another thing I'm not thrilled about seeing is kelp. It has been known to tinge the coat of my black dog witha reddish/brown cast, so if it's high up on the list, I don't buy it. I also don't want to see any artificial sweeteners such as sorbitol, to make the kibble chewy. No colors - my dogs don't need rainbow food. One thing I've always stuck to is no artificial preservatives, either.
     Oh, and fish. I will not feed any food that contains fish as the main ingredient due to the fact that most of it is preserved with ethoxyquin and does not need to be listed on the bag or disclosed by the manufacturer because it's not something they added. Fish is also a urinary alkalizer. Feeding it for a prolonged period of time can offset the Ph balance of the urine & cause UTIs, stones and kidney problems. 

 

fish n dog

What are the Kibble makers leaving out you would add ?(you have to supplement diet)

     That's a good one ... Hmmm, I would probably have to say most still don't use chelated/proteinated minerals, and I wish they all did! Would make me SO happy! lol I also would like more dog food companies to start adding in taurine to their feeds. Oh, and finding different sources of fat might make my day, too. HATE chicken fat with a passion! It's a necessary evil sometimes, but it's just so high in Omega 6, can be very difficult to balance that with enough Omega 3. So usually on foods with chicken fat, I'm supplementing them with flax or fish oil. I will probably always supplement - I give mostly raw fatty beef scraps, ground chuck, lamb ribs, and occasionally quarters when I can get them @ rock bottom prices. Just think they do better with some raw in the diet, don't think feeding any one diet is best. This way, any nutritional gaps do get filled in, or anything that is just inherently missing from kibble is replaced with the raw.

 

About the only thing that's a complete deal-breaker for me is if a food contains one of my allergy dog's triggers.

What is the most important ingredient your dog needs that you must have in a kibble ? Or you won't buy it... Meat as the main protein source. What is the one thing you see on an ingredient panel that prevents you from buying it ?(such as an allergen) Generic parts, fractionated grains/carbs, and gluten of any kind. What are the Kibble makers leaving out you would add ?(you have to supplement diet) Real meat/animal fat, and fish oil - but neither is practical to try to add to kibble.

I only buy grain free foods.  That is above & beyond the first thing I look for and I always flip over the bag to read the ingredient list.

I look for the food to contain sweet potato, also, because my dogs have much better/more consistent bowel movements with the addition of this ingredient (versus when I fed Evo).

Most important ingredient for me is chelated minerals. My dogs seem to do the best with these in the vitamin formulations. They hold much nicer coat, my minpin does not shed much at all (they are generally constant shedders) and the bichons have nice, thick, full coats. Anecdotal at best, but put them on a food with un-chelated minerals and minpin, Gobie's coat dulls from nice clear red to tan and sheds a lot and the bichon girls' coats thin out. Many different types of grains or fragments keeps me from buying a food. Also, I don't like to see that "everything but the kitchen sink" formulation. Hmm, not sure about what the kibble makers are leaving out. I'd like to see more truth in the manufacturing process I guess.