The Best Dog Food Brands for Your Store

Food is the absolute most important product any pet business sells, because a pet’s health and wellness are dependent on the maintenance of a healthy diet. That’s why it’s so crucial for pet business proprietors to become educated about proper dog nutrition and the best dog food brands on the market.

Here are some tips to help you get started.

Dogs’ Basic Nutritional Needs

To understand what canines need to remain healthy and happy, one must first consider that they are omnivorous; they are not obligate carnivores, like cats. But they are not “true” omnivores, either. (I guess you could say they are omnivores of convenience. As most dog owners will attest, many canines will eat anything if given the chance; they’re not fussy!)

As they are descended from ancestral wolves who roamed the earth thousands of years ago, dogs do lean more toward the carnivorous side. As such, they are best able to thrive when fed diets high in quality meat protein as derived from such meats as beef and poultry, among others (not meat by-products).

Many experts say canines may benefit from a certain amount of fruits and vegetables, plus a bit of whole grains such as barley or oats. Conversely, other experts say that dog foods should be grain-free, as many canines are prone to allergies to these products. Meanwhile, many of the premium natural and holistic dog food brands contain such ingredients as pumpkin, rice, cranberries and potatoes, to name a sampling.

This can get quite confusing. But generally, canines should be fed diets that have a much higher ratio of protein to carbs.

Fido Needs Fat, Too

Dogs do need a certain amount of fat in their diets, depending on their age, size, weight, breed and lifestyle. For example, puppies, nursing mom dogs, extremely active dogs and working dogs require more calories from fat than inactive and/or overweight pooches. Regardless, the fat ratio should generally be no more than 18 to 20 percent.

The Dry Pet Food Controversy

In recent times, a great many canine nutrition experts have virtually demonized dry foods for pets. One reason is because many of the commercial dry dog food brands are very high in carbohydrates and don’t contain enough of the nutrients dogs need. Some commercial dog foods contain up to a whopping 70 percent of carbs. Considering that dogs require less than 30 percent of these, this is a great cause for concern among pet nutrition experts. While dogs do need some carbs – the right kind, at least – for fiber and energy, too much can lead to serious health problems such as obesity. This may also result in diabetes, cardiac disease and other ailments.

Some Good Dog Food Brands to Consider

When considering what brands of dry food you should carry, select those that are high in protein and low in carbs.

Here are some respected dry dog food brands for starters:

• Wellness
• Orijen
• Innova Evo Red Meat Large and Small Bites
• Pinnacle
• Canidae

Best Canned Dog Food Brands

Overall, numerous pet nutrition experts claim that wet dog foods really are the best options for a dog’s diet. Despite the pet food recalls of 2007, many say that these still offer the highest quality and best nutrition for pets. Plus, they contain far more moisture than dry foods, which is also important to a pet’s health.

There are many well-regarded canned dog food brands.

Some other respected ones are:

• Merrick
• Wysong
• Halo Spot’s Stew
• ZiwiPeak

The Raw Diet

This is also known by the acronym B.A.R.F., which stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods diet. While I did touch on this in my story about best cat foods, I felt that this merited an entire article unto itself. Just click on the blue subhead link above this paragraph to read the full story.

A Parting Note

Many customers may balk at the costs of these foods. Indeed, these are considerably pricier than the popular commercial dog food brands found in supermarkets. So be sure to remind dog parents that splurging on high-quality pet food will cost a lot less in the long run, in terms of vet bills and heartache. Plus, their pets are worth it!

(For information about brands that some respected pet retailers like, please refer to my article "Pet Foods the Pros Recommend".)