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Proper nutrition is the most important thing that you can give your pet. Because our dogs depend on us to feed them, it becomes our responsibility as owners to provide for them the food that they’ll need to live happy, disease-free lives.

There are a lot of options out there for dog food and dog treats, but many of them aren’t as good for your pet as the manufacturers would have you believe. In fact, some of these ingredients, when consumed over a long time and in large amounts, can be seriously harmful for your dog. Read each ingredient label carefully: these things that make up the dog food are listed by weight, so look at what your dog food is mostly made of.

Don’t buy foods and dog treats that list “meat byproducts” or a lot of wheat and grain ingredients like “potato product” or “grain fermentation solubles.” These grain by-products tend to add large amounts of carbohydrates in your dog’s diet. Many of these foods have up to 70 percent of carbohydrate ingredients, while the dog’s body is typically made to handle a diet that is less than 30 percent carbohydrate. The reasoning behind using these ingredients so much has more to do with the dog food manufacturer’s profit margins than any actual concern for pet nutrition. These byproducts are cheap, and they act as extenders for the dog food- thus, the manufacturers get to produce more food, at a fraction of the cost. But it’s your dog who pays for it in the end: digestive trouble, and obesity, and all the obesity-related health problems that come with it.

Animal by-products aren’t much of an improvement. While they do contribute protein in the diet, this meat is basically parts that are thrown away because they’re unfit for human consumption: lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, liver, blood, bone, and stomach and intestines. To make things worse, there is little to no regulation for the sources of this meat: it could be from a meat processing plant, but it could also be roadkill, or 4-D (dead, diseased, disabled, dying) livestock.

So read those labels carefully, and get to know what your dog is really eating. There are many premium dog food brands out there that primarily whole foods like meat from chicken or lamb, which are the best sources of nutrition for your dog. Wellness dog food and dog treats are a good example of brands whose ingredients will help your companion along for a healthy, happy life.

Feeding your pet some premium dog food can help you avoid the ingredients that many cheaper brands use as extender. The animal and grain byproducts which these manufacturers use in their food may be a better deal, but it’s your dog that ultimately pays the price, with obesity problems and bad digestion. Wellness dog food, along with other brands, can give you the option of buying dog food and dog treats that are made of human-grade ingredients, a suitable diet for a happy, healthy canine companion.

- Melinda Smith