General - This table helps you compare kibble ingredients. List the first 9 ingredients from the bag you're using or considering. Indicate unhealthy ingredients with red, healthy ingredients with green, and filler ingredients with blue.

Compare - See how your kibble compares. Avoid all kibble containing unhealthy ingredients. You're left with ones containing mostly healthy ingredients and filler ingredients. Now, minimize duplicate filler ingredients-especially wheat, corn, and soy.

Wisdom - Now that you know what to avoid, you can make wise food choices for your dog. You'll soon notice that the kibbles most widely advertised or sold by many veterinarians are not the best choices for your canine companion. Look to the Whole Dog Journal (see references) for their annual kibble rating.

Healthy Meat Ingredients (organic is better)
Turkey & Turkey meal
Chicken & Chicken meal
[Named] Fish & Fish meal (e.g.: mackerel)
Lamb & Lamb meal

Unhealthy Ingredients (just plain unhealthy)
By-products
Corn Gluten meal
(any) Digest
Glandular (anything)
Meat & Bone meal
Salt
Sugar
BHA & BHT (preservatives)
Ethoxyquin (preservative)
Non-specific meal-fat

Filler Ingredients (cheap, readily available, takes up space, poor nutrition source)
(* = frequent cause of allergies)
(any) bran, flour,
gluten meal
Cellulose
Oats
Peanut hulls
Soy*
Wheat*
Corn*

References: To Learn More

Animal Protection Institute: www.api4animals.org/
Whole Dog Journal: www.whole-dog-journal.com
American Holistic Veterinary Medicine Association: www.ahvma.org

Dog Food Cost
Premium kibble is more expensive than kibble that contains cheap, nutritionally poor quality ingredients (this should not surprise you).

However, a $40 bag of premium kibble will typically be fed at considerably less than $1.00 per day. If that seems excessive, think about how much you spend a day for cable TV ($1.45), designer coffee ($2), etc. Please put the nutritional health of your canine companion in perspective.

Who Makes What?
Many major pet food companies in the United States are subsidiaries of major multinational companies. Typically, brands from the same manufacturer contain the same ingredients merely arranged differently.

Nestlé - Purina products: Alpo, Beneful, Dog Chow, Kibbles and Chunks, HiPro, Mighty Dog, Pro Plan, Puppy Chow, Purina One
Del Monte - Cycle, Gravy Train, Kibbles 'n Bits, Nature's Recipe
Colgate - Hill's products: Science Diet and Prescription Diet
Procter & Gamble - Eukanuba and Iams
Mars - Kal Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree, Nutro