The Importance of Understanding Labels
Unless your dog gets his fresh meats, fruits and vegetables from a special raw food diet, he's probably getting it from a commercial dog food. Understanding the food label for his food is more important than understanding a single label on your own food, since it's probably his main source of nutrion.
Because manufacturers are required to list ingredients by order of weight, they may break down one lesser desirable ingredient into several smaller ingredients so the levels look smaller and end up at the bottom of the label.
Moisture Level
Moisture levels will dictate not only the actual price per pound you're paying but also the actual percentage of protein and fat. Canned foods with 75% moisture contain only 25% actual food, the rest is water. Dry foods with 8% moisture will leave you with 92% food.
It's a little harder to calculate the protein and fat levels because the stated levels are as shipped (with the moisture). Canned foods show protein levels which appear smaller than dry foods. If the label states 5% protein and 80% moisture, simply take the 5% protein and divide it by the dry portion of food (100% - 80% moisture = 20% dry); i.e. 5% / 20% = 25% (or 25 percent protein).
Meat vs. Meat By-products
Don't be fooled, dogs and cats are carnivorous and they do best on a meat diet. You want to give them food labeled as lamb, chicken, venison, turkey, cattle, etc.. These are meats from the flesh of slaughtered animals vs. meat by-products which does not include actual meat, but things like kidneys, brains, lungs, bone, blood, etc..
Grains
While grain in dog food is not harmful per se, it serves as no great nutritional value to your Rottweiler either. Whole grains found in most commercial dog food are deemed unfit for human consumption. Other grain is normally the left over process of starch or oil extraction and not ideal for your pet's digestion.
Fruits & Vegetables
These will probably be listed towards the bottom of the ingredients label as small amounts are rarely used. Common ingredients include carrots, blueberries, peas and potatoes. These are a nice touch but should not be the deciding factor in choosing your pet's dog food.
Fats & Oils
Dogs need to have a certain amount of fats and oils to keep their coats shinny and healthy and for other critical areas of their body like the brain.
Some fats and oils are more valuable than others and may be high in non-harmful saturated fat, but low in the more valuable fatty acids. Avoid animal and poultry fat, vegetable oil and mineral oil. Look for named fats like chicken fat that is naturally preserved.
Flavoring
These may be listed but have little to do with nutrition. Look for flavorings like "stock" or "broth".
Things Your Rottie Dosn't Need
In a perfect world, all dog foods would be made with nothing but the finest ingredients and each would work equally well for all breeds. It is also unreasonable to think ALL dog food manufacturers out there are only concerned with lining their pockets and not their company's reputation, that's just not true. There are many good reputable foods available at discount pet shops.
Here is a list of common ingredients your pet doesn't need:
- Animal Fat - Used to disguise good fats.
- Brewers Rice - Processed rice with little or no nutrients left.
- Caramel Color - Better than gray! Sugar based.
- Corn Gluten Meal - Waste product, cheap, non-nutritive filler.
- Dicalcium Phosphate - A texturizer for canned foods.
- Dried Beet Pulp - A cheap sugar rush. May be addicting.
- Ground Rice - Probably floor sweepings).
- Iron Oxide - Found in 12% of dog foods (it's rust!).
- Meat By-products - Organs, tissue (anything but meat).
- Poultry By-products - Ground up carcasses.
- Red 40 - Artificial color.
- Rice Bran - Same as above.
- Rice Flour - Cheap filler that can result in digestive problems.
- Salt - Really, what can we say?
- Soy Flour - A finely powdered residue left from the soybean.
- Wheat Flour - A hard to digest filler.
- Wheat Gluten - Poor protein source and filler.
Do not switch dog foods on your Rottie every month, instead, observe how well they do and watch things like their energy level, behavior, attitude, skin and coat quality, etc..