Want to feed your dog good dog food? Check out our 5 tips!

Choosing good dog food can be quite a challenge. After all, there are so many different brands that sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees. That is why we are going to give you tools to choose good dog food. In this blog, we will answer the questions: what is good dog food and what are its characteristics?

1) Determine the life stage

Buying good dog food starts with determining your dog's life stage. Puppies' nutritional needs are really different from those of an adult dog. For example, puppies need more energy and balanced amounts of vitamins and minerals to grow. So look carefully for appropriate food for your faithful four-legged friend.

2) Go for natural dogfood

After you have determined what is appropriate food for your dog you can start looking for good food. We always recommend natural food without artificial fragrances, colors and flavors. Artificial additives have no positive influence on nutrition. The only thing that matters to your dog is that his food is tasty, but of course you also want to give him healthy food.

3) Avoid artificial preservatives

100% natural food also means no artificial preservatives. These include BHA or BHT. These are the most common abbreviations for preservatives and can be found on the packaging. The disadvantage of these substances is that they can cause annoying complaints such as skin and coat problems.

4) Meat as the first ingredient

The digestive tract of dogs is set up to digest animal protein sources and meat. Animal protein sources are a major supplier of essential amino acids and many vitamins and minerals. The more good quality meat in the diet, the better your dog can digest it. Ingredients are shown in decreasing quantity, which is why it is important that meat comes first.

When is meat good?

We just told you that quality meat is better for your dog, but how do you know what good meat is? When looking for good food, you should avoid animal by-products. By-products are generally of lower quality than meat or meat meal. In addition, you never know which animals the by-products came from. With quality dog foods, it is specifically stated what meat is in them. So choose foods where the composition states which animal protein source it contains; for example, lamb or duck meat.

5) Choose for lowgrain or grain-free food

Then coming back to diet digestibility. Dogs generally have more difficulty breaking down grains and other fillers. Some dogs can't even stand them at all, but many dogs don't have any trouble with them either. However, the fact remains that they do not digest grains and other fillers as well. Therefore, choose low grain or completely grain-free foods.

What is good dog food?

Briefly, what constitutes good dog food and what you can recognize it by. First, you need to match the food to your dog's life stage. Second, good dog food is as natural as possible and thus does not contain artificial preservatives, artificial additives and animal by-products. Finally, you need to pay attention to whether the food contains quality meat and whether the food contains (a lot of) grains or other fillers. Therefore, always look at the composition on the packaging. From this you can tell if the food is of good quality or not.

Running into problems or doubts about quality? We are always open to answer your questions.

It is very important that you give the right dog food to your four-legged friend. What is also very important is that you, the owner, know what your dog can and cannot eat. This helps prevent allergies or gastrointestinal problems from your dog. We previously wrote an article about this which you can view here!

Many dogs already enjoy Riverwood every day. Would you also like your dog to feast on our delicious foods and are you curious which variety would suit your dog best? Then answer a few questions here and order an inexpensive sample pack right away.