Kathryn S.Nunez

Reporter

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Has anyone looked at whats in our pets food? Most people will buy what they can afford based on their budgets. Being a pet mom of three dogs and five cats i’ve done some research on the best affordable food I can get for them. When my parents brought home my first dog we wanted to do everything right. So we went to Pet Smart and asked what’s the best dog food. But when we saw that the best dog food is close five dollars a can we asked for the second best food.

All The Good ingredients

We learnt that the best way to start is by looking at the ingredients list of your pets food. If the first three ingredients reads meat, meat meal, or byproduct meal of an animal based protein then it’s a quality food. Keep in mind that byproducts mean the heart, esophagus, tongue, and diaphragm. This may sound pretty gross to you but to our furry friends this is a five star steak from Steak n’ Stein. Other ingredients to look for are carbohydrates or “fillers” like green peas, sweet potatoes, or potato starches. This all depends on the size of your pet if you have a smaller dog. Then you would want to look for food that has a higher calorie count to counter their fast metabolism. But if your dog is a large breed than you would want them to have a dog food with a low amount of fat, sodium, and vitamin D. As they are at a higher risk of obesity.

The Bad Things

Now that we knew what we wanted to see on the ingredients of our pets food, we were quick to find out what we didn’t want in the food. The biggest thing you would want to avoid is grain, corn, wheat and gluten.Cats and dogs are carnivorous animals so they need high amounts of protein. Another big thing to avoid is rendered fat, it’s usually put in the food to enhance the flavor.Any pet food that has this essentially makes it the McDonald’s of pet food, it tastes really good but you’re going to have some health problems if you eat it everyday. Basically you and your pet are going to be reenacting the Super Size Me movie.

Once we figured out what we were looking for in a good pet food we encountered another minor inconvenience,the price. But I did all the heavy lifting for you,these are my top three brands that I trust for my pets.

1.Purina One SmartBlend $.99-$1.69 

This is a canned food that I buy on the regular. I’m assuming that they like it based on how fast they eat it once it makes it to the bowl. 

2.Rachel Ray $8.59-$9.59

She doesn’t just cook excellent meals for humans. She has a very popular line of pet food. This price only applies to a 6 pound bag of dry food.

3.Blue Buffalo $1.49-$2.49

This is a very healthy pet food thats always on the shelves. It costs a little bit more than the other two brands on this list, but it’s one of the healthiest pet foods out there right now. This price only applies to their canned food.

For more information visit Pets Radar Expert Advice For Healthier Pets Or your local vet.