The 10 Best Ingredients For Dog Food Every Pet Parent Should Know

Want to know what the best ingredients for dog food are?

We’ve got you covered.

We understand your desire as a pet parent is to live a happy, long, and healthy life with your furry companion.

Ensuring that your dog’s meal is nutritionally balanced with all the ingredients needed is crucial for their optimal health.

What better way to ensure this than offering your dog the best nutrition?

Good health is critical for your canine’s long life.

So, what are these essential ingredients you need to be aware of?

Let’s find out together.

Ready to learn?

Here we go.

10 Best Ingredients for Dog Food

The following is a list of the best ingredients that your dog’s food should contain:

Meat

Dogs are carnivorous. That’s why meat is the most important ingredient in any dog food. Meat is an excellent source of animal protein that dogs need for a healthy life.

Proteins provide the essential amino acids which are the building blocks of life. A dog requires 22 amino acids. Of these, 12 are produced by the dog’s body, while the remaining 10 should be supplied in their diet. Feeding meat to dogs is great for supplying these essential amino acids.

The most common meat sources include chicken, beef, fish, pork, lamb, venison, turkey, and rabbit. Dogs need between 18-30% protein in their food. While plants can provide some protein, animal protein is the best because it’s easier for dogs to digest.

Feeding meat can help dogs:

Build and repair body tissues and cells, including skin, muscle, bone, and hair.
Maintain a healthy weight
Maintain healthy muscles and joints
Keep the skin and coat healthy
Support proper functioning of the immune system
Provide energy to keep dogs active
Transport oxygen throughout the body

A dog that lacks enough proteins in terms of meat will show signs like

Dry, brittle, or patchy coat
Weight loss
Wounds that take a long time to heal

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are essential as they form essential energy sources that dogs need for an active lifestyle. They help fuel the activities of dogs and keep dogs moving. While they are not a nutritional requirement, carbs are an essential part of a balanced diet for dogs.

Carbs are present in various foods, including grains, fruits, and vegetables. They also fall under simple or complex carbohydrates.

Complex carbohydrates take longer to digest and come from whole grains such as whole oats, rice, barley, and millet.

Fruits and vegetables like bananas, berries, squash, pumpkin, and kales are excellent sources of easily digestible carbs.

The benefits of carbohydrates for dogs include:

Good sources of adequate energy that keeps dogs going
Provide fiber which aids digestion
Can help create structure and texture in dry food

While carbs are essential, You should only feed them in moderation as they have a high glycemic index and cause unhealthy weight gain in dogs. Excessive weight gain leads to other serious health issues like heart problems, joint issues, and obesity, among other concerns.

Meat organs

Organ meats are the entrails and the internal parts of animals, usually the bigger ones like cows and pigs. These are loaded with a well of vital nutrients compared to lean meat. Organ meats are an essential part of dogs’ diet to help maintain strong muscles, a healthy heart, and shiny coat and skin.

Most organ meats are safe for dogs to consume and provide the following nutrients:

Proteins: Organ meats are great sources of additional protein which help in muscle growth, tissue repair, enzyme production, energy provision, blood transportation, and healthy immune functions.
Fats: Organ meats are loaded with fats that form good energy sources and essential fatty acids. These are vital for healthy heart and brain functions, reducing inflammations, improving immune health.
Vitamins: They contain both fats and water-soluble vitamins, including vitamin A, B, C, D, E, and K, critical for protein and carbs metabolism, bone formation, immune system health, and eye health.
Minerals: Organ meats are packed with various minerals magnesium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, manganese, chloride, selenium, zinc, and copper, which play various roles in dogs’ body.

The most common meat organs that are included in dog food are the kidneys, heart, liver, brain, and lungs.

Healthy fats

Dogs need a good dose of healthy fats, contrary to the popular belief that fats are bad. Healthy fats such as animal fats are an essential part of a dog’s diet.

In the right amounts, fats play the following roles in dogs:

Supply energy: in the absence of carbohydrates, fats can supply dogs’ energy to stay active. Essentially, fats are the most critical fuel in a dog’s body.
Aid in absorbing fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K.
It supplies omega 3 and 6 fatty acids necessary for keeping a dog’s skin and coat healthy and in cognitive health.
Immune regulation and better cell functioning
Promote heart and eye health

However, You should give fats in moderate amounts. High amounts of fats in a dog’s diet can lead to pancreatitis, obesity, and heart problems. Giving too little to your dog is also problematic as it will have reduced energy levels plus dull itchy and flaky skin and coat.

Remember to go for healthy and high-quality fats like

Animal fats, including pork or chicken fat
Vegetable oil like sunflower, safflower, olive oil, coconut oil
Fish oil

Vitamins

Vitamins are the cornerstone of a well-balanced canine diet. They are necessary micronutrients essential for physiological activities such as growth, development, reproduction, and general well-being and health of dogs.

A dog’s food should contain vitamins like A, B, C, D, E, K, and choline. These play important roles in the body, including aiding the digestive, metabolic, and immune system processes and keeping the nerves and blood cells of dogs healthy.

Whole fruits like berries, oranges, melon, apples, and pineapples, and organic vegetables such as kales, cucumbers, broccoli, spinach, and cauliflowers are excellent sources of vitamins.

B-vitamins including niacin, riboflavin, thiamine, pantothenic acid, folate, and biotin are especially crucial for dogs. Since these vitamins are water-soluble, they need to keep topping them up as they keep on being lost.

More specifically, vitamins can help:

Boost the immunity and helps dogs fight diseases and infections
Promote eye health
Aid in blood formation and clotting
Build strong bones
Improve skin and coat health

Fiber

Fiber is a complex carbohydrate. Including this ingredient in your dog’s food is beneficial in promoting good health and aiding in managing some diseases and ailments. Dogs need both soluble and insoluble fiber.

Fiber helps keep a dog’s gut in top condition by helping it maintain an ideal amount of good bacteria, which aids digestion. Veterinarians recommend about 2-4% fiber content in dog food.

The following are some of the health benefits of fiber for dogs:

Maintaining a healthy weight: Fiber can help keep your dog satiated for longer hence lowering the need to eat. This is critical if your dog needs to shed a few pounds.
Aiding digestion: Fiber helps feed and promote the growth of good bacteria in a dog’s gut while inhibiting the growth of bad gut bacteria. This improves digestion.
Offers relief for diarrhea: This ingredient helps in bulking up stools and regularizing bowel movement offering relief for diarrhea in dogs.
Management of diabetes: Fiber binds to sugars in the gastrointestinal tract and helps regulate blood sugar levels. This helps in the control of diabetes in dogs.

However, you should exercise caution with the amount of fiber you include in your dog’s food as too much fiber can lead to gastrointestinal issues like vomiting and diarrhea.

Minerals

Dogs require several minerals for optimal health. These fall under two categories; macrominerals and trace minerals. Macrominerals are needed in larger amounts and include potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, and chloride. On the other hand, trace minerals are required in smaller quantities and include selenium, zinc, copper, manganese, iron, and chromium.

Including the minerals in the right amounts as part of a balanced diet can help avoid mineral deficiencies. Too little or too much of these minerals can cause serious health problems.

These minerals have various benefits in the health of dogs, including:

Promoting bone health
Supporting proper organ functioning, including the kidney, heart, and liver functions
Strengthening the nervous system’s health
Body fluid regulation
Promoting skin and coat health
Supporting immune system function

Essential fatty acids

Dogs require two fatty acids; omega 3 and omega-6 fatty acids. These fatty acids are found in animal fats and some plant oils. Essential fatty acids have the following benefits for dogs:

Promoting healthy skin and coat: Omega 3 & 6 fats can help keep your dog’s skin and coat sufficiently moisturized, boost hair growth, and prevent dry and itchy skin. They also aid in alleviating various skin conditions such as eczema, hotspots, balding patches, and other skin issues, thus enhancing health.
Supporting joint health: Essential fatty acids are essential for maintaining strong and healthy joints. They help keep the joints greased and flexible and keep arthritis and joint degeneration at bay. Additionally, these fats can boost your dog’s joint mobility, flexibility, and strength and reduce inflammation and speed up the healing f joint injuries.
Promote brain health: Essential fatty acids are rich in DHA and EPA’s brain-enhancing compounds. These two compounds have been shown to promote cognitive function in dogs. A diet rich in essential fatty acids can help promote a dog’s attention, trainability, memory and slow down the progression of cognitive decline in dogs.

Water

Like in human beings, water is essential for dogs’ good health. Besides keeping dogs well hydrated, water helps make food more palatable for dogs. It’s also essential for aiding digestion.

Water plays an important role in transporting and conveying vital nutrients in and out of a dog’s body cells. It also aids in the absorption of nutrients by the body, keeping the body cool, and maintaining a healthy body temperature.

Water also lubricates and cushions joints facilitating better movement in dogs. It cushions the spinal cord and other internal tissues. What’s more, water facilitates waste elimination through urination and bowel motions.

Thus water is critical for almost all important bodily functions without which a dog may become unwell and dehydrated.

Superfoods

Superfoods refer to foods that are loaded with extra nutritional content. These nutritionally dense foods contain more vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, enzymes, and other beneficial compounds necessary for a dog’s healthy growth, development, and maintenance.

Superfoods are a natural supplement that can aid your dog gain energy, sleeping better, improving cognitive health, regulating blood oxygen levels, and boosting their immune system health, among other things.

Examples of the most commonly used superfoods include

Pumpkin
Sweet potatoes
Chickpeas
Cranberries
Spinach
Blueberries

Read our article on Dog-Friendly Snacks That Your Dog will Love Anytime

What should the first five ingredients in dog food be?

Any good quality dog food should have meat, healthy fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals as the first five ingredients. These ingredients should be in appropriate amounts for the overall health of dogs.

What ingredients should you avoid in dog food?

You should avoid any food containing the following ingredients:

Artificial preservatives like BHA and BHT
Unspecified meat meals
Artificial food colorings and flavors
Rendered fats
Corn syrup
Melamine
Propylene Glycol
Nitrites and nitrates

Read our article on:

Do dogs need corn, wheat, or soy?

Dogs don’t need corn, wheat, or soy as there are better options for carbohydrates sources. However, these grains are not harmful and can be included for dogs not sensitive to grains.

What grains should dogs avoid?

Corn and wheat are the two top grains to avoid as they cause severe food sensitivities in dogs. Most dogs are allergic to the gluten in these grains.

Why are corn and wheat bad for dogs?

Corn and wheat are considered to be filler ingredients that do not offer any nutritional benefits but pump empty calories to dogs. This makes them unideal choices of ingredients in any dog food.

Final Thoughts

Dogs require balanced nutrition with all the necessary nutrients in the right proportions for optimal health. It’s your responsibility as a pet parent to ensure that your dog gets the best food for a long, healthy, and happy life.

The first step in ensuring that your dog lives a long life is by ensuring that its food contains the right ingredients, including proteins, vitamins, minerals, and fats.

There’s the list of the top 10 best ingredients for dog food that you should include in your dog’s diet for optimal health.

Now, go ahead and give your furry companion the absolute best.

Happy parenting!