Choosing Dog Food Without the Marketing Nonsense

Pet food marketing is built on words with no legal definition — premium, holistic, natural, ancestral. Here is what to look at instead.

Read the label properly

• The nutritional adequacy statement. Look for wording confirming the food is complete and balanced for a life stage — growth, adult maintenance, or all life stages. A food labelled complementary is a topper, not a meal.
• Ingredients are listed by weight before cooking. "Fresh chicken" listed first can drop well down the list once the water cooks off. Meat meal is more concentrated protein than fresh meat, despite sounding worse.
• Named sources beat generic ones. "Chicken meal" tells you more than "meat and animal derivatives".
• Look for a manufacturer that employs a qualified nutritionist and does feeding trials. Brands will tell you if you email and ask.

Grain-free is not a health claim

Grain allergies in dogs are rare — the most common food allergens are proteins like beef, dairy and chicken. Grain-free foods replace grain with peas, lentils and potato, and there has been ongoing investigation internationally into a possible link between some grain-free diets and a heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy. The picture is not settled, but there is no positive reason to choose grain-free unless your vet has advised it for a specific diagnosed reason.

Price and value

Very cheap foods are bulked with poorly digestible fillers, so you feed more and get more stool. Mid-range foods from established manufacturers are usually the sweet spot in South Africa. The most expensive brand is not automatically the best — price often reflects marketing spend and packaging.

Compare on cost per day, not cost per bag. A denser food fed in smaller amounts can be cheaper than a cheap one fed in large volumes.

Switching food

Over seven to ten days. Days one to three at twenty-five percent new, days four to six at fifty percent, days seven to nine at seventy-five percent, then full. Abrupt switches cause diarrhoea in most dogs. If loose stools appear, go back a step and slow down.

Storage matters in this climate

Keep kibble in its original bag inside a sealed bin, out of direct sun and heat. Fat in kibble goes rancid in a hot garage, and rancid food causes vomiting and refusal. Buy a bag size you will finish within about six weeks of opening.