As you have probably noticed, pet nutrition is an important topic to me.  The health and welfare of our pets can be confusing, but it is so so important to try to wade through all of the information and make some sense out of it.  Learning who is providing accurate unbiased information is just as important!  I have learned over the years that not everyone can be trusted.  Rodney Habib and Dr. Karen Becker from Mercola.com and Dogs Naturally Magazine are my trusted sources of information regarding pet nutrition.

Rodney Habib posted a live Facebook post this week regarding the correlation between sugar and carbs and cancer growth.  It is scary how some people try to hide or dismiss this information while others have been studying it for 20-30 years and know there is a correlation.  Having lost my sweet Chelsea last year to an aggressive malignant melanoma, I did some serious study myself on diet and cancer.

Buying dog kibble can be very confusing.  There are so many different brands with all sorts of claims about providing health and nutrition to our pets.  The amount of information is overwhelming and misleading.  I am not in a position, at this time, to provide my dogs with homemade food and I am sure that many people are in the same place I am.  But armed with some basic information, I want to provide the best kibble I can for my dogs.

Below is a simple guide for picking out pet food that I put together a couple of years ago based on information provided by Dogs Naturally Magazine.   The handout provides basic information for calculating the carb content in dry kibbles and some very basic guidelines for looking at the ingredients being used.  Dr. Karen Becker from Mercola.com posted an article this morning on this very topic.  You can read it here.

She shared the same formula that is in the free handout.

100 – % protein – % fat – % moisture – % ash (if not listed, assume 6-7%)
= % carbs

It is a simple calculation that you can do right in the store to see if the kibble you are buying is all carbs or not.  One key guideline to keep in mind is that you want the carb content for dogs to be below 30% and for cats to be below 15%.  There are also a few tips about ingredients to include and exclude.

I hope this will help ease the confusion that comes with buying pet food.

Download your free guide here:

I hope that this will help in the purchase of your pet food.  Please let me know if you have any questions or want to discuss this topic more.

Terri  (Megan’s Mom)