It goes without saying that our customers want to feed their pets the best diet possible. If you have more than one pet, each pet may have different nutritional requirement depending on breed, age, activity level and if there are any health issues factored into the equation.

Grain-free foods seem to be on the rise. Within the past five years, it seems that every premium food company has had to add a grain-free food to their product line. Just keep in mind that grain free doesn't mean carb free and the percent of protein/carb ratio can vary greatly between brands. In general, if you have a higher protein food, the fat will be much higher as well.

Before we get into the reasons for dogs to eat a grain free diet, please note that cats are true carnivores and unless they have a pre-existing health problem, like kidney failure, cats should be eating a high protein diet with minimal carbs. Cats do better either on a raw meat diet or second best would be a grain free canned food-especially if they are eating a dry kibble.

If your dog suffers from chronic yeast infections, cancer, or has diabetes, a high protein food may be very helpful as carbs feed yeast and cancer. High-protein diets are generally suggested for dogs with high-stress, high activity lifestyles. Recent studies have shown that a high-protein, low-carb diet helps fat dogs lose weight more efficiently than higher carb diets that contain fewer calories.

Because some of these foods contain a high amount of fat, they would be appropriate for hard-working dogs, dogs in extremely cold environments, hard keepers (dogs that have a hard time keeping on weight), and for dogs that are being bred.

A high protein diet is not recommended for large breed puppies until they are at least 18 months to two years of age.

There is no "best" food for all dogs, it is better for a dog to get a variety of foods, rather than just one food for its whole life. Feeding different commercial diets can help fill in nutritional gaps that a particular food or brand might have, as well as making it less likely that your dog will develop food allergies.

Rather than trying to find a single, "best" food, we recommend that you choose at least two or three different brands, using different protein sources, and rotate between them, anywhere from a daily basis to every few months. Variety is always better than feeding any single food, as it helps to guarantee that all of your dogs' nutritional needs are met and is more interesting for your dogs. The only warning we have about feeding a lot of variety is to not feed every exotic protein available (duck, rabbit, venison, etc.); always reserve one or two in case you ever need to do an elimination diet using a food your dog has never had before to test for food allergies.

In addition, we suggest adding some fresh foods to the diet, no matter what you feed, including eggs and meat (raw or cooked), canned fish with bones, dairy (yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese) and healthy leftovers. This can be used to improve the quality of whatever diet you feed.

When you feed the same food continuously for a month or more, be sure to make the switch gradually to avoid digestive upset, but dogs that are used to getting different foods all the time rarely have any problems with change.