As we've discovered ourselves about healthy dog food, the more we learn, the more we realize how little we knew about proper food for our dogs before. Healthy Dog Food is much easier to supply for your dog than you think. You must however, be willing to put in a little effort in reading ingredients, finding sources and adding a little rotation to their diets.

We'll start with dry food or "kibble." We believe its perfectly fine to use kibble as a base food in their diets. It is essential however, that it not be there only source.

In our store, we define a premium food as being free from wheat, corn, soy, by-products and chemical preservatives. If you are feeding one of the national brands like Science Diet, Iams, Nutro, Purina, Attaboy, Beniful or basically most anything you find in a grocery store, you are feeding what we call "Commercial Foods." These commercial foods will have one or more of the ingredients that premium food is free of. Commercial pet foods are destroying our pets health.

Just look for yourself at your ingredient list on your bag of food and see if it says it contains any wheat, corn, soy, by-products, animal fat, wheat or corn gluten, animal digest, animal fat, peanut hulls, BHT, BHA, color additives, Glyceryl Monostearate, Phosphoric Acid, Propylene Glycol, Brewers rice. These are not all the bad ingredients but it comprises the majority of them. If your pet food contains one or more of these, you have a commercial food that is not healthy for your dog.

Read our page on Dry Dog Food for more information about what goes into some of these commercial foods. You will not believe some of the sources for meat that they will put in the food.

The big grain companies that put out the commercial foods are becoming aware that more and more people are starting to read what goes into their pets food. Therefore, they are using more deceptive tactics to induce you to buy their so called healthy dog food products. They have been a master at this since the formulation of dry dog foods. We now see more commercial foods listing there ingredients a little differently. Where you would see corn and wheat as the first ingredients, they are now putting chicken and/or another protein source first. The quality of these proteins are subject of another discussion. This protein is then followed by two or three grains. This is deceptive as you believe the first ingredient by weight is the main ingredient but when you add up the weight of the following grains on the list, it becomes evident that grains make up the bulk of there foods.

In Alfred Plechner, D.V.M. book titled Allergies: Remedies for an Epidemic, he paints a not-so-good outlook for the future of our pets health without change.

He states:

"Because many commercial foods are woefully deficient in key nutrients, the long-term effect of feeding such foods makes the dog hyper-sensitive to its environment. It’s a dinosaur effect. Animals are being programmed for disaster, for extinction. Many of them are biochemical cripples with defective adrenal glands unable to manufacture adequate cortisol, a hormone vital for health and resistance to disease."

This is scary at best and one of the main reasons we are providing this web site in order to help educate as many as we can.

Another common issue a lot of people face is the cost of feeding their pets healthy dog food. This is a very valid concern. Even the commercial brands of dog food can range from the $1 to $2 a pound. But to many people's surprise, premium foods can also be purchased in this range. Of course the bottom of the barrel formulas like Old Roy and selected others can be bought for around $.50 a pound. When you buy dog food for this cheap, you are mostly buying corn and wheat. Your animal will receive very little nutritional value from this food.

Premium foods contain a higher level of quality proteins. Thus, you feed less and the bag last longer. Doing a side-by-side comparison of the amounts to feed, we've found that premium foods, most of the time are a better value.

The dog has evolved eating living, unprocessed foods rich in enzymes, amino acids and high moisture content. Once you remove this from there diet, you disrupt a biochemical pathway in there bodies effecting all their organs. Like Dr. Plechner points out above, this is a recipe for disaster. Degenerative type diseases are on a rise in this country. Diseases like liver disease, kidney disease, heart disease and many others are filling the veterinarian hospitals with our four-legged kids.

We've seen first hand in our store the consequences of feeding only dry foods and/or feeding commercial foods. We've been able to help hundreds of dogs and cats regain there health by working with the open minded pet parents to change there diets to a healthy dog food, both kibble and high moisture.

One of the main reasons we hear why people like to feed just dry is for there pets teeth. This is a myth, one that can be very damaging to your pet's health. You would not be able to clean your teeth with crunchy granola or corn nuts, how can your dog clean his with kibble?

It takes brushing action. Some would even sacrifice the vital health benefits of fresh meat in there pets diet in order to avoid having any tartar build up. Sacrificing good, quality health to avoid issues with your dogs' teeth will come back to haunt you.

The dog's health will suffer and he will be at high risk for developing cancer and/or other degenerative type diseases. Then you have huge vet bills to look forward to or if they can't afford that, the dog will be put down and die an early death.

The benefits of eating raw foods are outlined on our Raw Dog Food page and a feeding guide on our Raw Dog Food Guideline page.

Healthy dog food consists of a variety of foods. We suggest to our customers that they mix things up. Use your dry kibble as a base but every day the dog gets raw food or canned food or something we cook ourselves.

Supplementation is also critical because of the lack of certain vitamins and minerals associated with today's farming practices. When the protein sources (cows, chickens, etc) eat the grains, those grains are lacking in certain nutrients and is of course passed on to our animals through there diets. Visit our Dog Supplements page for more information on supplementation.

Our pets life span is becoming shorter and shorter in this country. Many other countries where kibble is not readily available the pets are living long lives into there 20's. The average for North America is 12.8 years. Of course this varies widely depending on breed, diet and exercise levels.

Thanks to modern science and good pharmaceutical drugs, the dogs life that consumes a weak diet can be extended. However, the quality of life is very subjective.

After your initial research and ingredient check, it does not require a lot of effort or money to feed a more healthy dog food diet. There are many ways to introduce a variety of healthy dog foods into the diet and that's what we wish to help you with.

Fortunately, once you recognize commercial foods and/or dry foods only it’s not the healthiest choice for your companion it makes it easier to gently begin transitioning to a more biologically optimal food.

There are many healthy dry foods, canned foods and raw foods readily available for you out there. I will list many here that we carry in our store. You can click on the links below to National Pet Pharmacy for great prices and to find out more about these foods. You can also visit your local small, independent pet food store. Not the big box pet food stores as they sell mostly commercial foods. Seek out the smaller ones in your area. You can usually find a source of them in your local phone book.

One of the premium foods I like best is from a company called Origon. There manufacturing practices and unmatched by any of the premium foods.

This is a great product for dogs with grain allergies, high performance dogs, hunting dogs and any dog that burns up a lot of calories.

Look for Orijen and other premium foods in your local small retail pet food place. NOT the big box stores as the don't carry much of the premium products and their employees don't seem to know much.

If you prefer to have some healthy dog food products delivered to your house, simply click on the link below to National Pet Pharmacy. They have some of the best prices you will find. They also offer free delivery of over 650 products.

Click now and look to at there site, with the coupon code, your save on your first order of a great healthy dog food or other wonderful products. Like always, if you need some help picking out the right food, drop us a note.