Premium dog foods are definitely better than your garden variety economy counterparts. But how do you tell the difference between the two? Is price the only indicator of how healthy the dog food is? Does a premium pet food have a different kind of label? How do you know what is premium?

The main difference between premium and economy dog foods is the quality of the ingredients and the amount of actual nutrients digestible by your dog. Ignore any of the fancy wording or delicious looking pictures on the bag of food. Look, instead, at the dog food ingredients first.

Before you purchase a premium dog food, check out the first two ingredients. Look at the actual ingredients listed on the ingredients label. They tell you a lot. Premium dog foods will have a meat listed first – dogs need animal proteins. Premium dog foods also use a better quality of grains.

Grains: Premium dog foods will use better grains (rice, oats) than economy foods (corn, soy, wheat). Why are these better? Because your dog can digest and metabolize the nutrients from these grains better. Grains are top ingredients in the economy dog foods, not in premium ones.

Other problems with some grains is that they are a common food allergy for some dogs, such as corn, wheat and soy. These grains are usually by-products from processing of some other type of food and have very little nutritional value for your dog. They are simply cheap, useless fillers – used to “fill up” your pet’s tummy without providing much nutrients for your dog’s body.

Animal meat by-productsare another top 2 ingredient that just are not found in the best premium dog foods. Meat by-products are what is left from a slaughtered animal after all the human-grade meat has been removed – bones, feed, heat, lungs, brain, etc.

Like the grain by-products, these provide very little nutritional value to your dog, but do boost up the protein ratio in the dog food. The quality of the meat by-product is another big mystery that no one seems to be able to answer.

Premium dog foods will have a meat meal or meat as the top ingredient, with a meat meal being the better choice. Many premium dog foods will have 2 or 3 meats/meat meals listed in the top ingredients, thereby giving your dog better protein and nutrients.

Will the price tell you if it is a premium dog food? Premium dog foods are not inexpensive – they just can’t be, the quality ingredients used will cost more. Where the consumer needs to be careful is where some dog foods imply they are premium with their price and fancy advertising. If you want to know if you are looking at premium dog foods, you must read the ingredients.

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