Whether your dog has been part of your family for years or you’re just now looking to adopt or rescue a new pup, it’s important to pick the best dog food brands for them. Healthy daily meals help our dogs get the protein, energy, vitamins, and minerals they need to flourish. However, the choices of dry dog foods can be overwhelming–especially when you aren’t sure what you’re looking for. 

Choosing the best dry dog food is easy as pie when you know what to look for. Today, we’ll teach you how to read a nutrition label and find the best dry dog food brands. Once you start comparing quality, ingredients, how it’s processed, and even taste, picking the right diet becomes a breeze. We’re here to answer all the questions you have about dry dog food and how to make the best choice for your dog.

What is kibble and how is it made?

Whether you call it kibble or dry food, it’s important to know how your dog’s meals are made. Some dry dog food recipes are heavily processed using high-heat dehydrating techniques, freeze-drying, or even chemical treatments. Believe it or not, it does matter how dog food brands cook their food. 

Many big-name dry dog food brands cook their food under extreme heat and pressure in a process called extrusion. Our breakfast cereal and crunchy snacks are made following a similar method. Here’s what the extrusion process looks like:

• After harvesting, the ingredients are processed before being added to dog food. Many of these include meat meals, which is basically the lowest quality criteria for meat by-product to be safely included in dog food. This destroys much of the nutrient content of individual ingredients before they’re even manufactured into dog food.
• These ingredients are heated at extreme temperatures to turn them into a paste. This helps dog food companies mold them into the right shape. To bake the paste, extreme temperatures are once again used to blast dog food and bake it under intense pressure.
• These processes are meant to kill off harmful bacteria and pathogens in dog food and make dry dog food more stable on the shelf. However, due to the use of extreme temperatures and methods, this can also destroy nutrients in what used to be high-quality ingredients.  
• To make up for the lost nutrition, dog food brands typically add in synthetic vitamins and minerals. Some even add artificial flavoring since the ingredients have depreciated so much during the extrusion process. 

Why Air-Dried is Better 

The use of extreme temperatures and pressure in the making of dog food destroys most of the nutritional value in the food. Your dog requires a nutrient-rich diet full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, omega fatty acids, proteins, and fiber to get the healthy skin, thriving joint health, and regular metabolism we all want to see in our pups. 

What kind of dry dog food retains these nutrients? Look no further than air-dried dog food! Air-drying is an excellent alternative to the process of extrusion. The process is done in smaller batches and cooked gently so the food retains more nutrients, moisture, and flavor. 

Dog food brands like Sundays use air-drying techniques because they cook out any harmful bacteria while preserving the integrity of each real food ingredient. 

All-Natural vs. Human-Grade Dog Food

When choosing dry dog food, it’s also important to look at what kind of ingredients are included and what standards are used to measure quality. Just like there are standards placed on human foods, there are standards placed on dog food, too. 

However, these standards don’t follow the same rules. Here’s everything you need to separate the bad from the best dog food brands. 

All-Natural 

When you see the word “natural” on a dog food label, you likely associate many positive characteristics with it, and for good reason. 

The word “natural” draws images of the green earth with roaming buffalo and salmon jumping in the streams, whole vegetables like sweet potato and barley growing in the fields, and certainly no unnatural ingredients or artificial colors or flavors. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to your pup’s food, the standards around what’s “natural” and what isn’t is a blurred line. 

Many foods labeled “natural” can still contain many less-than-natural ingredients. You should also keep in mind manufacturing methods. Even the best ingredients can undergo processes like extrusion and be completed depleted of their nutrition. To choose the best dry dog food, look for brands that use buzzwords like “human-grade” instead. 

Human-Grade 

Human-grade dog food is held to an elevated standard compared to feed-grade kibble. The term “human-grade” applies to any food that’s held to a standard high enough that humans could eat it safely. 

For example, Sundays’ dog food is 100% human-grade and has a short list of whole food ingredients that you could get from your local grocery store or farmer’s market. 

High-Quality Dog Food Ingredients 

The best dog food brands offer recipes with high-quality ingredients. Let’s review which ingredients to look for specifically in your pup’s new diet. 

Real Meat (NOT Meat Meals!)

Your dog needs protein and amino acids for energy, muscle growth, and immunity support. So, the kind of protein in dry dog food matters. Some dog food brands will include meat by-products in their recipes to save money.

These are known as “meat meals” and can be listed as “chicken meal,” “turkey meal,” or even “beef meal.” Avoid dog foods with any protein listed on the label as “meat meals”, which can contain by-products and leftovers like eyeballs, horns, feathers, talons, teeth, and more that your dog just doesn’t need. 

Instead, look for specific meat names like “USDA-grade beef,” “beef heart,” “beef liver,” or even “beef bone”. This indicates that the meat is high quality, real, and only contains the ingredient listed with no added by-products or leftovers.

Dog-Friendly Fruits & Vegetables

While protein is a vital part of your dog’s diet, fruits and vegetables are, too. Without fresh ingredients in dry dog food, your dog would be missing the vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, and fibers they need to thrive.

Look for fruits and veggies like strawberries, blueberries, pumpkin, zucchini, kale, kelp, spinach, beets, oranges, apples, and more. Funny enough, Sundays’ dog food recipes have all of these ingredients. 

Healthy, Whole Grains

Lastly, your dog needs a variety of quality whole grains to fuel their body and provide necessary nutrients. Try to stay away from filler ingredients like corn, soy, wheat, or filler grains that may be included in your dog’s food. 

Fillers are meant to make your dog feel full without giving them real nutritional value. Instead, look dog food brands that offer whole grains like quinoa and oats. Pssst… we hate to burst your bubble, but the grain-free hype can actually be harmful to your pup. 

Sundays: The Best Dry Dog Food Brand

With so many different types of dry dog food, now you know how to find the best recipe for your pup. Luckily, with Sundays for Dogs, the choice is easy. 

With 100% human-grade, meat-first recipes your pup deserves and none of the unnecessary ingredients, you can feed your dog worry-free! See the difference that air-dried dog food can make for your dog’s health and your peace of mind. Try Sundays for Dogs and save 20% on every subscription order!