Choosing the Best Kibble: What to Look for in Your Dog’s Food | Short

Hi, this is Rita Hogan, and welcome to the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. I'm a clinical canine herbalist, and I've been practicing for over 20 years.

This podcast is all about your dog through an herbal lens.

So let's get to it and dive right in.

Hi, everyone. How are you?

I'm pretty excited today.

So when you. When you guys hear this, my book will have been out, but when I'm recording this, it comes out in a day, so I'm pretty juiced up, like, so excited. I feel like I've had, like, four shots of Expresso, and I don't think I've ever had that in my life. But what I can imagine it to be. Right, Imagine it. If you haven't got my book, I think you should stop what you're doing and go order it from your favorite bookstore or book platform online. You're going to love it. I've gotten great reviews from some ordinary peeps that got it a little bit early because this company called Thriftbooks.com, when they received their books, they didn't wait until the 4th and they sent them out. So naughty. But some people got it early, and I've been getting great feedback. And so check it out. Leave me a review. You can email it to me. You can put it on Google. You can leave an Amazon review, let me know what you think. Take a picture, a snapshot, a video, post it online and tag me. These are just wonderful things that you guys, guys can do to help me out with the success of my book and getting this information out to everyone and making sure that book publishers know that plants and animals and dogs matter.

Okay?

They matter. You know, they never. They've never given us kind of credit for it yet, right? It's like, oh, yeah, it's just a dog. No, it's not just a dog. Dogs have implications for all other animals. They bring joy to the world. They bring joy to our hearts. They help us physically, mentally, we help them. They have an innate relationship with plants. And I love the fact that we can learn how to culture that relationship with plants and see it as a mirror unto ourselves. So check my book out, the Herbal Dog Show Some Loving, and let's get to it. So this is a short, so I better get at it. So I got a question, and I don't know how long ago this question was. Oh, it was in December, but it must have got lost in the shuffle. Sheldon, he says hello. I love the podcast content. I've heard you mentioned kibble hierarchy. Thought you had said it was A podcast. I can't find it. I'm interested in hearing what you have to say. I'm a recreational dog musher with 10 dogs and try to take a holistic approach to everything. Thank you, Shelton. But feeding purely meat is challenging to 10 dogs. I can see where that would. Would be a thing I have to supplement. Feed kibble, always. Thank you for your knowledge. Okay, so what one of you guys, I mean, not one of you guys, everyone needs to know is, I am not a kibble shamer, okay? We all have to start somewhere and we all have different circumstances. And I am not a kibble shamer. There is a kibble hierarchy. I deal with it in my book, actually. And you can go to theherbaldog.com and see some of the people who feed kibble. Some of my recommendations for certain kibble. But there is a kibble hierarchy. Okay, so you have the bottom of the barrel kibbles, bottom of the barrels. Those are the ones that, you know, are. If you could see my face right now, it's wincing. I think yours is wincing too. You're imagining. Ew. You know, one of the biggest things we want to avoid is meat meal, okay? And then like the nondescripts, the meat, the poultry, the, you know, blood meal, Ew, reddered meal. Ew. Rendered meal is euthanized. Cats and dogs, cows, roadkill. It's nasty. If you've ever, ever lived next to a rendering plant, it is gross. I did. I lived about, I say, 35 minutes from 1. We'd have to pass it on the highway and we always would hold our nose. It is nasty. You know, and yeah, you don't wanna feed those kibbles, right? The ones that have soy and wheat and beet pulp, you know, lots and lots of beet pulp. You don't wanna feed those kibbles. And Shelton, there's a great book by Dr. Connor Brady called Feeding Dogs. That's a really awesome book to explain some of these things that I'm talking about. But if you're gonna feed kibble, then go up the hierarchy. Less is more descriptions like chicken breast or chicken meat. Right? Chicken. Not poultry. Chicken. That's kind of going up a little on the hierarchy. And then, you know, as you get more descriptive kibbles get better, right? More descriptive kibbles get better. And you don't want to have things that, you know, you don't know what they are. I mean, when you do that, then we're in trouble. Okay, so you wanna look at a package and Go. Huh? Okay, So I wonder what's in that food. And look at the package. I remember, like 25 years ago or however long years ago it was a long time that I fed Purina one with yogurt. Okay, I'm not gonna say anything against Purina One with yogurt, but go read the bag. I'm sure it's still around. Go read the bag. That is an eye opener. Eye opener.

Okay.

Just unreal. And so let me. I'm not a huge fan of carbohydrate, but a lot of kibbles have carbohydrate in them. So, you know. But let me read you the ingredients of a good kibble as far as kibble is concerned. So all of you raw feeders and dehydrated feeders, just simmer down, take a deep breath. Breathe it out. And in and out.

Okay?

So this is an open farm. Venison, okay? Venison, field peas, ocean whitefish meal, and sweet potato.

Okay.

The ocean whitefish meal I'm not too excited about because that can include things like shark and things. So you want to ask, hey, who's certifying your ocean whitefish meal? You never want to feed shark, okay? Ever. Don't feed any shark derivatives. Don't feed shark.

Okay?

And not because it's going to hurt your dog. It's ethical. Don't feed sharks. And then we have sweet potatoes. So if the ocean whitefish meal does not include shark, this is a pretty good food. Now we are going to look at their beef food, okay? So when we look at that food, we've got, you know, the ingredients are humanely raised beef. I like that. Again, we're putting the ocean whitefish meal in there. Field peas and sweet potatoes. So open farm is changing out the main protein. And then it looks to me like they've got whitefish in all of their foods. Well, not all, but a lot of their foods. Let's check their salmon food. Okay, so salmon food can be tricky because you don't want farm salmon. It's disgusting and it's toxic. Now, the salmon food has grains, so we got wild caught Pacific salmon, oats, ocean white fish meal, and sorghum. Now, my question for this one is, is your oats organic? Are they sprayed with glyphosate? What are you doing about that? I would email open farm and say, hey, what are you doing about that?

Okay.

Because oats, non organic oats are completely and utterly saturated with glyphosate.

Horrible.

For the microbiome, they use wild caught salmon So I do like that. Again, the ocean white fitch meal must be something to do with the binder there. So I would, you know, I would ask questions about that one. I definitely would. And let's just look at the chicken. So the chicken of open farm, humanely raised chicken oats, ocean white fish meal, I think, and millet. So this has could have some trace gluten in it. We really want to know if the oats are organically grown. They don't have to be certified organic, but they need to be organically grown.

Okay.

And what are they doing to ensure that there is no shark in their food? Humanely raised pork oats, ocean whitefish meal, millet. Okay, so we know that ocean white fish meal is in everything. And then let's look at. There's a brand of food that I used a long time ago called wellness. And they're limited ingredient food. I think was good for a while. I've been out of the kibble world, you know, for quite a long time. However you look at your brand, you look at their individual ingredients. You want less is more ingredients, right? Definitely less is more when you're doing kibble. Okay, let's just look at their simple wellness, limited ingredient diet. Okay. Grain free. And this one is salmon. And it doesn't say that it's wild caught. So I'm thinking it's farmed. So I definitely wouldn't feed the salmon version of the wellness. If you don't see wild caught, don't feed it.

Okay.

That's my theory on the salmon. It is nasty, nasty, nasty. But let's look at their wellness core, grain free. Okay. Wellness core, grain free. Let's look at the ingredients. So we got deboned turkey, turkey meal, chicken meal, peas, dry ground potatoes, lentils, chicken fat, tomato pomace, ground flaxseed. Not a huge fan of ground flaxseed in anything, but I digress and we'll go on to that later. Natural chicken flavor, salmon oil, taurine. And then you got all the vitamins, the synthetics, and then you've got some probiotics, rosemary extract, green tea extract, spearmint extract. Okay, so we've got that. It's not the worst kibble on the planet. Definitely not the worst kibble on the planet. So when you go to theherbaldog.com, which is my books website, you can go under resources and you can look there and find what I recommend. And this I am going to be working a lot on these resources. But there's dog food resources, there's gently Cooked. You know, there's raw, there's freeze dried, there is kibble choices. So open farm, Earthborne, holistic instinct, Signature, the honest kitchen. Like the Honest Kitchen and Stella and Chewy's Nature's logic. Those are the ones that I recommend for kibble feeders. The Honest kitchen has these things called clusters.

Okay?

They're clusters and you can look at them and see, okay, maybe I like this. They're dry food. I think it's called clusters. Dry food. And they're dry food. And let's just take a look at the beef recipe. Clusters. They're grain free. I'm not a big fan of grains. They're grain free. Let's see beef, potatoes, peas, beef liver, lentils, carrots, ground flax seeds, eggs, broccoli, pumpkin, apple, salmon oil, natural beef flavor, coconut oil, kale, chia seed, minerals. And then we have some probiotic and then rosemary extract.

Okay.

Not the worst food in the world for sure. I'd like to see organic kale on that. I'd like to see all organic vegetables. And you know what sucks is we have to worry about all these pesticides and herbicides. Right? But as far as a food is concerned. Not terrible.

Okay?

Not terrible. And then Signature has food and they have like wet dog food, dry dog food. And you know, let's look at their select cuts. Marketing is always kind of funny to me. Select cuts.

Oh, okay.

Lamb, lamb meal, oats, millet, sunflower meal, flaxseed, select sunflower oil. I don't like all the sunflower at all. But again, as a kibble is concerned, it's much better than what you've got. Thus the kibble hierarchy. Right, Thus the kibble hierarchy. And then when you go to earthborne, holistic and you look at their kibbles, right, they have grain free, ancient grain. It's ancient. Let's look at their limited ingredient diet. Okay, let's look at the venture, rabbit and pumpkin. So we've got pumpkin and rabbit. Let's see. It says trusted sources. Rabbit meal from Farm Raised Rabbits. Limited ingredient. They're a proponent of sunflower oil. Helps healthy skin and coat. I don't agree, but it's fine. Okay, ingredients. Rabbit meal, pumpkin, butternut squash, Alaskan pollock. I like how they tell you where it's coming from. Tapioca, sunflower oil, flaxseed, natural flavors.

Okay.

Then you got some extracts at the bottom there, some fermentation product. You know, this is, in my opinion, one of the best kibbles on the market. So earthborne, holistic and you know, I'll be adding things on the website on the Herbal Dogs website. That is just a website for resources. I don't get any affiliate links. It's nothing to buy. It's just going to be a hub for information. Want to quickly thank my book tour sponsor Green Juju for sponsoring this episode of the podcast. Remember, we would not be here if it wasn't for our sponsors. So give Green Juju some love. They are coming out with some innovative, awesome products right now. Check out their website green juju.com and you can order their fermented mushroom probiotic right from the website. So check them out.

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The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for veterinary care. This podcast doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor, veterinarian or healthcare provider first before starting anything new. And that includes herbs. I'm not a doctor and I don't treat disease or prescribe anything. I'm a traditional herbalist providing herbal support education only. Regarding any products I may suggest, the statements made regarding these products have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The efficacy of these products has not been confirmed by FDA approved research. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. All information presented here on the podcast is not meant as a substitute or alternative to information from your vet. Please consult your veterinary professional about potential interactions or other possible complications before using any production.