STEVE WHATLEY: Look for dog food with AAFCO seal

Q: When I was a kid, we always fed our dogs canned food. Now I understand a dry dog food is preferable. What should I look for as far as nutrients? Also, what should I look for as far as ingredients?

A: Diet and nutrition are hot topics these days. I don’t know that dry dog food is necessarily preferable to wet food. They are both good foods, except that dry dog food has benefits to me over the wet food. Dry dog food has a dry matter basis of about 95 percent. Wet dog food has a dry matter basis of about 75 percent.

So for every dollar you are spending on dry food, 95 cents is actually the food, where for every dollar you spend on wet food, 75 cents is toward the food and 25 cents is being paid for water. Since we buy water by bottle, which is strange to me since it is our No. 1 natural resource, that may not be an issue to some. Also, since there is more water in wet food, you will have to feed more compared to dry food.

Wet food tends to be a little more expensive than dry food as well. Dry food has another advantage in that it will not spoil as quickly as wet food. If you put wet food down in the morning, it will usually be bad by the afternoon. As opposed to dry food, if you put it down in the morning, it will be fine that afternoon.

As far as what to look for in a diet, I think the No. 1 thing to look for is the AAFCO claim on the bag. This stands for The Association of American Feed Control Officials. If this claim is not on the bag, I would not buy it.

There are regulations in pet food manufacturing on a state and federal level, but the AAFCO standard acts like a manual. The AAFCO standard is a self-regulation that quality pet food manufacturing companies subscribe to, to prove that they produce a quality product that meets the standard that is required in a pet’s diet.

Some nutrients are considered “essential” in a pet’s diet. That means that they can’t make it from other sources, so it has to be in the foods. If a company does not subscribe to the AAFCO standards, the nutrients may not be in the diet.

There is a lot of talk today about grain-free, gluten-free, and this and that. If my pet requires an “essential” nutrient from a grain of rice, so be it. I will let the experts in the white coats at the research centers determine where to get those nutrients. I’ve seen diets with peas, carrots and other vegetables in them.

That looks great to the owner but is not necessarily what the pet needs. There is not a tooth in their head that suggests they are herbivores. They are carnivores. They eat meat. If we turned every dog loose in the county, they will not be digging up our gardens for food. They will be robbing our trash cans, eating what is left on the bones of our leftovers.

I hope that helps.

Dr. Steve Whatley is a longtime member of the Bush Animal Clinic medical team in Albany. The Albany native joined the staff as a veterinary assistant in 1991 and, after earning his doctorate of Veterinary Medicine in 1998 at the University of Georgia, returned to the hospital as a general practitioner. His professional interests include orthopedic surgery, ultrasonography and cardiology. He has served on the board of directors of the Georgia Veterinary Medical Association and is a member of the South Georgia Veterinary Medical Association, the Dougherty County Veterinary Association and the American Veterinary Medical Association.

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