December 21st, 2020 | Updated on June 28th, 2022
Finding the ideal pet food can be challenging given the huge variety of options in the market today.
Deciding on the type of pet food is one of the most important decisions you’ll make as a pet owner as it will contribute to the health of your fur baby.
If you want to ensure that your companion stays healthy, you should consider getting an all-natural pet food.
A high-quality, all-natural diet containing the right amount of carbohydrates, protein, water, fats, vitamins, and minerals is essential for your pet’s overall health.
When finding the right pet food, you should understand the ingredients and benefits your pets need for their overall health and well-being.
Reading through reviews and advice online from trusted pet blogs like Petsumer can help you find the right all-natural pet food that suits your pet’s needs.
With this in mind, you should take a look at the following tips when looking for an all-natural pet food here:
1. Check Protein Content
When finding an all-natural pet food, always check the protein content. Always remember that you should go for pet food that contains superior protein.
Cats are obligate carnivores, which means that they require meat to survive. As for dogs, they are omnivores and they can go on with a plant-based or meat-based diet, as long as it has variety and is well-balanced. Overall, it should be high in protein.
If you are looking for the ideal all-natural pet food for your companion, go for those containing high proportions of fish or meat on the list of ingredients. Ideally, look for single-source animal proteins such as “chicken” or “beef.”
When the description states “meat by-product,” “animal derivatives,” or “meat meal,” it has a low nutritional content, which does not constitute a healthy diet for your pets.
2. Assess The Quality Of The Ingredients
The ingredient list is the first place to start to check the other ingredients. If you check the ingredients, they follow an order by weight. Fish or meat components must be the first on the list.
Some pet foods in the market might have cheap ingredients, additives, chemicals, and by-products that are not safe for your pets.
Low-quality and artificial ingredients are going to be a problem for your pet’s digestion. Most of the time, these are not adequately absorbed.
What’s worse, these may be connected to the development of digestive and skin problems, including allergies.
By choosing all-natural pet foods that contain superior ingredients with higher nutritional levels, the best nutrition in smaller servings will be definitely provided to your fur baby.
As for economy pet foods, they will cost more in the long run since you need to feed your pet more portions to provide the same nutrition as superior, all-natural pet food.
3. Age-Appropriate Food
As your pets grow, they require different food elements, depending on their stage in life. Puppies and kittens need a high-energy, protein, and fat diet for proper development and nursing and pregnant ones.
As for adult pets, you should carefully monitor the intake of food to maintain a healthy weight. With this in mind, they require a lower calorie diet.
Older pets need fewer calories, and they require more readily digestible proteins with high moisture content.
4. Wet Or Dry Pet Food
You should provide your pet with a balanced diet that includes both wet and dry all-natural pet food. Most pets typically enjoy wet food more.
Wet food with a strong flavor is more attractive. Wet food also provides hydration, especially among those who drink less water throughout the day.
When it comes to all-natural dry food, it’s nutritionally dense and convenient for most pet owners, and some include formulations to clean your pet’s teeth while eating.
Ensure that whole meat such as beef, chicken, and lamb contains 75% water, which evaporates in the dry food.
If “whole meat” is in the list of ingredients, check if the next component is a specific meat meal to ensure that the protein comes from an animal source.
5. Understanding Food Labels
In good quality, all-natural pet food, you can find out what the food is all about. For mediocre-quality pet food, you will find less information.
Sadly, some fake products include healthy ingredients on the list even if they are not actually present. Let us take a look at what you will find in the packaging.
- Composition. In the composition section, you will find all the ingredients in order by weight.
- Analytical constituents. It covers the product’s nutrient analysis such as protein, fiber, fats, etc. You can find ash in this section, which refers to minerals.
Finding the right all-natural pet food is a priority for any pet owner out there. With the help of these useful tips on choosing all-natural pet food, you can make the right choice in selecting the ideal all-natural pet food for your companion that will ensure good health and well-being in the years to come.
