Food

Vitamin D deficiencies in dogs can cause health problems over time, but so can an oversupply. Because vitamin D is fat soluble, it accumulates in body fat. Overdoses can be toxic and even fatal, but some vitamin D is necessary to a dog's health. Vitamin D will aid in the absorption of calcium and phosphate, increases bone cell activity, influences the formation and growth of long bones, and speeds the healing of fractures. Adequate D levels may help prevent heart disease, joint inflammation, skin and coat problems, cancer, vision problems, depression, mental illness, infections, inflammatory bowel disease, dental problems, hyperparathyroidism, and kidney disease.

Nature's Variety was founded on the principle that dogs (and cats) should be given a variety of dietary options, both in terms of ingredients (chicken, beef, lamb, pork, etc.) and in the very form of food they are given (kibble, canned, etc.). While many companies offer a dry and a canned form of their products, Nature's Variety is ahead of the curve in adding frozen raw diets to its offerings. To ensure that consumers were well educated about these unique products and the concept of rotational feeding" – very new at the time – Nature's Variety products were sold only in independent pet supply stores when they were introduced to the retail market in 2002. Nature's Variety offers two distinctly different lines of food: Instinct and Prairie. True to the promise of "variety" present in the company's name

1. Nature's Variety had revenue in 2015 of $126.7 million. 2. The company has two production facilities in Lincoln and three warehouse facilities, including frozen. In 2008, Catterton, an international private equity firm, invested in Nature's Variety and CEO Reed Howlett came on board. In 2009, the company headquarters was moved from Nebraska to St. Louis, though manufacturing and warehouse operations remain in Lincoln. …

Every aspect of an AAFCO feeding trial is meant to ensure that a food is capable of maintaining a population of a minimum number of dogs for a minimum period of time (26 weeks for a maintenance" claim; 23 weeks for a "growth" claim). At a minimum

Thanks to dogs' industrial-strength digestive systems, their strong stomach acids usually disarm the Salmonella bacteria before they can cause illness. And even if enough of the bacteria survive and manage to take up residence in the dog's digestive tract, he may well be completely asymptomatic; not all canine carriers of Salmonella become ill. This makes it difficult to know how widespread Salmonella infections are in the canine population.

Free feeding is the practice of making food available to your dog at all times. Convenience is typically cited as the reason why owners choose free-feeding. Being a responsible dog owner means doing what's best for your dog not what is convenient.

Be honest: The main reason that many of you are reading this right now - the reason that many of you have subscribed to...

What follows is a list of foods that meet all of our selection criteria. Whether or not you have seen them before, or can get them, may depend on where you live and where you shop – although, remember, many of these products are increasingly available through online pet supply retailers.

How many of you feed canned food to your dog every day? Or maybe I should ask, how many of you feed only canned food to your dog every day? While we'd like our annual canned dog food review to be of use to owners who feed any amount of canned food to their dogs, it should be most relevant to people who rely solely on canned products to provide complete and balanced nutrition" to their dogs

When we review dog foods, we generally ask the makers of those that meet our selection criteria some questions. This year, we asked this: Do you have a complete nutrient analysis for each of your products? And if so

When WDJ first reviewed dog food, back in 1998, there was but a handful of companies making what we considered good foods. Seriously, I stretched to find five companies that had products that contained only good-quality ingredients - and more importantly, didn't contain unnamed animal fats and meat by-products. And just about every question I asked a pet food company was answered with, "I'm sorry that's proprietary information!"

The long-term goal of this column is to teach interested dog owners how to formulate safe and wholesome complete and balanced" home-prepared diets for their dogs. We will eventually cover raw and cooked diets