I touched on ingredient quality in the article on Healthy Diets, but it is also very important to choose a food that meets your dog’s individual needs.
Not every food on the market works for every dog out there, which is why I do not like to make blanket recommendations without knowing anything about a particular dog’s diet and health history.
After ingredient quality, the next important thing about a food is that your dog must like it, since even the best, highest-quality food on the planet won’t do if your dog refuses to eat it because he or she doesn’t like the taste.
Some dogs do better with a lower or higher fat content than average, some need more or less fiber to produce consistent stools, and some thrive on poultry-based foods while others cannot tolerate them and need a different protein source. Specific types of starches and fibers might give one dog gas but work out perfectly for another.
Another important factor to consider is how much variety one single food really needs to provide. Many people think that much-advertised products with long ingredient lists, including several types of proteins, grains, fruits, veggies, and other supplements, must be better to feed than "boring" formulations with limited ingredients. The fact is that the more ingredients a food has, the smaller the number of individuals who will be able to tolerate it, and your dog might just be one of them! Feeding a more limited formula of commercial food and providing variety by adding healthy, fresh, unprocessed food items (which you know your dog can tolerate) is a much better idea and actually adds nutritional value.
It is also not beneficial to feed every available protein source "just because you can." Stick with the more common ones like chicken, turkey, lamb, beef, and fish and avoid the more exotic types like buffalo/bison, elk, venison, rabbit, pheasant, or duck. If dogs develop food allergies, they will need to be switched to food ingredients they have never been exposed to before. The more different sources you have previously fed, the more difficult it will be for you to come up with a good feeding plan. So make sure you always read ingredient labels before buying food and treats, and keep the "exotic" meats in reserve.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with feeding different brands, so you can find out what works for your dog. But give it time. If there are no immediate signs of intolerance, three to four months is a good time frame to see short-term as well as long-term effects.
To provide variety in an appropriate way, it would not be a bad idea at all to rotate between several high-quality brands of dry food every three or four months -- provided your dog accepts and tolerates it.
When feeding primarily dry food, don’t mix different types, since every brand has its own formulation and nutritional philosophy. All products are formulated to supply nutrients in a ration of a certain size (kibble size and density vary from brand to brand), based on body weight. Instead of getting "the best of both," your dog isn’t going to eat enough of either one to get the full benefit of a particular nutritional system. Also, if digestive upset occurs, it will take much longer to figure out the cause if you’ve been mixing food.
