Best Food for Shih Tzu – The Importance of Ingredients
Are you wondering what you can feed to your Shih Tzu to keep him healthy and happy? Perhaps dog food marketing has you completely confused and you have no idea where to turn when looking for the best food for Shih Tzu dog?
With varying dog food recalls, tales of poisoning and all sorts of investigations into commercially prepared dog food it is no wonder that Shih Tzu owners are confused. When deciding on the best food for Shih Tzu it is important to take the ingredients into account.
Shih Tzu Convenience Food
Despite there being a lot of hopeless dog food out there, filled with low quality ingredients, there are also some good quality convenience dog foods. It is important to look carefully though to differentiate between the two.
The trick is to ignore the claims on the front of the packaging and go straight to the composition or ingredients area on the back. You will soon learn that the foods with the best quality ingredients are more transparent whilst those commercial dog foods with poor nutritional content are a little less open.
Shih Tzu dog food manufacturers are legally obliged to list ingredients in the order of maximum to minimum in the food. So if a food is made with fresh chicken, potatoes and peas in that order it will list the food in the same order. Often giving percentages of each. It will also state that the chicken is fresh.
Now, this is where it gets slightly more complicated, some manufacturers will use the words “meal” or “derivatives” after an ingredient in a dog food. It will appear like this chicken meal (80%) or similar. This is misleading because although the food may be made from 80% chicken does not mean it is the best food for Shih Tzu, not by far. It simply means that 80% of the food comes from chickens which in many cases includes beaks, feet and feathers. This is something to keep in mind because feeding a dog on this type of food is terrible for long term health.
Choosing the Best Food for Shih Tzu
There are an ever increasing amount of smaller dog food developers bringing a better quality of commercial dog foods into the market. Manufacturers that realize how bad dog food created bad dog health. In turn you can keep your Shih Tzu happy and healthy with the minimal of fuss by reading labels carefully and investigating the ethics of the company that designs the food that goes into your Shih Tzu’s bowl.
Look for family business type manufacturers that explain the source of the ingredients that they use. Look out for large amount of filler listed in the ingredients such as beet pulp or vegetable “derivatives” which could be as basic as the tops from root vegetables or the ground up shells from peas.
Basically the best food for Shih Tzu will contain a handful of great quality ingredients with added botanicals, vitamins and minerals to create a whole food source. It’s actually quite easy choosing the best food for Shih Tzu when you know what to avoid. By doing even the smallest amount of research you can find the right food for your Shih Tzu dog.
