I copied this from another forum on that home site. Thank you to the person that posted it. I snagged this from my chihuahua forum but it's very, very useful information. We switched to chicken soup brand dog food after I learned more about some of the other premium brands I was looking into. How to grade your dog's food: Start with a grade of 100: 1) For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points 2) For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat, meal or fat) reference, subtract 10 points 3) If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points 4) For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source, subtract 5 points 5) If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", "brewer's rice", "rice flour" are all the same grain), subtract 5 points 6) If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than 2 meats in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points 7) If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points 8 ) If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points 9) If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 more points 10) If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 2 points 11) If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic to other protein sources), subtract 2 points 12) If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points 13) If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to wheat), subtract 2 points 14) If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to beef), subtract 1 point 15) If it contains salt, subtract 1 point Extra Credit: 1) If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points 2) If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or nutritionist, add 5 points 3) If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points 4) If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points 5) If the food contains fruit, add 3 points 6) If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3 points 7) If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2 points 8 ) If the food contains barley, add 2 points 9) If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points 10) If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point 11) If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point 12) For every different specific animal protein source (other than the first one; count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as only one protein source, but "chicken" and "" as 2 different sources), add 1 point 13) If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point 14) If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are pesticide-free, add 1 point 94-100+ = A 86-93 = B 78-85 = C 70-77 = D Here are some foods that have already been scored. If you don't see your dog's food here, ask and someone will score it for you. Dog Food scores: Alpo Prime Cuts / Score 81 C Artemis Large/Medium Breed Puppy / Score 114 A+ Authority Harvest Baked / Score 116 A+ Authority Harvest Baked Less Active / Score 93 B Beowulf Back to Basics / Score 101 A+ Bil-Jac Select / Score 68 F Blackwood 3000 Lamb and Rice / Score 83 C Blue Buffalo Chicken and Rice / Score 106 A+ Burns Chicken and Brown Rice / Score 107 A+ Canidae / Score 112 A+ Chicken Soup Senior / Score 115 A+ Diamond Maintenance / Score 64 F Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice / Score 92 B Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula / Score 99 A Diamond Performance / Score 85 C Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Ultra Premium / Score 122 A+ Dick Van Pattens Natural Balance Venison and Brown Rice / Score 106 A+ Dick Van Patten's Duck and Potato / Score 106 A+ EaglePack Holistic / Score 102 A+ Eukanuba Adult / Score 81 C Eukanuba Puppy / Score 79 C Flint River Senior / Score 101 A+ Foundations / Score 106 A+ Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold / Score 93 B Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium / Score 73 D Innova Dog / Score 114 A+ Innova Evo / Score 114 A+ Innova Large Breed Puppy / Score 122 A+ Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables / Score 110 A+ MemberÂs Mark Chicken and Rice / Score 84 C Merrick Wilderness Blend / Score 127 A+ NatureÂs Recipe / Score 100 A NatureÂs Recipe Healthy Skin Venison and Rice / Score 116 A+ NatureÂs Variety Raw Instinct / Score 122 A+ Nutra Nuggets Super Premium Lamb Meal and Rice / Score 81 C Nutrience Junior Medium Breed Puppy / Score 101 A+ Nutrisource Lamb and Rice / Score 87 B Nutro Max Adult / Score 93 B Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice / Score 98 A Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy / Score 87 B Nutro Natural Choice Puppy Wheat Free / Score 86 B Nutro Natural Choice Senior / Score 95 A Nutro Ultra Adult / Score 104 A+ Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice / Score 23 F Premium Edge Chicken, Rice and Vegetables Adult Dry / Score 109 A+ Pro Nature Puppy / Score 80 C Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach / Score 94 A Purina Beneful / Score 17 F Purina Dog / Score 62 F Purina Come-n-Get It / Score 16 F Purina One Large Breed Puppy / Score 62 F Royal Canin Boxer / Score 103 A+ Royal Canin Bulldog / Score 100 A+ Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult / Score 106 A+ Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+ / Score 63 F Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies / Score 69 F Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice / Score 97 A Solid Gold / Score 99 A Summit / Score 99 A Timberwolf Organics Wild & Natural Dry / Score 120 A+ Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken / Score 110 A+ Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold / Score 97 A

In answer to your post, Deb, and to others, I don't exactly use recipes to cook dogfood, but more of a formula. My first ingredient is always meat. I do add some filler to save money, but the amount of filler I use is less than what is in commercial petfood. Also I add calcium to substitute for the bones that a dog would naturally consume along with meat from prey in the wild. Additionally I add digestive enzymes and vitamin/mineral supplement. For instance the food my dogs are eating this week is chicken and rice. I cooked 4 lbs of ground chicken and 4 lbs of ground turkey in a big pot. To this I added about 3 cups of cooked white rice and meat pulled from the bones of a baked chicken and the juice from the chicken. Then I stirred in 3 heaping teaspoons of powdered calcium carbonate (I buy NOW brand at Amazon.com). I also added the powder from about 5 capsules of digestive enzymes and from two vitamin/mineral capsules. These are human grade supplements. It is important when using human vitamin/mineral pills for pets to buy iron-free supplements. Last week my dogs' menu was ground pork and boneless pork chops cut into tiny bites with some cooked macaroni and the same supplements added. Basically this food was made using the same proportions as the poultry mix they are eating this week. I use ground beef sometimes, also liver, and sometimes I whip up an omelet with cheese and meat scraps from about 4 to six eggs and about 1/2 a teasp of calcium. In place of store-bought powdered calcium, you can use ground eggshell. I use it when I have it on hand. I save eggshells in a dish in my freezer and when I have enough, I bake them at 350 degrees for an hour, then grind them into a powder for one minute in a small electric coffee grinder that I bought for this purpose, and store the powdered eggshell in the fridge. Powdered eggshell is mostly calcium carbonate, 90-something percent. For my cat, I feed only chicken, because that is all Miss Picky will eat. I pull the meat into tiny bites and add all the above named supplements (in smaller proportion) as well as a small amount of taurine. Kitty can sometimes be persuaded to eat some tuna or a few bites of other meats, but she tires of it quickly. I hope this is somewhat helpful to those of you wondering about home cooked petfood. I figured out the proportions of calcium to meat sometime ago based on pet nutrition studies somewhere on the web. I fed my two old dogs home cooked for the last 4 years of their lives and they were in good health up until the end when I lost one to cancer and the other to respiratory disease at ages 12 1/2 (the collie) and 14 (my sheltie). My new dogs are doing well on this food, and my 19 yr old cat has been eating home cooked for the past 5 years and is in good health for an old timer. I also thought about a raw diet, because it is definitely the natural food of a dog or cat. Like some others I am sort of squeamish and got cold feet about the idea of feeding bones. I know that if bones are uncooked they are supposed to be safe, but it's so ingrained in me not to feed them that I just wimped out and went the home cooking way instead. I will say that all my cats have been indoor/outdoor cats most of their lives and they certainly have eaten rodents and birds, bones and all, with no ill effects. In fact, I suspect that this partial natural prey diet may have been responsible for their longevity, as they lived to be 23, 21, 20, and 10 (the last having died from an injury) and my current cat is 19 and I expect she will live into her 20s too. So I'd have to say there is a lot to be said in favor of a raw diet, it's just not the way I chose to go.

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I used to feed my pets the dry nutro food and never had any problems. But then the canned food recall happened, and when I had a conversation with my vet, he felt it was better to be safe and stay away from any company on that list. Even though their dry food wasn't recalled, it is still likely that they get their ingredients from the same suppliers. So he recommended a pet shop that conveniently enough is in my town, and the owner only sells all natural pet food & snacks. I went in and she gave me tons of sample of all different kinds: chicken soup, nature's variet, innova, two other brands that I can't remember....Tucker seems to like the nature's variety the best so that's what we stuck with. It only costs slightly more than nutro ($1.60 per lb as opposed to $1 per lb) and it has ablsolutely no animal byproducts or animal digest (ugh - can you imagine eating that??) Human or canine, what you put into the body is very important for maintaining health and wellbeing. I'm glad you found a plentiful supplier for wholesome food for your little puppies!