You finally got a puppy. Horray. You have just got yourself a friend for life. And hopefully it will be a long healthy life. Now is a good time to look at dog food and consider what you'll be feeding your little guy for the many years to come. Now with all the options in dog food available it can be confusing. Not to mention the alarming news stories of commercial dog food, harming pets.

You'll first want to decide if you're going to buy a store dog food or make your own. Both options have their pros and cons so you'll need to consider what will work best for your lifestyle. Convenience and cost are probably the biggest deciding factors here. Although home made dog recipes are better for your dog, do you have the time?

If you do decide on a dog food from your local store, you'll want to get familiar with the ingredient terms. Some terms like natural or organic have no legal definition or regulation, so don't pay to much attention to them. You may wish to meet your vet and discuss any specific nutritional concerns for your particular pet. They can also help explain some of the misleading or confusing terms on packaging.

When looking at the ingredient listing on a dog food package pay particular attention to the first three ingredients listed. You'll want to see a meat in the top three. That is, you should see chicken, lamb, beef or meat meal but not meat by-product. Meat by-products are basically animal waste parts. Corn and soy are also best avoided as it's a common allergen in pets.

You want the ingredients to be things you would use yourself in the kitchen and are familiar. The less preservatives and artificial colors the better. Look for products that are preserved naturally using Vitamin C (ascorbate) or E (mixed tocopherols). Foods preserved with butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl gallate, propylene glycol (also used as a less-toxic version of car antifreeze), and ethoxyquin are all synthetic preservatives and are potential cancer-causing.

Forget about brand names, you want quality and you'll be able to tell by looking at the ingredient list not the fancy packaging. So next time you walk down the grocery dog food lane check out the details on the ingredient list. You can find good dog food for puppies if you just do a bit of reading before heading to the checkout.

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