What is in dog food, and what each ingredient does

Protein, fat, carbohydrate, fibre, minerals, vitamins: the six things every complete food has to get right, what they do in the dog, and the natural ingredients we use to supply them.

Protein

Builds and maintains muscle, organs, skin and coat, and supplies the amino acids a dog cannot make itself. Animal protein has the fuller amino acid profile, so it leads every Happy Dog recipe: up to 90% of the total protein in our dry food is from animal sources. A guide figure for an adult dry food is a crude protein content in the low twenties; puppies need more. Why the meat percentage on the bag is a different thing.

Fat

The main energy source, and the carrier for vitamins A, D, E and K. The type matters more than the amount: the essential fatty acids, omega-6 (linoleic acid) and omega-3, keep the skin barrier intact and the coat glossy, and dogs cannot make them. We add them after cooking, in the oil coating, from linseed, fish oil and rapeseed, so they survive. Lower-fat recipes exist for dogs that need them: Toscana, Light, and the VET Intestinal Low Fat diet.

Carbohydrate

Clean energy, provided it is cooked. Dogs digest starch far better than wolves, so potato, rice and maize are good fuel; the milling and staged cooking in our factory are what make them digestible. Grain-free recipes swap cereals for potato and are for dogs with a proven cereal allergy rather than for everyone. More on the grain question.

Fibre

Not digested by the dog, but essential to the gut that does the digesting. Fermentable fibres such as apple pomace, beet pulp and psyllium feed the good gut bacteria, which produce short-chain fatty acids that nourish the gut lining and keep the pH low enough to discourage harmful bacteria. Cellulose binds water and gives the stool form. The right fibre blend is why a dog on our food produces a small, firm stool.

Minerals

Calcium and phosphorus for bone, in a ratio no lower than 1:1 and carefully controlled for puppies, where both too little and too much calcium damage growing bone. Zinc, copper, manganese and iodine for skin, connective tissue and thyroid. Sodium and potassium for fluid balance. In renal diets, phosphorus is deliberately reduced. Do not add minerals or bones to a complete food; the balance is the point.

Vitamins

A for skin and vision, D for calcium use, E as an antioxidant, the B group for metabolism, and K for clotting. Vitamins are the first casualties of harsh cooking, which is why our Thermostufenmix process cooks in stages and adds the sensitive ones afterwards.

The natural helpers

What is not in it

No artificial colours, flavours or preservatives. No added sugar. No soya in the Pure wet range. Nothing tested on animals. And, in the single-protein recipes, no second animal source anywhere in the list.

Now read the label with this in mind.

Reviewed against "The young dog: key aspects of dietetics" (Nicola Rinn, veterinarian) and "Feeding multimorbid patients" (Pascale Huber, veterinarian), Happy Dog veterinary team.