Do you know what is in your dog food? Did you know that most dog food has ingredients that cause health problems? This is why it is so important to read as many dog food reviews as you possibly can before you make a choice about what you are going to feed your pet. When you take the responsibility to take care of a dog who is totally dependent on your for their sustenance, then you should want to give them the best possible quality of life. You can do that by feeding them the highest quality dog food that you can find by reading as many dog food reviews as you possibly can.

On to the Black Gold dog food review. I am just going to randomly pick one of their formulas to show you how to do a quick analysis of the ingredients. I am going to do a review of the Black Gold Lamb and Rice formula. The first thing I do is look at the top five ingredients. They rank ingredients in order by the weight, so the top ingredient should be the food that has the highest weight compared to every other ingredient. The first five ingredients are:

(1) Lamb Meal
(2) Brewers Rice
(3) Rice Flour
(4) Chicken By-Product Meal
(5) Corn Meal

Let's go through these ingredients. There are two sources of protein in the top five ingredients, that's a good sign. It's good that the top ingredient is lamb meal, a good source of readily accessible protein but chicken by-product meal is not going to be a quality source of protein. Chicken by-product meal is a very low quality protein. It is actually the ground down rendered parts of chickens that are left over from a slaughtered chicken such as the neck, feet, intestines, and undeveloped eggs.

The second and third ingredients are rice. This is a practice known as splitting, where the manufacturer splits products on the label, which are essentially the same, so they will rank lower on the list. In reality, it is possible that if you combine the rice that it would be in the number one spot, outranking the meat. Brewers rice, a by-product, and rice flour are both very low quality fillers. Corn meal is very hard for dogs to digest and is also a low quality filler. Corn meal has been associated with health problems in dogs, so you would probably not want to see this ingredient in the food you are feeding your dog.

Now let's look at the full list of ingredients. The ingredient poultry fat is usually associated with low quality especially if they don't tell you the source.

Another very low quality and controversial ingredient is beet pulp. Beet pulp is a by product of the manufacturing process that they use to make sugar. Beet pulp as an ingredient in dog food is controversial because it has been linked to all sorts of health problems. It is known to put strain on the dogs kidneys and other organs. It has also been linked to ear infections. Beet pulp is a cheap filler but there are lots of higher quality filler available.

You can see how just a glance at the top five ingredients gives you a feel for the quality of the dog food, then a look at the whole list will really tell you the whole story. This doesn't have to take you very long and after you do a couple of dog food reviews you will get very quick at spotting low quality ingredients. So take the responsibility of dog ownership serious and review the food you are feeding him to ensure that he will live a long high quality life.