Premium Dog Food

There are many different types and grades of dog food. The term Premium Dog Food is used to indicate higher quality dog food, just as the term "economy dog food" is used to indicate less expensive (but lower quality) dog food.  

 

The main difference between premium dog food and ordinary dog food is that the former uses higher quality ingredients. For example, it will typically use cuts of meat as its protein source, whereas economy dog food will tend to use the cheapest source possible (offal, grain protein). There are several advantages to the use of better ingredients:

  • The resulting dog food is higher quality.
  • The food is often more nutritious, and thus healthier for your dog.
  • The food is more digestible.

Of  course, using higher quality ingredients costs more, so premium dog food is more expensive, as measured by weight (by pound or by kilogram). However, if instead of measuring the price by weight, you measure the price in terms of how much it costs to feed your dog for a month, premium dog food can be less expensive than economy dog food.

 

The reason for this is that the nutritional quality of economy dog food is lower, so one has to feed a larger amount of it. For example, if you are feeding your dog 4 cups of economy dog food a day, you may need only 2 or 3 cups of premium dog food. One study (Dog food costs) used a kennel of 70 hunting dogs to test the daily feeding costs with different types of dog food. It found that it cost $1.01 per dog per day if premium dog food was used, $1.12 for a regular brand and $1.35 for an economy brand.

 

Another advantage of premium dog food is that less stool is produced. This is because it does not contain low-digestability ingredients (such as low-grade grains).

 

One concern with premium dog food is that the description 'premium' is not defined or regulated. Consequently, while a given manufacturer may use the term 'economy' to describe their least expensive dog food and may use the term 'premium' to describe their higher quality brand, not all 'premium dog foods' are of the same quality. Therefore, even with premium dog foods, it is important to look at the ingredient list.