Food & Nutrition

A quality diet is essential for the long-term health of any animal, and our dogs are no exception. Any nutritionally balanced dog diet relies on six elements: carbs, fats, minerals, proteins, water, and vitamins. The nutritional content of the food your dog consumes will affect his or her mood, behavior, overall health, and longevity.

In recent years, the anchovy has seen a resurgence in the human health food world as an exciting source of calcium, protein, and vitamins. This is great for humans, but what does the anchovy have to offer our pets? It turns out the anchovy is also rich in something particularly useful to dogs: omega-3 essential fatty acids.  

Grain-free dog food is just that: any dog diet that is completely free of grains, including wheat, corn, rice, etc. It has become a popular choice for modern pet parents who want to feed their pups well, but is it really a better option for every dog? Are grains always the enemy, or is this a case of another fad diet? Further, is there any difference between good grains and bad grains?

For the parents of picky eaters, Nom Nom has heard your plea! We've taken a clinical and behavioral approach to getting your best friend the right training to end mealtime nightmares.  Through a training program designed by board certified veterinary nutritionist, your picky eaters learn to eat the food given to them, when it's given to them. No huff, no fuss!

Nutrient numbers in dog food labels can't always be treated as high = good and low = bad. A few general guidelines for thinking about the role of key nutrients in maintaining the health of your pet.

AAFCO is the Association of American Feed Control Officials, and it is a voluntary organization that is responsible for regulating dog food (that falls under the FDA, Food and Drug Administration).

The first thing you'll want to look at is the guaranteed analysis at the top of the nutrition label. This tells you the minimum amount of certain nutrients (by weight) within the food.

Understanding a bit about how kibble is made is helpful in assessing whether or not it is something you want your dog to be eating. To produce kibble, a mixture of carbs, plant or animal protein, and fats of various quality (and unspecified sources) are mixed into a paste.

A raw dog food diet (as opposed to a cooked dog food diet) is made of ingredients that are uncooked. Typically they are high-meat diets, but this may include toxin-housing organ meats, or leftover parts of the carcass after the rest of the cuts of meat have been removed.

While dogs don't need carbohydrates to survive, there are many studies that have found impressive benefits of including carbohydrates in a dog's diet, which is why we include them in the food over here at Nom Nom.