Egad, I hope owners are leading a life as healthy as what they plan for their four-legged friends:

"There are four characteristics of a good pet food," Zoran believes.

"The first quality is palatability. If dogs get hungry enough, they will eat almost anything but you want their food to be something they enjoy."

A good food will also help your animal maintain a healthy weight. According to Zoran, a food that agrees with a particular animal gives it a good body condition.

The third characteristic of a quality food is an animal's healthy skin and hair. "If his skin is clear without any flakes or scales and his coat is shiny, not dull or brittle, then the food is good," she says.

The final judge of an appropriate food is stool quality. "The animal should not go too frequently or have too much gas, and the stool should always be formed but not too hard or soft," she notes.
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Zoran also recommends buying the most expensive food you can afford. "If you're on a tight budget, it may still be generic, but generally, a more expensive food goes through more rigorous testing and the protein used in it is of a higher standard," she says.

--Aggie Daily News, July 21, 2005