Our rule for the store is simple: we only carry what we'd feed our own pets. That rule does a lot of the filtering for us. But when people ask what we're filtering out, these five come up every time.
None of these will hurt your dog after one bite. The issue is that they show up every day, in every bowl, for years. And none of them do anything for your dog that a better ingredient couldn't do instead.
1. Artificial Colors
Red 40. Yellow 5. Yellow 6. Blue 2. They're in food and treats for one reason: to make the kibble look appealing to you. Your dog doesn't care what color dinner is. He's checking smell, not color.
Look for instead: food that's the color food is. Brown is fine. Brown is honest.
2. Chemical Preservatives (BHA, BHT, Ethoxyquin)
These synthetic preservatives keep fats from going rancid and extend shelf life. They work. They also have open questions about long-term health effects, which is more than we want in something a dog eats twice a day for 12 years.
Look for instead: natural preservatives like mixed tocopherols (vitamin E), rosemary extract and vitamin C.
3. Unnamed Meat Sources
"Meat meal." "Animal fat." "Animal digest." "Poultry by-product." When the label won't tell you which animal, it's usually because the answer changes batch to batch, or it's whatever was cheapest that week.
A quick clarification, because "meal" gets a bad rap: chicken meal or lamb meal is fine. It's the named meat with the water cooked out, which makes it a concentrated protein source. The problem is the missing name, not the word "meal."
Look for instead: a named animal. Chicken, beef, salmon, lamb, turkey.
4. Added Sweeteners
Corn syrup, sugar, cane molasses. Dogs don't need added sugar, and it's mostly there to make low-quality food more palatable. If a food needs sugar to get eaten, that tells you something about the rest of the recipe.
Look for instead: natural sweetness from real ingredients like sweet potato, pumpkin, carrots or apples. That's what goes into our bakery treats.
5. Propylene Glycol
It's a moisture-retaining additive that keeps semi-moist treats chewy. It's banned from cat food in the U.S. It's still allowed in dog food. We'd rather not split that hair, so we skip it entirely.
Look for instead: treats that get their texture from real ingredients and fresh baking, or single-ingredient options from our Raw Bar.
The Short Version
If you can't tell what animal it came from, skip it.
If it's there to make the food look nice to you, skip it.
If you'd have to Google it, read what you find before you buy it.
Every bag on our shelves has been read by someone who works here. That's the whole point of a curated store. (More on that in How We Actually Pick What Goes On Our Shelves.)
Not sure what's in your dog's current food? Bring the bag in and we'll read the label with you, then show you a few options that clear the bar. Or browse our shelves online at slobberbones.com/shop.
