Redford dog food ingredients review: Are these good choices for your pet?

Okay, so the other day I started thinking about what my dog's actually eating. You know, you get busy, you grab the same bag off the shelf, and you don't really look at it anymore. My buddy seemed fine, but I just got this itch to check things out again, maybe switch things up. I'd seen the Redford brand around, the packaging looked decent, so I decided that's where I'd start my little investigation.

So, next time I was at the pet store, I made a point to actually pick up a bag of the Redford stuff. Didn't buy it right away, mind you. Just wanted to see the label myself. I flipped it over to the back, past all the fancy marketing words on the front. That's where the real story is, right? The ingredient list.

Finding the Ingredient List

Took me a second to find it, tucked away usually in smaller print. I had to squint a bit, not gonna lie. I started reading from the top, 'cause that's usually where the main stuff is listed, by weight I think.

Here’s kind of what I remember seeing, the main things that jumped out at me:

• First few ingredients: I always look here first. Saw things like deboned chicken or lamb meal listed pretty high up. That felt okay, like real meat was a focus. Sometimes you see 'meal' which is different from whole meat, more concentrated I guess.
• Grains or Grain-Free?: I checked if it had corn, wheat, or soy. Some bags did, some were labeled grain-free and used stuff like peas or sweet potatoes instead. Had to think about whether my dog actually needs grain-free, or if that's just hype. He doesn't have allergies that I know of.
• Fillers and By-products: Scanned lower down the list. Tried to spot things that sound like cheap fillers. Also looked for 'meat by-products'. Some people hate them, some say they're fine. I'm kinda on the fence, depends what kind of by-products, but the list didn't specify much detail usually.
• Vitamins and Minerals: Saw the usual long list of added vitamins and stuff at the end. Standard practice, makes sure the food is balanced.

Reading through it, I spent a good few minutes just standing there in the aisle, comparing a couple of different Redford formulas. One for large breeds, one maybe a standard adult recipe. They varied a bit, obviously. The puppy formulas had different stuff too.

It wasn't super complicated, but it did make me think. You see 'chicken', but then 'chicken meal', and 'chicken fat'. All sound similar, but they're processed differently. It's not always clear cut what's 'best'.

So yeah, that was my little dive into the Redford ingredients. Just picked up the bag, read the label carefully, tried to understand what the main components were. Didn't make a final decision right then, still mulling it over. But at least now I feel like I actually looked at what I might be feeding my dog.