You are not alone. Doggy owners agree that this is a struggle in pet ownership!

What's the most difficult part of pet ownership? According to a survey of 900 U.S. dog owners conducted by Purina, it's choosing the right food. More than half of dog owners (and 68 percent of millennial dog owners) even felt that their dog's nutritional needs were more confusing than their own.

This is understandable — your dog can’t tell you how she’s feeling, after all.

It can seem overwhelming, but, really, choosing the right food for your dog is not rocket science, especially if you go back to the basics.

1 in 4 Dog Owners Is Overwhelmed by Food Choices 
The Purina survey revealed that while most pet owners (70 percent) felt their chosen dog food mostly fit their pet's needs, they didn't believe it to be the “perfect fit.”

Another 1 in 4 said they felt overwhelmed with the number of choices in the pet food aisle, and the same amount also said they spend more than 10 minutes trying to select the right variety.

This could be helpful if your pet has food allergies or other specific needs (like weight loss), however it's important to remember that your dog is a carnivore and, as such, requires a high-quality, meat-based diet.

By this, I mean a diet that's based on fresh, whole foods — not dried pellets made primarily of grains and byproducts with a bit of meat added in for good measure. You to need only look at your dog's ancestral diet — that of wolves — to understand what type of food she metabolically requires.

Many Processed Pet Foods Can Leave Your Dog Nutritionally Deficient 
Many diseases plaguing humans — cancer and diabetes among them — are now plaguing pets, and processed food diets are largely to blame.

Dogs have adapted to this unnatural diet to some extent, producing more amylase to digest the unnaturally high levels of starch in their diets — if they didn't, they'd have likely gone extinct decades ago — but that doesn't mean they thrive on it.

We're now seeing generations of animals suffering from degenerative diseases that rarely occur in the wild, and I believe many of these diseases are the result of nutrient deficiencies that conventional veterinarians aren't recognizing.

The Best and Worst Foods for Your Pet 

Thousands of good hearted but uneducated animal lovers have inadvertently made their pets sick by “winging it,” and guessing at the nutritional requirements for their pets, creating massive nutritional deficiencies with a poorly designed homemade diet in short period of time, especially for growing, large-breed pups.

If you don't want to deal with balancing diets at home, choosing to feed a pre-balanced, commercially available raw food diet is a great choice. A freeze-dried/dehydrated diet is also good (although less so than fresh).

You Can Supplement Your Pet's Diet With Fresh Foods as Snacks 
Depending on where your pet's food falls on the continuum, with fresh foods being the best and highly processed dry foods the worst, you'll want to step up to higher quality choices as your budget allows. Keep in mind, however, that it doesn't have to be all or nothing.

If you can afford to feed one or two fresh meals a week, there will be health benefits! Every time you replace a dead food with a fresh food, you are improving your pet’s health. Feeding one fresh meal a day (and one entirely processed meal) provides substantial health benefits to your pets.

Doesn't this struggle seem a lot easier to handle now with all the right information? It sure is! Making sure your doggy is happy and healthy is always the best reason to give him the best diet!

For more information on pet diet, visit Healthy Pets.