Posts Tagged ‘Dry Food’
Dog Health – Good Food & Bad Food
How do you know whether or not the food you are feeding your dog contains all of the necessary nutrients he needs for optimal dog health and energy?
For Optimal Dog Health, Learn What The Labels Mean
Foods labeled “completely balanced” or “nutritionally complete” meet the nutritional requirements for either maintenance (adult dogs) or growth and reproduction (puppies and pregnant or lactating mothers), set aside by the Association of American Feed Control Officials.
The label must indicate the group for which it is intended.
————————————————————–
Dog Food Secrets You Need To Know!
“In This Shocking FREE Video Report You Discover Why 87% of Dogs Die Too Early & 3 Easy Things You Can Do Today To Stop It Happening to Your Dog”
————————————————————–
Dry food is the cheapest commercially available dog food. It’s bulky and takes longer to eat than other foods, so it’s more filling when eaten. And the crunchiness of non-moistened dry food helps keep a dog’s teeth healthy by reducing the accumulation of plaque. It also massages the gums.
You will find that canned foods cost more than dry foods, but if you own a small dog then this price difference should not be a major concern. However, when you are feeding a Rottweiler or Great Dane, then the difference could be phenomenal. Canned foods are a great choice for any canines that are underweight or those recovering from surgery or illness.
Then you have frozen pet food. Frozen foods have the same advantages of canned food products, however, frozen typically costs a bit more than the canned variety. What I like is that you can find both cooked and raw forms of frozen dog food.
Watch Out For Human Foods When Considering Dog Health
There are common foods that are in just about every household that can make your dog or puppy very sick, or worse, cause death. For your dog health, make sure they are stored where your pal can’t get to them.
1) Chocolate: Chocolate contains theobromine (a substance related to caffeine), which can cause vomiting, diarrhea, muscle tremors, seizures and abnormal heartbeat in dogs.
Different types of chocolate contain different amounts of theobromine.
2) Macadamia Nuts: While delicious to eat, these nuts can cause weakness in dogs, vomiting, depression, and other signs. The agent that causes it is unknown. Amounts as small as 2 teaspoons per pound of bodyweight have caused toxic signs.
3) Onions: Both raw or cooked onions contain a substance that causes rupture of the red blood cells, which can lead to severe anemia. Garlic can also produce similar signs, though not as severe.
A toxic dose is about 1 to 5 ounces of raw onions.
4) Raisins and Grapes: These foods can cause kidney failure in some dogs. The toxic agent has not been identified. According to the ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center, toxicity has occurred following ingestion of amounts ranging from a single serving of raisins to more than a pound of grapes.
Dog health is very important and by taking a few precautions, you prevent veterinary bills, and even more important, the death of your dog.
Incoming search terms for the article:
- cesar dog food is it good for my dog
- dog food for small dog
- good dog food bad dog food
- aspca
- good human food for dogs
- good human food to feed dog
- good puppy food for a puppy
Dog Food & Supplements: An In Depth Look At Nutrition And Dog Health (7)
According to the canine nutritional experts, a ninety pound adult German Shepherd can require up to seven cans of dog food per day for proper dog health.
A sixty pound Collie can require five cans per day. For the average household and overall dog health, this can become an expensive choice.
Dry dog foods, on the other hand, contain only about ten percent moisture – the other sixty five percent having been removed intentionally during the dehydration process.
The dog owner is expected to replace the moisture for better dog health either by providing the dog with ample amounts of water alongside the feeding dish, or by adding it directly to the dry food.
Feeding directions on labels of dry dog food are very explicit about this.
————————————————————–
Dog Food Secrets You Need To Know!
“In This Shocking FREE Video Report You Discover Why 87% of Dogs Die Too Early & 3 Easy Things You Can Do Today To Stop It Happening to Your Dog”
————————————————————–
The drawback in feeding dry dog food usually has been caused by the dog owner having allowed the family pooch to enjoy table scraps. Eating people-food accomplishes absolutely nothing for Sparky’s nutritional needs or dog health and simply creates the problem of the finicky eater.
Under the mistaken belief that he’s doing the dog a favor, the dog owner is really robbing the animal of nutrients that are rightfully his – taking food right out of his mouth, so to speak.
In the middle of the scale are the “soft-moist” products which contain more moisture content than dry foods, but considerably less than the canned foods. They are the easiest of all three types to prepare, but are far and away the most expensive. Probably, they are economically most suitable for the small dog.
A compromise solution for the family with the finicky eater as well as the family with a limited dog food budget might be a combination of both canned and dry. Mixing two types – each balanced nutritionally – does nothing to upset the interrelationships of the nutrients.
It’s much easier to control the weight of the family dog when this combination is used. Rather than cut down on the volume intake of the obese dog, a decrease in the amount of dry food, with corresponding increase in canned food will accomplish this without having a constantly hungry dog begging for handouts.
On the other hand, increasing the amount of dry food, with a corresponding decrease in canned, may help to bring the weight up and improve the dog health on the dog that has a tendency to be skinny.
The diet of today’s pet dog has come quite a long way from the old days of being fed whale blubber, potatoes and cornbread. Now if manufacturers would take just as much interest in human foods… but for now, if your dog’s choice between caviar or a commercially prepared, balanced dog food, he’d be wise to select the dog food. Pound for pound – and dollar for dollar – the dog and his owner would be way ahead.
Dog health is important so pay extra attention to what your dog hoovers.
Incoming search terms for the article:
Dog Food & Supplements: An In Depth Look At Nutrition And Dog Health (6)
Pet food manufacturers have made it quite easy for the average dog owner to feed their pets and positively effect dog health without having to be an expert nutritionist.
All of the work has been done by the modern manufacturer for easy and effective measures to ensure proper dog health.
Since it isn’t possible for manufacturers to list all of the nutrients and their required percentages as published by the NRC (National Research Council) on their labels, the terms “complete diet”, “nutritionally complete”, “balanced”, and “balanced diet” are used.
————————————————————–
Dog Health Secrets You Need To Know!
“In This Shocking FREE Video Report You Discover Why 87% of Dogs Die Too Early & 3 Easy Things You Can Do Today To Stop It Happening to Your Dog”
————————————————————–
This tells the consumer that the product inside the can, bag or box, contains all the essential vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and fats the average dog needs to satisfy his daily requirements.
The nutritional requirement for good dog health puppies, however, is somewhat different than that required for adult dogs. The diet of the adult dog is usually referred to as a “maintenance diet” where a puppy diet is referred to as a “growth diet”.
In 1974 a regulation went into effect that required all dog food manufacturers to specify on their labels whether the product is complete and balanced for the adult dog (maintenance), complete and balanced for puppies (growth), or complete and balanced for growth and maintenance both. Since all manufactures comply with this regulation, the only thing left to the consumers is to read the label.
Among the varieties of canned, bagged, or semi-moist dog foods, there are certain drawbacks, as well as advantages. This is true even though they are nutritionally identical if advertised as “complete” and/or “balanced”.
Because canned dog food may contain up to 78% moisture, a dog necessarily has to eat a larger quantity of a canned product to get the same volume of food that he would get if fed a dry product. It takes three pounds of commercially prepared canned dog food to be equivalent to one pound of dry food.
But manufactures do not fill a can two-thirds of the way with water, then top it off with a little dab of dog food. The moisture content inside the can is there by the very nature of the ingredients. For example, when a human buys a thick juicy steak, he’s buying well over fifty percent moisture. The butcher didn’t inject that moisture into the steak with a hypodermic needle.
The moisture content in canned dog food serves a definite and useful purpose toward dog health, both in processing and in the dog’s digestive system. The drawback to the consumer insofar as canned dog food is concerned, is usually one of economics. It can be very expensive due to the large quantities of canned food most normal to large sized dogs will need to eat to get in their daily caloric and nutritional needs. Keep in mind, proper dog health can be very expensive, but well worth the love and affection!
Less Adaptability As Senior Dogs Age
Challenges In Senior Dogs
It is not uncommon to find senior dogs less adaptable to changes in diet, routine, or environment.
For example, my dog always loved riding in the car, bouncing about with a sense of excitement. He never missed a thing that passed by; now that he is older he prefers to lie quietly on the seat snuggled up against me or else on the floor. He may even get an occasional upset stomach and throw up while riding. And he steps in and out of the car with considerably greater care!
In the past it never seemed to bother him if I occasionally got home late for his supper. He’d jovially greet me at the door with little more than a “Hey, what’s up?” and race you for the food dish. Now I find that he has thrown up small amounts of yellowish-green stomach fluid due to the increased acidity of a stomach which contains no food.
I have found that leaving a small amount of dry food for senior dogs when I go out may solve this upset.
Speaking of stomach upset, whenever I had parties, he always joined in the fun and most of the time survived the party foods given him by my well-meaning guests.
Now he shows less interest in the goings-on, preferring to be by himself in a quieter part of the house. If senior dogs indulge in any party food, they almost always has some digestive disturbance.
Incoming search terms for the article:
Dog Food & Supplements: An In Depth Look At Nutrition For Your Pet (1) | dog health
Proper dog health can be confusing with shelves full of big cans, little cans, heavy bags and cute packs, soft foods, dry food, semi-moist, candies, biscuits, chewies, people-like crackers and gourmet bon-bons…
Today’s dog owner is confronted with a bewildering array of food for his pet.
Years ago, when such a variety wasn’t available, dogs were fed foods that were most plentiful in the region. In the arctic, dogs were fed mostly fish and whale blubber; in the southern United States, a dog’s diet consisted mainly of cornbread; in Europe, potatoes were the main fare. These diets led to diseases such as black tongue (pelegra in humans), rickets, and other less commonly known ailments, many of them fatal.
In the wild, the canine did not just restrict himself to eating just the meat of his prey. He ate the entire animal, including the contents of the stomach. Wild dogs were known to kill each other while fighting over the stomach contents of their prey. Thus, nature provided the wild animal with a diet considered nutritionally complete.
Domesticated dogs were not allowed that luxury, and usually were fed table scraps. These poor diets resulted in serious nutritional imbalances and severe nutritional deficiencies.
After years of study, it was determined that even though the canine is considered a carnivorous animal, he requires certain carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals to satisfy nutritional requirements just as humans do.
In 1953, the National Research Council compiled and published nutritional requirements for dogs. The NRC is a federally established scientific body whose basic function is gathering research data.
After World War II, the pet food industry in the United States began an enormous expansion. Already a highly competitive business, pet food manufacturers quickly found themselves in neck to neck competition for a piece of this multi-million dollar a year business.
In order to survive and successfully compete in the market, pet food manufacturers knew that they must provide a dog food which was:
A) Nutritionally complete; containing all 26 nutrients that the National Research Council said that does need.
B) Palatable so that the dog would enjoy eating the food.
C) Easy and convenient for the customer to handle.
D) Economically competitive in the market.
To ensure good dog health, pet food manufacturers have established laboratories and hired nutritionists and food technicians to select those ingredients, which, when combined, will provide the sufficient nutrition to meet NRC standards.