Dog Nutrition – Not Just About the Diet
Dog food nutrition is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle for your pet. Dogs, just like everyone else, have specific nutritional needs. Dogs lack the ability to communicate their problems, so it’s up to their owners to determine how healthy they are. Diet directly affects your dog’s skin and coat, weight, energy level, and gastrointestinal function. Diet, environmental toxins, pharmaceuticals and stress all play a part in the health of companion animals. Dog nutrition influences overall health, including skin and coat condition.
Feeding your dog can be done in three different ways: dog food purchased at the supermarket, dog food made at home or a combination of both. If you do decide to purchase commercial dog food I would suggest doing some reading up about it, in the past few years many commercial dog foods have had to be recalled due to contaminants that are found in dog food. Many dog owners are increasingly choosing holistic dog food, over the commercially available pet food, in a bid to introduce their dogs to a healthier, more balanced diet. Dog food should contain little or no fillers at all, but most of them do so your actually not giving your dog the correct diet it needs to be healthy. Many recipes can be found on the Internet for dog meals you can make from your home.
Aside from what you choose to feed your dog it is important to ensure that your dog is not be given access to food all the time. This can create obesity, which can create a variety of different illness for your dog. Free-feeding is also very unhelpful for the training of meal times in puppies and leaving food out in hot summer months can bring flies, mites and other various rodents out of the woodwork. It is suggested your dog is on a feeding schedule and remember to only give the amount prescribed by your vet, too much food can also create obesity. Remember, dogs are scavengers; an empty bowl is often a trigger for pleading or browsing behaviour and does not mean that your dog is starving.
Feeding your dog table scraps can also be a bad training and nutrition habit. Your dog will beg while you eat your dinner, which can be uncomfortable for guests but also human fats, and foods are not always good for your dog as they are for you. I suggest feeding your family while your dog eats his food in another room. This way he won’t feel left out.
Dogs have shorter digestive tracts than humans and larger chunks can upset your dogs’ stomach. Your dog needs a meat-based diet, high in protein (which isn’t stored as fat) and fat and low in carbohydrate. Nutrition isn’t always about diet. Good nutrition leads to good health and so do many other things, such as exercise, keeping its weight down (through good nutrition and regular exercise) keeping its teeth clean (next to obesity, periodontal disease is the one most commonly seen in the vet’s office) getting it to the vet for regular check-ups being observant about symptoms that might indicate a health problem and getting prompt and appropriate veterinary attention (information below).
You might also want to consider alternative treatments for any sickness or allergy your dog has. These may include nutrition, herbs, acupuncture, chiropractic, and massage, as well as traditional medicines. These alternatives are all natural and better for your dog’s body than chemical drugs and have no side effects at all. As more people understand the importance of nutrition to their own health, they’re starting to consider what’s in their dog’s food bowl as well. Maximum nutrition dog food can do a lot for your dog’s well being by improving its appearance, energy level and general state of health.
Learn what you should be feeding your dog at every stage of its life. By understanding what puppies eat in the wild, you will learn valuable clues as to what you should be feeding your domestic pup. The degree to which modern dogs experience ill health reflects the degree to which they are subjected to biologically inappropriate methods of feeding and exercising. If your dog constantly leaves some food in the bowl, you are probably feeding too much food. Maintain your dog’s nutrition, food, diet, and eating habits and he/she will live a joyful life with you and your loved ones.