Dog Food Secrets Revealed – Are You Ignorant Or Is It Common Sense?
Owning a dog isn’t just fun and play. Proper nutrition is a key element in the health and long life of your dog. A healthy dog is a happy dog. To maintain a healthy and balanced diet for your dog, you will need a good canine diet, common sense and a veterinarian. Dogs require six types of nutrients: water, protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins. Those commercial pet foods that are advertised as 100 percent complete and balanced satisfy all of a dog’s requirements except water. But all is not as it seems with commercial dog food. Don’t change your dog’s health. Provide him with clean, fresh water to drink at all times. Water is the key to a dog’s ability to regulate body temperature.
In general, the more a dog eats, the more water it needs. Don’t be surprised if your dog drinks a lot on one day and less on another. If there is more water in the food, the dog needs to drink less. That’s why dogs that eat canned food usually don’t spend as much time in the bowl. Canned foods are about 75 percent water and dry foods are 8 to 10 percent. However, with all the scary dog food recall in 2007 and still happening today, there is no regulation forcing commercial dog food manufacturers to recall their pet foods. Therefore, it is best to be equipped with recent knowledge and advice from dog experts regarding feeding your dog regular commercial dog food.
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Table scraps will not provide the balanced diet dogs need. Ideally, table scraps should not be fed. If you offer them, table scraps should never make up more than 10 percent of the dog’s daily food intake. One point to remember is that it doesn’t mean you should feed your dog food eaten by humans just because you want to avoid commercial dog food due to the recent pet food recall. You should know which human food is right for your dog. Feeding your pet indiscriminately could be worse. Feeding raw eggs to a dog repeatedly can cause a deficiency of the vitamin biotin. Raw egg whites contain avidin, an enzyme that prevents biotin from being absorbed by the body. Symptoms of biotin deficiency include dermatitis (skin inflammation), hair loss, and poor growth.
Although dogs like meat, it is not a balanced diet. Raw meats can contain parasites and cooked meat can be high in fat and not contain a proper balance of nutrients. Some raw fish can cause a deficiency of the vitamin thiamine. Symptoms of a thiamine deficiency include anorexia (complete loss of appetite), abnormal posture, weakness, seizures, and even death. Raw salmon will also transit deadly parasites. Raw liver, fed in large amounts daily, can cause vitamin A toxicity in dogs. This is particularly true if fed in conjunction with a complete and balanced diet that already contains plenty of vitamin A.
Milk is a food and not a substitute for water. As a food, milk is incomplete and does not provide a balanced diet. May be useful as a treat for some dogs; however, large amounts of milk may not be well tolerated. Milk contains lactose, which requires the enzyme lactose to digest. If the intestinal tract does not contain enough lactose, a high level of lactose can cause diarrhea. Small soft bones (such as pork chops or chicken bones) should never be given to dogs, as they can splinter and lodge in the mouth or throat.
Change of dog food
You can’t change dog foods overnight. Your dog may end up with gastric “distress”. He is messy. So change foods slowly. Start with a ratio of new to old foods in the 1:4 range. Watch your intake and digestion. Choose a good quality food and stock up. If you switch brands, do so slowly so as not to upset the dog’s digestive system.