 What are you feeding your dog?
Doggie Diets
Do you pay attention to the ingredient list on your dog's food bag? If not, or you don't know exactly what to look for, your dog may be suffering from a lack of sufficient nutrients, and in turn may be receiving an abundance of by-products, fillers, sugars, artificial flavors, preservatives and even harsh chemicals.
By maintaining a healthy and nutritious diet, your dog can avoid problems such as skin disorders, diarrhea, poor digestive track, allergies, ear infections, and many more issues you may not have even thought to associate with the ingredients in your dog food. Even though healthier food comes at a higher price you get out of them what you put into them. Healther diets result in less food consumption (because they are recieving and absorbing adequate nutrition), less pooping, less shedding and less money spent at the vet on mystery health problems.
Ingredients to Look for & Stay Away From
As with human food the first ingredient is the most plentiful and should be a whole,de-boned animal protein, such as chicken, turkey, fish , beef, lamb, duck, or venison--not a corn, grain, meal, gluten or by-product. While inexpensive these ingredients are less nutritious and do not contain all the proteins and nutrients found in animal meat. Vegetables should be in holistic form, such as anything with the word "whole" in front of it. If the vegetables are processed, they lose most of their essential vitamins and nutrients. You want to stay away from corn, as it is used as a filler and just like humans, dogs have trouble digesting it. You also want to avoid artificial preservatives, sweeteners, and colors. A good rule of thumb is that if you can't pronounce it or know it's not good for you, it probably isn't good for your dog either. Natural preservatives are best, such as Mixed tocopherols and antioxidants. Although they do not preserve the food for as long as the artificial preservatives, they are much healthier for your dog.
Raw Diet
The best diet you could possibly feed your dog is a raw diet. Home-made is ideal. Which you would make using 50% meat--ground chicken or turkey is best--but you can also use lamb, duck, bison, or venison, they are just very rich and can easily upset your dog's stomach. You may want to avoid beef and pork because they are known to cause a lot of problems in the digestive track of most dogs. 40% vegetables (completely avoid onions, garlic, & avocados-they are toxic to dogs), and 5-10% fruits (completely avoid grapes, raisins, and pits from persimmons, peaches and plums-these are also toxic to dogs). Be sure to include either fish oil or coconut oil to maintain healthy skin and ears. It is also helpful to include a probiotic (not containing dairy, such as Natur vet Enzymes & Probiotics) to boost the immune system. Place all ingredients in a blender and puree until it makes a doughy consistency.
As for treats, raw marrow bones are great and can help keep your dogs teeth healthy as well as keeping him entertained...especially if you freeze them beforehand. The frozen section here at Muddy Paws is regularly stocked with an abundant supply at about $5 per large bone. Raw buffalo wings straight from the butcher at your grocery store are also wonderful for your dog. Tendons, cartilage, and ligaments act as a natural floss and the abrasion of bone on teeth scrape off dental plaque that builds up over time. You do want to make sure to avoid any kind of cooked or delicate bird bones (such as those from geese or ducks) as they can be hollow and break easy. Dogs tend not to chew them enough which can lead to them splintering off in the digestive track and can cause choking or major internal injury.
Buy it Pre-made
Home- made is best, and organic is ideal, but if you are anything like me, and can't afford or stomach grinding up raw meat in your blender, we do carry two different brands of pre-made frozen raw diet dog foods. Primal Canine which runs about $25 for a 4lb bag of nuggets or Stella and Chewy's which runs for about $25 for a 6lb bag of patties, $13 for a 3lb bag, and $8 for a 1.25lb bag.
If the Raw diet is not for you, we do carry a large variety of dry and canned dog foods that have very high quality ingredients. Adding a bit of wet food in contrast with the dry will help keep organ function working properly and keep moisture levels high. Our favorite brands are Origen, Acana, Merrick, Before Grain, Taste of the Wild, Blue Buffalo, Natural Planet Organics, Holistic Select, Solid Gold, Wellness, Dave's, and Hi-tek Naturals. All of these are very high quality and range from very low priced to a little higher, but well worth it we must say. Come visit us and our trained staff can help you pick out the right food for your pets' diet.
To conclude our October issue, Muddy Paws would like to remind you to..... |
