Cattle

Archive for December 19th, 2008

Good dog food nutrition is a tough find these days, especially in today’s world of manipulative marketing techniques. With some dog food comparisons, your canine friend may still lack what he or she needs to be healthy. This article should explain a lot about optimal nutrition.

Your pooch has to have essential nutrients to stay vibrant and healthy, but a very slim minority of us know exactly what a healthy pet food is! Most of us rely on our pets canned, home-cooked, raw or dry dog food to deliver the right amount of pet nutrition, but the fact is that many of these brands don’t come close to being an optimal diet for dogs.

When it comes to natural nutrition for dogs, there are six elements you have to keep in mind. These are minerals, proteins, vitamins, fat, carbohydrates and finally, water. By making sure your pet gets enough of these nutrients, your dog will have the greatest odds of living a healthy, long and happy life.

If you buy commercial quality dog food, or fix your dog home cooked food, keep in mind that protein should make up about 50% of your dogs diet. Grab the good quality protein – no “meat byproducts” which you mostly find as major ingredients in the majority of cheaper commercial pet foods. Beef, chicken, fish and lamb may be fed to your pet for optimal nutrition.

Make sure to include a little fat in a natural dog food nutrition diet. Yes, they get fat from meat, but you should also give them an oil supplement of fish oil, flaxseed oil, safflower oil or olive oil which will leave their fur and skin shiny and healthy.

I used to think of dogs as straight carnivores, but you should really give them a wide range of foods and carbohydrates, this is an important part of canine nutrition. Yes, the main ingredient in quality dog chow needs to be some kind of meat, but also make sure they get some grains – brown rice, barley and oats are what they should get but you’ll probably see corn or soy in most dog food brands and these can actually be very unhealthy.

If you really want to give your pooch good dog food nutrition, give him some vegetables and fruits. Allowing your canine buddy to eat these kinds of foods will provide them with quality minerals and vitamins, if you give them raw vegetables and fruits this will provide critical digestive enzymes.

Last but not least, constantly provide your dog with an ample amount of fresh, preferably filtered water. A well hydrated puppy is a healthy and happy puppy.

Dog nutrition is so important, but it’s easy as long as you put in some up front time. There are some commercial foods out on the market that provide good nutrition for dogs but not many. So when you compare dog food, you just need to do a little research to discover the truly healthy foods. There are many great books and reports on this subject written by some of the world’s top pet health researchers and holistic veterinarians.