Selecting a well balanced and healthy diet for your dog can be a difficult albeit challenging task if you let it. The colorful branding and trendy packaging can easily get the best of you and obscure your discernment of a dog food product. The dog’s diet is one best secret to keep your pet healthy and vibrant for many years to come. It’s therefore important that you purchase a diet that will supply your pet with vital nutrients and enable it to thrive.
Below are some tips to guide you in selecting the best food for your pet’s diet. The first thing you should keep in mind is that dog’s are different, just like humans. A diet that works well for your neighbor’s dog may not be the best diet for your dog. So the first thing to do before you go shopping for your dogs’ food is to consult your vet about your dogs’ dietary needs. Vets are dogs best friends and will advice you accordingly on what best to buy and how to identify what’s suitable.
After you have consulted with the vet, find out a respected dog food brand and make it the major constituent of your dog’s diet. It’s not uncommon to come across a good quality that you haven’t heard of, but most popular and reputed makers of dog food provide a certain amount of security and safety about feeding your dog a healthy diet. Large and well known dog food companies take time to research on animal nutrition. Therefore, give your pet the advantage of enjoying the benefit of the manufacturer’s wealth of information than going it all alone.
Choose from dog food that is age appropriate, this means that if your dog shows signs of aging, then consider a dog diet specially formulated for older/senior dogs. Nutritional needs of puppies are different from mature dogs. Find out the different types of dog food that meet the specific needs of your dogs. Sometimes the dog breed and size could make a significantly difference in the variety of diet that you are required to feed them. Diets specially formulated for puppies and other larger breeds is available. This is a good thing to consider when shopping for your dogs dietary needs.
Weight of the dog and its activity level are other factors worth consideration when deciding on which feed is appropriate for your dog. So, if you have a very active or underweight dog, you may be advised to select dog diet specially designed for such situations. If you decide to purchase a particular diet for your dog, consider the portion quantity. Obesity is a more severe problem in pets because it could result to hip troubles and significantly decrease your pet’s lifespan.
Table scraps are strongly discouraged, because feeding your dog on table scraps encourages the begging habit and could likely result to obesity. You are therefore urged to maintain a stable high-quality diet for your dog, more so food specially formulated to meet your dog’s dietary requirements is a plus. Supplement to a high quality diet if you vet recommends. Don’t give excessive supplements, as this could result to a low quality pet health.
Consult your vet regularly for advice and insight on what best to feed your pets. A good diet feeding program will yield to good health for your pet. You are better off choosing the diet wisely. Only go for dog food brand that that is well regarded and match it to your dog. Giving a proper diet to your dog will translate to good health and a longer lifespan.
Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/healthy-diet-for-dogs-aid-to-selecting-a-healthy-diet-for-your-dog-753467.html
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Adding vitamins to your dog's diet? Safe?
I would ask my veterinarian this, but they’re are closed. You guys are smart, what do you think?
I’ve always heard never to do anything unless absolutely neccessary to add something like this in your pet’s diet. I have been thinking about adding a liquid vitamin to my dog’s food each day when they eat.
Right now, they are eating Blue Buffalo, small breed. I’ve seen products in pet stores such as "Vita-Gravy", but was a little curious about it, and I didn’t want to purchase until I knew it was okay. I want to make her live as long as possible, and give her the best life and keep her the healthiest. I’ve carefully selected foods and treats, looking through all of the ingredients, and given correct portions, etc – even given fruits and veggies as an extra treat!
What do you think?
If it is okay, what do you suggest?
~ If you are feeding a quality dog food don’t add liquid drops it isn’t worth it. The only thing is when your dog gets older you can get things like Glucosamine for your dog but right now there is no reason to ad anything. Look into getting a higher quality dog food.
Innova, EVO, Orijen
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There are some really good books out about dog diets … "Food Pets Die For", "The Whole Pet Diet", and ""Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats."
If you really want to learn about nutrition and how to provide the best for your dog, I would start reading.
The gravy stuff isn’t going to hurt – it’s just flavoring. The things to really watch for are those items that would affect protein/fat/carb ratios and calcium/phosphorous ratios in the diet.
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