More and more people are trying to get away from commercial foods. Although more convenient, they come with certain health risks. The same goes for pet foods. Dog owners are now choosing a more wholesome healthy diet for their furry companions. This is more true after the pet food recall in 2007. Nobody wants to go through the ordeal of seeing their beloved dogs getting sick or even worse, dying because they ate something you fed them. Modern commercial diets can lead to undesirable diseases such as kidney disease, diabetes, anal gland impaction, dull coat, chronic ear infections, itchy dry skin and cancer. When you feed your dog with commercial dog food, you expose them to preservatives, dyes, possible harmful contents, and low nutrients. You cannot be certain that the ingredients they use are always of good quality.
The best diet for a dog is very much like a diet that nutritionists recommend for us humans. They too, need a balanced meal. When it comes to dogs, you have to consider four food groups: meat, bones, vegetables and vitamins.
The 4 main food groups for pets are meat, bones, veggies and vitamins. If you opt to feed your dogs with natural and innovative food components, you are really opting for the best foods. The less amount of processing done, the better. When foods are processed, it loses vital nutrients like vitamins and minerals. Feeding your dog naturally includes a raw diet, home-cooked dog food or dehydrated food.
A Raw Diet
One raw diet that has drawn much controversy is BARF. BARF stands for Bones and Raw Food. The idea is to go back to the animals natural diet before commercial food existed. This kind of diet is rich in vitamins, minerals and living enzymes. So what exactly do dogs eat under a BARF diet? Well, they are given bones, meat, raw vegetables, vitamins, and organ meats. Some people have raised concerns that a raw diet makes the pet susceptible to food poisoning from bacteria and splintering bones could hurt. There is good and bad to everything. In this case, the benefit seems to outweight the bad. Marla Katz shares her experience in a CBC news dated November 2001. Her Rotweiller named Beauty was initially sick and suffered from dandruff and worms. After the switch to a raw diet, Beauty started enjoying better health. It’s no secret that a raw diet may cost more. Keiley Abbat, a pet boutique’s dietary consultant, points out that you may pay more for healthier food but save on trips to the vet.
Switching to a raw diet is made more convenient with specialty stores that offer several frozen natural foods that are wholesome and hygienic. Today raw foods are available in free-dried form, a action known as ‘cold processing’ in which some of the vital nutrients like enzymes, amino acids and probiotics are not lost.
Before you change your dog’s diet, decide what is the better way to make the switch. You could do a rapid switch but this is not recommended for older dogs, dogs with digestive problems or weak immune systems. You could alternate the meals; one day raw meals and another day their usual meals. Some have tried mixing the raw diet into regular diets and slowly phasing the latter out. Learn the different ways and do what is best for your dog.
Home-cooked Foods
According to Dr Richard Pitcairn, a renowned Veterinarian who has done a lot of research on natural care for pets, there is nothing as good and wholesome as home-cooked food. When you cook your own dog food, you can make it to suit the animal’s individual requirements.
For protein, you could use beef, chicken, turkey or rabbit. If you want to follow the BARF diet, you could feed them raw. Just make sure you use fresh and organic meat. If you don’t like the idea of raw meat or don’t think your dog can tolerate it due to a particular reason, then lightly steam or boil the meat first. Don’t forget you can also put heart, liver, kidney or other organ meats into their diet 1-2 times a week.
Keep their diet balanced by adding vegetables too. You could boil or steam them lightly or leave them raw. Some pets like the vegetables chopped up finely, some rather them whole. Smaller dogs usually prefer you put it in a food processor to make a puree. Follow your pet’s individual preference. You also have the option of grating the vegetables like carrots and zucchini. Here is a list of vegetables you could include into your dog’s diet: broccoli, yam, squash, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, green beans, spinach, lettuce and celery. You could put everything into a pot and make a stew. When it comes to using grains, some say yes and some say no. Should you feed it to your dog depends on which two sides of the story you believe.
It may be troublesome to do homemade dog foods but it is more economical. To cut down on hassle, just make a large batch in the beginning of the week. Divide it into daily portions and freeze it.
These are natural pre-mixed dog foods that are available in different varieties. All you need to do is add water and meat and the dog food is ready to be eaten. Dehydrated food means they are dried at very low temperatures. Have you ever had soup mixes sold at the food depots? This is very similar to that. Since the process uses less heat, the activity of enzymes in the food is frozen until the food is re-hydrated. The dehydration process only loses about 3% o 5% of the nutrients. Definitely a better option to the process of canning or kibble making which may cause the food to lose of up to 60% of its nutritional value.
Taking care of your dog’s health is just as important as taking care of your family’s health. Giving our canine friends the right kind of food will help them stay healthy longer. Don’t depend on commercial brands to provide them proper nutrition. No way can those kinds of food benefit your dog the way natural foods can.
