Natural dog food provides many long-term health benefits for dogs, and contains no harmful fillers, which can cause health problems. Purchasing natural dog food for your dog may seem expensive and just “not in the budget”, but it helps keep your dog healthy from disease, allergies, and expensive vet bills resulting from illness. This article will examine the beneficial ingredients in natural dog food, and the overall health benefits.
What are the beneficial ingredients in natural dog food?
All natural dog food may have many of the same ingredients found in traditional dog food such as chicken, duck, beef, and lamb, but will have higher quantities and will have no byproducts. Fillers like animal by products, corn, and artificial flavorings are all unhealthy for the dog and is commonly found in traditional dog food. Vegetables are the other main ingredient found in natural dog food that is very beneficial to the overall health of your pet. The benefit of natural dog food is that most brands include organic vegetables in their formula, which eliminates harmful chemicals typically used in the growing of non-organic vegetables.
What diseases is my dog at risk for if I do not feed it natural dog food?
Lowered immune system, diabetes, premature aging, parasites such as worms, and many other serious conditions are all common diseases associated with a dog’s poor diet. Natural dog food helps the immune system fight off infection, and in turn will increase the overall health and lifespan of your dog.
Do the health benefits outweigh the extra cost of all natural dog food?
It is no secret that natural dog food is more expensive than traditional dog food, costing nearly 2-3 times as much as regular dog food! Natural dog food helps boost the immune system, which in turn helps the dog fight off serious illness that can cause a premature death or health complications. Natural dog food can actually save you money in the end if you consider the cost of vet bills for common illness and diseases that are attributed to a poor diet. Per pound, consumers are actually getting more for their money from natural dog food because it does not contain wasteful fillers, which have no nutritional value.
What ingredients should I look for in natural dog food?
When looking to change to a natural dog food for your pet you should read the ingredient list on the labels! Healthy ingredients to look for are proteins (beef, duck, chicken, etc.) that are all naturals, and organic vegetables. The same rule of if you cannot understand or pronounce the ingredient then it is probably not something that you should be feeding to your dog. Corn is notorious as bad filler, but is only a bad ingredient in dog food if it is in high concentration and there are low levels of protein and vegetables.
Sources:
http://www.preciouspets.org/newsletters/articles/benefits-natural-pet-foods.htm
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=betterproducts
Personal experience
