Dog Food & Nutrition

If I fed you fast food and take aways for the next two weeks, how would you be feeling?

Being fed food full of unhealthy fats, processed carbs, sugar, too much salt will leave you feeling sluggish, tired, you may have acid indigestion, you won’t be so regular when you go to the bathroom, you’ll have headaches and be in a generally bad mood.

 

 

What about if I fed you salads, fruit, protein and fresh vegetables?

You would be feeling brighter, more full of energy, clearer skin and in a better mood.

 

I want you to start thinking about your dogs too in this way, what you put in is what you will get out.

There has been a big move of people going more towards fresh and raw food in recent years for our dogs, than they have in the past.  As a human race, we are more aware of processed foods in our own diets and it seems that we are mirroring it with our dogs.

We also now know that most of the serotonin is produced in our guts and our dogs guts and not in the brain.  Our gut is often referred to as the second brain, as it can influence mood and behaviour.

The increased interest in our dogs food being less processed, means people are looking more at what they are giving to their dogs and looking past all the shiny marketing on the packets.

Just like the dog training industry, the dog food industry isn’t released and you or me could bring our own food out as long as we met the guidelines.

Approximately our dogs live to around 14 years and if you are feeding that one dog twice a day, thats 10,000 meals in their lifetime.  Which makes what we feed our dogs very important.

There are 4 main base foods out there for our dogs

 

There are also factors that come into our choices when deciding what we are going to feed our dogs

For example, you may want to try raw feeding but if you travel a lot raw food isn’t easy or if you have young children that may put hands into bowls.

You also need to have enough freezer space to store their food and remembering to defrost it each day for your dog.

Feeding your dog fresh food is a great option, but you need to ensure you are providing them a nutritionally balanced meal so either have a nutritionalist that can guide you or have a degree in it.

 

Ingredients of your dogs food – where to start?

An ingredient list on a packet of dog food is of little nutritional value really, but it is useful to check for red flags.

The list of ingredients will be ordered by weight, just how they are on our food that we eat.

Protein should be at the top, you ideally want a high % of meat and a guide is looking for a food which contains a 65 – 80% animal content.   Pork/chicken/lamb/beef, ideally fresh meat and not animal part byproduct or meal or meat deritives.

The source of protein in a dog food usually denotes what sort of product is being made.

We are looking for fresh meats here and ideally not by-product or meal or meat derivatives (which is usually a ground up version of the bits we humans refuse to eat, such as the beaks, fur and claws).

Grains and vegetables are usually a good source of protein and carbs too, not too much of these through are required and some companies do use them as a cheap filler to reduce their costs so you need to be aware of that.

Ideally this will include some, but not too much, corn and wheat.

Grain-free is a recent sales gimmick, used to counter the fear of meat reduction to enhance profit. Currently there is no real evidence to support that this is beneficial to our dogs.

Carbs come in the form of potato or pasta for example, but also whey, beans, rice, oats, corn, barley and wheat.

Fresh veg is a better source of carbohydrates than grains so watch to ensure your dogs carbs are coming from a good, ideally fresh, source.  Cooked veg is easier for dogs to break down than cooked food

It should not need to have mineral and vitamin supplements added to the food, it should have in the ingredients what it needs to have.  But when a food is processed via a cooking process which can kill off a lot of the nutritional value in its ingredients, which is why you will see them being added.

Meat also looses some nutritional value and fat – particularly when its cooked at very hot temperatures.

Sourcing – where the food has been sourced form and how it has been treated, where the food has been made

 

A word on Cancer in dogs

It has been shown that 30%-40% of cancers in dogs can be prevented with making changes to their diets – feeding different things and providing a varied diet.

It is not just for the changes in behaviour that we see with a diet change and the well-being, but the health of your dog to help them like a longer and happier life.

Rodney Habib is known for his active part in animal activism who regular shares blogs and videos as he is passionate on the subject.

He did a study and went and spoke to owners of the oldest pet around the world as he wanted to find out what their diets where and how we can use their diet to effect illnesses like cancer.

It was found that by adding fresh unprocessed food to their diet, providing a decent amount of exercise and restricting calories was creating fit and older dogs.

The increase of their life span can increase up to 50% by adding fresh food to their diets

By changing your dogs diet to a fresh food diet, it can potentially inhibit and halt the growth of cancer.

Cancer 1 in 2 dogs – why this is happening is a study being currently done and what they have come up with so far that 10% is genetic and 90% environment and a part of this is food and the diet we are feeding to our dogs.

As I mentioned above, changing your dogs food to just a fresh food diet needs to be made sure we can give them a nutritionally balanced meal.

 

How can I do this, but fit it into my daily life?

There was study conducted and it showed that by providing our dogs leafy greens, yellow veg and red veg x3 times a week they are 90% less likely to get cancer.

By just adding a handful of fresh food into the diet it can reduce likelihood of cancer into the dog by 90%.

Try each week to change 25% of their normal food you give them daily and switch it to, fresh unprocessed ingredients 3 times a week.

Some ideas for you – grains and vegetables lightly cooked salad, lentils, pasta, potato boiled, mash, fresh fruit, yogurt, berries, mango, pineapple, melon fresh meat chicken, beef,  and raw / fruit.

 

Ditch the Dish

I would like you to also start to think of your dogs food as an opportunity to use with your dogs.

You are likely to be rewarding a behaviour when you feed them their food anyway, whether that is a sit and wait that you have trained or barking and running around in excitement that their dinner is ready!

With a puppy a good idea to do is making use of part of their daily allowance of food whilst, for example, the hoovering is being done.

As what this is doing is conditioning a positive emotional response to the hoover and this can be used for other household items that your puppy may be concerned about or they haven’t been introduced to when they were with the breeder.

Maybe you live in a busy household and when the kids come home from school the noise and energy in your home peaks up.

What you can do with this with your puppy or older dog, is teach them a mutely exclusive behaviours so they have something to do when they house is a bit crazy!

For example provide them a food puzzle or kong to eat, so that you dog learns just because the house is busy, doesn’t mean he needs to be!

Our dogs are natural scavenges

It’s a key feature on how they became domesticated.  So why it is we don’t allow them to perform scavenging behaviour?

You may own a dog that likes to counter surf or go in a bin where this is them performing their natural behaviour.

If you had a collie who wanted to practise herding, we would look for an outlet for the behaviour, so why do we not provide them safe and managed access to scavenging.

Below are some ideas for you to try with your dog

This is providing our dogs with an experience of eating.

If you fed me the same roast chicken meal every single day, yes I would eat it but it would be a chore, a necessity, boring –  rather than enjoying the experience.

It will awaken different senses and enriches dogs life through texture, smells and tastes.

Lets stop thinking about feeding our dogs their food as a chore, but as an opportunity instead.

Before you panic and think I just dont have time to do this everyday, twice a day.

You don’t have to feed all their food working for it, but even if you can do this a few times a week it will be really beneficial to your dog.

 

We also need to talk about water.

Our dogs are made up of approx 2/3 water, so it’s not surprising they need a lot to survive.

It’s not just their bodies, but also their brains and if they become dehydrated it effects their cognitive ability.

We need to make sure when our puppies are training, they are drinking and have free access to water all the time.

Other times we need to be careful with our dogs and puppies is

These factors all have an effect on how much water they need to consume to keep them hydrated and their brains need water to function properly.

With the food you are feeing them, kibble (for example) is dried food so if feeding this they will need a lot more water compared to fresh food, raw or wet which already has water in it.

Overnight your dogs should also always have access to water.

If your dog or puppy is in a crate and they keep spilling their water, you can buy bowls that attach onto the side of the crate to help prevent this.

Or you may have a dog that likes to tip it over, there are no spill bowls you are buy, heaver bowls to help prevent this.

 

A note of puppy nutrition

Puppies require more protein and higher amino acids, more fats and different minerals compared too our fully grown dogs.  They require more omega 3 which helps them develop a healthy brain and eyesight.  ie pilchards.  They need more energy to grow.

Puppy food has a higher calorific density than food that is aimed at older dogs.

Large breeds actually need slightly restricted calories compared to smaller breeds, otherwise growth spurts can happen which and can cause issues later on for them.

So when buying puppy food, you need to be making sure it has been made for puppies but also it is the right food for the size of your puppy and growth rates with the correct vitamins, nutriment, proteins and fats that they require.

 

When do I move my puppy onto an adult food?

It is a question that is often asked as to when to move your puppy onto adult food and when to reduce the amount fo meals they should be eating each day.

When your puppy reaches approx 80% of their full grown size this is when you can look at changing their diet onto a food that had been formulated for adult dog.

And when to reduced the amount of meal you feed them depends some on the puppy, as they can naturally want to reduced their meals.

A rough guide for you to follow for you below as when they come home from the breeder they will likely be on 4 meals a day

and then it will be up to you and your indivialudl dog whether to leave at 2 meals or reduce to 1.

I personally like to feed my dogs twice a day, but if one morning (or one evening) they dont want it I dont worry about it as your dog will not starve them selves and some dogs just regulate themselves better than others.

If they had been off their food for over 24 hours or it is very out of character through I would be contacting a vet.

 

Myths

There are a few myths going around or have been around for a while that need putting to bed.

You should stick to one brand of food and if you change brands you should do it slowly and gradually over a week

This comes from the food manufacturers, which is there to put people off changing brands and there is no evidence to back it up.

You can’t mix kibble and raw and fresh

You can, your dog can process it and digest it.

There is rumours that go round the internet and also amount dog professionals that dogs can digest the food as the digest at different rates.

Dogs don’t have difficulty processing the mixture of food and there is no sound evidence to back this up.

The amount of food dog should eat following the instructions on the back on the packet

A high percentage of dog food brands put on their guidelines and on their packaging that your dog needs 25% more than what they actually need.

Your dog actually needs 25% less than what the company recommends, over weight dogs is a massive problem food and these companies are not helping, as recommending more than they needs.

Your dogs weight you need to go by what they look like.

There is also a body score table for you to look at here which will help guide you.

You want to be able to feel the ribs, just like when you had that plastic pencil case at school, which you could feel the pens through.

They should have a nice tuck and the waist is easily seen.

 

Food Manners

And lastly, but still very important, food manners.

Our dogs feel much safer when no one can get to them whilst they eat.

If every time you were eating, how would you feel if I stood over you and watched every single mouthful?

I also always recommend to feed dogs separately, if you have a multi dog household.

This prevents any conflict between your dogs and can stop issues happening or fighting over food or your dog feeling they needs to consume their food quickly to prevent the other dog consuming it.

And please, when you give your dog their food in their bowl, please don’t take it away from them or put your hands in their food.  they will end up with mistrust of your hands going towards your dog when they are eating and there is food around.

What is much better fo you to do a preventative training exercise to ensure you can approach your dogs bowl if needed –  video here

 

How to find the right food for my dog?

Finding the right base food albeit raw, kibble or wet food is tricky. But there is a couple of brilliant websites that can help you to make more informed decisions.

This first one is called Dog Food Advisor

Here they have given nutritional information and an unbiased rating system for each of the foods.

The second one is called All About Dog Food

This website shows a wide range of dog food, where you can choose your budget.  It has reviews for each food (and I would suggest looking at what you currently feed to see what it scores) and it lists what the ingredients are in the food.

Do make sure you pop in your dog’s weight/etc, as some kibble is more expensive as a bag but you will feed less per day.

My other suggestion would be to speak with Richard at Windmill Pet Supplies who is local in Coventry and surrounding areas.

 

Please do note – I am not a nutritionalist I am just sharing with you my knowledge on nutrition and food and my opinion.  I would love for you to go away and do some research of your own and share that too.

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