To keep your dog healthy he needs plenty of fresh water and should be fed good quality dog food in amounts just right to meet his energy requirements. Always follow the guidelines on the dog food package for recommended feeding amounts.

Picking a dog food

The first challenge in choosing a dog food is picking one that has overall quality. The term that comes up a lot about dog food is human grade. Human grade implies that the dog food is good enough for us to eat. Many commercial dog foods are made from materials unusable or less desirable for human consumption. Often the meat that is used in dog food is of a quality considered unfit for humans to eat.

Major dog food companies try to provide balanced proportions of vitamins and minerals for maximum benefit to your dog. Although you may see that many brands of dog food have almost identical labels, a reputable dog food company will provide an explanation for each supplement and how it benefits your dog.

Always read the label to see what proteins, vitamins and minerals are being provided to your dog. Try not to use store brand dog food they may short change your dog on much needed nutrition.

Studies have shown that the primary ingredient in dog food should be meat-based protein, not corn meal, flour or corn gluten meal. According to reviews a better quality dog food results in a healthier coat, fewer digestive problems and firmer stools. Pet-nutrition experts agree that the best dog food is made from human-grade ingredients like meat, whole grains and vegetables. Premium dog food is so important because good nutrition is essential for a long, healthy life.

Types of dog food

There are many varieties of dog food to choose from. The three most popular types of dog foods are dry, semi-moist and canned products. Check the color of your dog food. Usually dog food made from natural ingredients will have soft earth tones and contain no preservatives, artificial colors and flavors.

Raw dog food is becoming more popular. More and more veterinarians recommend feeding your dog with raw dog food. They feel that this is the best choice and is the healthiest food for your dog. After all, you’ve never seen your dog enjoy commercial dog food the way he enjoys a good meaty bone.

Raw food advocates concede the diet costs more than traditional dog food, but they argue it’s worth it. You may find that locating free natural home made dog food recipes is not easy. Try making a mixture of ground turkey, rice and carrot as your own dog food. Your dog will thank you for it.

If you decide to go the commercial route, try and choose a good premium dog food since it contains more energy and protein than an economy brand. Unfortunately not all dog food brands contain high quality and natural ingredients, so always check the label. It is best if you seek advice from your veterinarian before deciding on which dog food to feed your dog or puppy. He will know your dog’s dietary needs and you will find that veterinary offices and feed stores often carry excellent and natural dog food.

All Natural Dog Food

Many natural dog foods contain only fresh, natural and wholesome ingredients for your dog. Not only are the protein ingredients digestible, but the carbohydrates in the dog food are digestible. Natural dog food has 100% nutritional value which is important for healthy strong dogs. Chicken, egg and fish are examples of protein that is provided in natural dog food. There are also ingredients in natural dog food that really help the health of your dog’s skin and also your dog’s coat. One of the main draw backs of natural dog food is that it has a shorter shelf life and may spoil before it is used.

Dried Dog Food

A good high quality dry dog food will work out to be more economical than the generic brands even though they cost more per pound. A vast majority of dog owners go for dry dog food for its convenience and ease of storage. The cheaper dry dog foods are made from soybean, corn or rice, while many premium dry dog foods are made with all-natural, human-grade ingredients.

Vegetarian dog foods

There are dog foods specially formulated for dogs that are allergic to wheat, corn, and/or chicken. There are also vegetarian dog foods marketed to owners who do not want their dogs to consume meat products. Most vegetarian dog foods use soy as a protein source. If your dog has allergies consult your vet before putting him on a specialized diet.

Conclusion

Overall it’s usually best to let dogs enjoy dog food and not our food, even though they may prefer what we’re eating! Of course you can feed your dog treats from time to time, every dog needs some TLC from time to time!

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you can’t prepare a nutritious meal for your dog either. After all, with the exception of a few types of meat that really don’t wind up in dog food much anymore, dog food makers actually use the same type of foods that we do. If you don’t believe it, read the label on a can of dog food.

Why would anyone want to go through the extra work to prepare food for his or her dog at home rather than purchasing it in the supermarket or at the pet store? For one thing, you get to control what goes into your dog’s food and therefore, you can pay special attention to his nutritional needs.

Secondly, it may actually be cheaper to prepare homemade dog food rather than purchasing it in a can at the store. Even if you buy it in bulk or on sale, canned dog food can be costly, especially if your dog is a finicky eater and prefers the better and more expensive brands.

Thirdly, your dog might just like the taste of it better than the canned variety. Some canned varieties have added fillers, artificial flavorings, or animal by products. The taste may not be as natural or as flavorful as the kind that you will be making.

Fourth, the time that you take to prepare it can be additional bonding time for the two of you. One of you can work in the kitchen preparing the food, while the other is watching the one that’s working. Your dog will probably be doing more than watching though, because he’ll probably be drooling as well, as the aroma of the food begins to waft over to his nostrils to kick start his salivary glands.

At any rate, preparing homemade dog food is simpler than you think. One of the easiest meats to prepare for this venture is ground meat. In fact, ground turkey has less fat and is easier to digest than ground beef, so I suggest that you use that. Ground veal is another good option. However, it is usually more expensive, plus it may not be available in your supermarket.

Avoid adding salt or oil since you probably don’t need it. The extra salt will make your dog thirsty and it really isn’t good for him. Cook the meat on slow, stirring or turning it constantly to allow the juices to remain inside the meat. Once the juices have turned clear, the meat is fully cooked.

If necessary, you can use a bit of soy bean oil to keep the meat from sticking to the pan. Additionally, you can add some beef or chicken broth to the pan while cooking the meat.

If you plan on adding vegetables, you can add precooked vegetables when the meat appears to be almost finished cooking. Additionally, you can add raw vegetables in the beginning of the cooking stage provided you have diced them into small pieces.

When selecting the vegetables that you will add, attempt to use some that have the most nutritional value for your dog in regard to vitamin content. Ideally, green vegetables are always a good option. Once your dog has finished eating his homemade brand of dog food, look to see exactly which vegetables he left in his dish if any. Whatever he left, he isn’t going to eat, so don’t include it with the next batch that you make.

How much food you cook depends on several things. It depends on the size of your dog, your dog’s appetite, and the number of meals that you want to be able to store for the week. If you like cooking, then simply prepare your dog’s meal when you prepare your own. If you don’t like to cook, then prepare several meals at a time and refrigerate the leftovers for 3 to 4 days.

Several additional options that you have for meal time is to include a bit of rice or cubed fortified bread to your pet’s dinner entree. If your pet is a bit under the weather, consider crushing some dog vitamins to add to his food.

Whatever you do, always introduce a change in your dog’s diet gradually. This will avoid digestion and elimination problems. Simply add a bit of the homemade dog food to his existing food, gradually increasing the amount and decreasing the amount of his old food until you have him on 100% homemade dog food.

The first thing to remember when selecting a food for your dog is to completely ignore the bright and colorful pictures on the fronts of the bags! Many dog food bags are designed to attract the attention of the humans seeking them out and use adorable pictures of dogs and appealing colors to give the impression that the contents of the bag are as wonderful as the outside design. In many cases, however, this is not the case and, in fact, this is usually an indication of the exact opposite! Although people are often fooled by cute pictures, clever slogans, and perfectly shaped and colored nuggets of food, the reality is that the most important aspect of any dog food is its nutritional content and not the clever packaging design or delicious-looking nuggets.

One of the best indicators of the quality of a particular brand of dog food is the list of ingredients and, by far, the most important ingredient to look at is the very first one that appears on the list! Generally, the first ingredient comprises between 70% and 80% of the total content of the food and the first three ingredients combined make up 90% to 95% of the food! Dogs are naturally carnivores and, as such, they require their main staple to be some kind of meat in order to achieve optimum health.

Therefore, it is always best to choose a food that uses some type of meat as the first ingredient. The best foods will list meats as all three of the first ingredients and others will list one or more “fillers”, or digestible content that adds little or no nutritional value to the food. Nearly all dog food manufacturers use some kind of filler in their food, such as corn or wheat and the general rule is that the highest quality foods will have the least amount of fillers.

Dog foods can basically be broken down into three separate categories based on nutritional content and quality of ingredients used: Super Premium, Premium, and Generic. Super Premium foods are often manufactured by smaller sized companies and are usually only available in specialized pet stores. They use the highest quality ingredients and have an outstanding nutritional balance that can possibly add years to a dog’s life! Some Super Premium brands include, Royal Canin, Blue Buffalo, and Artemis. Premium foods use good quality ingredients and generally have a proper nutritional balance. Some Premium brands include, Iams, Science Diet, and Nutro. With the exception of Iams, Premium brands can usually only be pound in pet stores. Generic foods are usually the least expensive and the easiest to find (these are the one found in grocery stores, Walmarts, etc). They use the least expensive ingredients and some brands change ingredients frequently, based on meat market prices (this can be very detrimental to a dog’s digestive system, especially in sensitive breeds). Some Generic brands include Pedigree, Alpo, and Beneful.

When choosing a food for your dog, it is important to understand what each brand offers nutrition and quality-wise. With a quick glance at the ingredient label, you can often make a fairly accurate assessment of the quality of any given brand and make the right choice for you and your dog!

Most dog food reviews will give you information, such as the ingredients and perhaps nutrition, but what they are neglecting to tell you is that some of the byproducts that they are allowed to put into dog food are things that you can’t even imagine. For example, if you go into a store and pick up a bag of dog food, more than likely it is going to say something like “all natural” or perhaps “no chemicals added”, but is that really true?

The regulations that govern what a dog food company can put into the mix and what regulates human food are different. For example, if the food does not have anything added to it after it reaches the factory it can be labeled as nothing added, however the product that arrives at the factory can be hormone injected and full of junk. In fact, many times the byproducts include road killed animals as well as the bodies of euthanized pets from shelters.

So the next time you look at dog food reviews make sure that you dig below the surface. You might be surprised at what you find, and you dog will be healthier for your knowing it.

The dog food and dog care industries are out to get your money, not to help your dog live a healthy life. By making simple changes to the way you feed your pet you could help them to live a much healthier and longer life. Download our Special Report at http://www.healthy-fur-friends.info

Dog Food is Killing Your Dog an Online Special Report, Now Available to Download.

We see the dog food commercials all the time. They typically show a happy dog running and jumping and then eagerly eating the name brand dog food as if it were their first meal ever. It pulls on our heart strings to see a dog act in such a way and to be so happy. What the commercial doesn’t show is that they have actually deprived the dog of food for an extended period of time in order to make them seem to enjoy it more. The food that they show as being so healthy and good for the dog is actually made out of such things as chemical and hormone ingested product, road kill and diseased animal carcasses and tons of euthanized pets from shelters. The regulations for dog food are lenient, and as long as they do not add chemicals to the product when it enters the plant they can mark the dog food information as chemical free.

The dog food and dog care industries are out to get your money, not to help your dog live a healthy life. By making simple changes to the way you feed your pet you could help them to live a much healthier and longer life. Download our Special Report at http://www.healthy-fur-friends.info

Dog Food is Killing Your Dog an Online Special Report, Now Available to Download.

Today our pets have a wide variety to meet their tastes and needs and we have our choice of what kind of food we can choose to feed them. Despite the variety, pet foods usually fall into three major categories. These categories are: Grocery store foods, these types of dog and pet foods are usually found in grocery stores and mass marketed retailers and can contain lower quality, less expensive ingredients. The second category is “premium dog foods,” which can also be found in grocery’s stores but are also found in pet stores and through your local veterinarian’s office. These types of foods are usually made from some higher quality ingredients and are usually made evident by the expense of the food. Some of these pet foods though can contain lower quality ingredients that you aren’t aware of. The third and final category is homemade dog food.More and more people are beginning to make their dog’s food at home rather than buying commercial formulas. Homemade dog food doesn’t contain any substances that could possibly be harmful to your dog’s health such as artificial coloring and artificial flavors.

Another reason to make homemade dog food is the preservatives added to the commercial dog food. Homemade dog food has the benefit of optimum freshness without preservatives.

There are dogs that would greatly benefit from a homemade diet. Some dogs who suffer from allergies that cause severe itching may find relief once switched from commercial dog food to a homemade diet.

Processed dog food is a relatively new product and scientists don’t fully understand the differences between commercial food and a diet of fresh food. There may be problems occurring in a dog’s health because he is being given food that has had the nutrients cooked out of it and then sprayed back on.

Would you like to prolong the quality and length of your dog’s life by 135%?You should keep your dog healthy by homemade dog food.

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