Nutrition and Diet Tips for a Healthy Dog
What you feed your dog will determine how healthy they are. This is because a balanced diet is needed for your dog’s growth, cell maintenance and overall dog health. Apart from loving attention, training and exercise, this means their daily diet is the most important decision you make on their behalf.
Remember, your dog can tell you with body language that they are hungry – but they can’t tell you if you are not feeding them the type of diet or meeting their nutritional needs on a daily basis. It is only when they start displaying physical symptoms due to vitamin or mineral deficiencies that a pet owner can tell something is wrong. However, the goal is to ensure that it never gets to that point. An important point to remember is that every dog is unique, and so are the nutritional needs of dogs from breed to breed. It is also important to keep their age, activity level and health status in mind.
Tips for a healthy dog diet
Here are some helpful tips to ensure your favourite furry friend gets what he deserves – a healthy, balanced dog diet.
Nutrients vs ingredients
Some pet owners focus too much on the type of ingredients in dog food versus the nutrients in the dog food. This is an important distinction to ensure your dog’s nutritional needs are met, not just that his tummy is filled up with what tastes good.
Never feed them…
Grapes, bacon, chocolate, too much dairy, avocado, cooked bones, raw fish or candy. All of these foods can lead to serious health issues for your dog, so never scrape these into their bowl after you’ve had it as part of your own meal.
Food for their age
What your dog needs as a puppy will not be the same nutritionally as when they are fully grown. This means that the food that you buy should adapt to your dog’s right life stage to give them the balanced diet they need during that life stage: puppyhood, adulthood and senior years.
If they are overweight
It simply means they are being overfed and not getting enough exercise. Try and remember that you should rather treat your dog with extra affection than an extra helping of food. An overweight dog can experience a variety of serious health problems if left untreated. Be mindful of the type of food you are feeding your dog and conduct research on the amount you should be feeding them.
Smaller meals more often
Instead of feeding your adult dog one big meal a day, rather opt for twice-daily feeding with smaller portions. Puppies should be fed three to six times daily. This feeding recommendation ensures that bile doesn’t build up in your dog’s stomach due to long periods between meals. When this happens, it could lead to them feeling nauseated and even vomiting.
Too fast or too soon
To avoid bloat, ensure your dog doesn’t eat food to quickly or exercises too soon after having their meal. Both these behaviours could lead to bloat, which can be very painful for your dog and even become a very serious. A good solution to ensure your dog eats food at a slower pace is to invest in a slow-feeding dog bowl.
Dog feeding guidelines
When determining how much you should feed your dog, age and weight are the two important factors to consider. With Canine Cuisine, a veterinary approved feeding guideline has been placed on the packs to provide dog feeding guidelines.
If you have overfed your dog or fed food high in salt, sugar or fats and this has led to obesity, one of the dog food recommendations to solve this problem is feeding your dog Canine Cuisine’s Specialised Diet Weigh Management dog food.
With 20% less fat content, this dog food enables the healthy management of your dog’s ideal weight. This formula also contains glucosamine, chondroitin, green-lipped muscle extract and omega fatty acids to reduce stress on joints. That makes this dog food solution the perfect mix of meat and cereals to provide your dog with wholesome nourishment and the correct balance of nutrients in every meal.
References:
15 Tips To Improve Your Dog’s Diet Today
The Very Best Diet for Dogs, According to Vets
10 Feeding and Diet Tips for Dogs