How much, what and how a dog should eat

How Much Should a Dog Eat? And what to feed him? Homemade or industrial food? All tips

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

The diet of your four-legged friends and life companions is a very important element in their care. Proper nutrition, as for us humans, in fact determines the state of health and life span of our four-legged friends, on the contrary, food errors can cause numerous nutritional pathologies and shorten their life expectancy.





A diet must vary over the years and the diet of puppies will differ from that of adult dogs and then that of older dogs, due to the nutritional needs of the various life stages.

It is essential to ralways contact your veterinarian to establish with him which diet is more correct and suitable for your pet also in relation to the life that the dog leads.
In fact, it may also happen that due to specific pathologies that only the veterinarian can diagnose, a special diet is appropriate and necessary which will greatly influence the state of health and which will favor the ongoing medical therapy.

Index

Industrial or home food? The differences

It is often thought that only packaged food for animals is ideal for our pets, but this is not always the case. Surely the industrial "pet-food" offers products that are described as "complete" but it is also possible to easily cook excellent dishes for our animals by offering them a balanced and appetizing bowl that contains all the necessary elements according to the needs, while keeping some basic rules in mind.

Many industrial products contain substances that are not always optimal, sometimes they can also be the cause of nutritional pathologies. The different elements contained in industrial prepackaged food (wet and dry) must be well evaluated and known under different aspects: nutritional composition, origin and quality of the products used and also from an ethical point of view.

Read also: Home nutrition for dogs and cats. Expert advice

How much, what and how a dog should eat

How to read feed labels

The law requires feed producers to list all ingredients by weight on their labels in descending order. Knowing how to read a label well and choose a packaged food that does not use processing by-products, preservatives and dyes, is very important.



Just as all those companies that use are definitely preferred superior quality raw materials without using by-products (meat and bone meal, animal by-product meal), but starting from protein sources, preferably dehydrated (they do not contain water and therefore the protein concentration is higher), and who have not tested the product on animals forced into the laboratory and on which vivisection tests are carried out.

Furthermore, more than one feed company does not carry out this type of cruel and useless experimentation and at the same time offers guarantees of quality and healthiness.

Read also: PET FOOD: DO YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT IS IN YOUR DOG OR CAT'S FOOD?

How much, what and how a dog should eat

What if my pet is sick?

We also invite you to read and consult the book of the gatroenterologist veterinarian Donald Strombeck "Do-it-yourself recipes for dogs and cats" (ed. Edagricole) a technical and specific book, but also fun and that teaches us what the dietary needs for dogs and cats even in the presence of pathologies. A useful manual for everyone. With the help of this book you will be able to offer excellent meals to your friends with which to feed both healthy animals and those affected by diseases: heart, kidney, liver, osteoarticular, gastrointestinal, skin, endocrine, pancreatic and urinary tract .

Above all sick animals, they manifest difficulties of various kinds in eating, refuse food and become of difficult tastes, all symptoms related to their disease. But eating is necessary for them and for us, thanks to the numerous precious suggestions contained in the book mentioned above, being able to prepare an appetizing meal is important and often satisfying.

The choice of a healthy and balanced diet also depends a lot on the type of life your dog leads. An animal that lives in the house and goes out only to do the needs and the Sunday walk has different needs from the one that lives free in a garden and can play and run.



Vegan dogs (and cats)?

Another important aspect for the food care of our four legs and which is a source of considerable conflict for those who are animal rights (therefore they do not eat at least meat and fish) is that dogs and cats are basically carnivores. Dogs after 135.000 years of domestication have almost become omnivores, although due to the length of the intestine and the whole anatomical and physiological structure, they are to be considered carnivores, as well as cats.

However, there are some vegan packaged products (for dogs and cats), therefore free of any food of animal origin (meat, fish, eggs, milk) and their use has also been tested and approved by the faculty of veterinary medicine. They have therefore been defined as plant foods, balanced and complete, hypoallergenic and without dyes or preservatives, subjected exclusively to scientific-university analyzes that do not involve the use of animals. First of all, to name 2, the Amì company (www.aminews.net) and Benevo.

Check the quantity of cereals

Many pet foods, even the best known, contain excessive amounts of cereals although dogs and cats do not have a precise need for carbohydrates, cats tolerate them with a maximum of 4 grams of starch per day per kilogram of body weight and beyond this threshold the cat experiences diarrhea. The dog, on the other hand, as long as the starch is cooked well, resists up to a threshold 2,5 times higher.

But using high amounts of carbohydrates can cause physiological problems to the point of becoming a disease. Often the flautolence, diarrhea and abdominal distension of dogs are due to an excess of these substances in the daily ration. Of all carbohydrates, well-cooked rice and especially oats are to be preferred.

Fats, on the other hand, are very important constituents in a diet for dogs and cats; these substances also give our animals' meals an adequate palatability and are essential in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.

The three most important fatty acids for our four legs are: linoleic, linolenic and arachidonic. The lack of these three fatty acids causes a reduction in growth, reproductive failure and dermatological problems. These three important essential fatty acids are contained in egg yolk and vegetable oils, especially linseed oil. The omega 3 and omega 6, contained in fish and in wheat germ and linseed oils, are also very important and play a specific role in reducing inflammation.

Proteins are essential in the nutrition of dogs and cats. Cats need greater quantities of this element in their diet than dogs and obviously, at different stages of life, they will require different percentages of this component of the diet: during growth the caloric requirement of a cat must be equal to 18-20% and 12-13% for the maintenance of an adult.
Healthy adult dogs need one gram of pure protein for every pound of body weight.

Due to these differences in the dietary needs of dogs and cats, commercial packaged products, both wet and dry, should not be used indifferently: dog food for dogs, cat food for cats.

In the event of illness, fever, infections or trauma, there may be a greater need for protein due to the fact that the hormone - cortisone, produced by the body in these phases or administered for therapeutic purposes, promotes protein degradation.

Cooking improves the digestibility of proteins and also for this reason it is always preferable to cook all the protein sources used for dogs and cats.

Protein in feed

In the food industry for animals, many products are used to constitute the protein component of the packaged food, including cereals as they cost less and proteins derived from: meat meal, meat and bone meal, meal of animal by-products consisting of hairs, hooves, horns, fleshings, derived from the tanning of skins, excrements, stomach and rumen contents, meat by-products obtained from lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, liver, blood, bones, tissues, stomach and intestines, poultry by-products that come from from the slaughter of poultry and include legs, heads, viscera etc.

How Much Should the Dog Eat?

It is not possible to provide specific indications on the quantities, because to find out how much your dog should eat, it is good to contact your veterinarian, as the quantities vary according to the metabolism and the specific needs of the animal. As written, it depends first of all on the composition of the food. Dogs need, as written above, 5 grams of pure protein for every kg of dog weight in optimal conditions. A diet is always subjective and depends on various factors: age, sex, state and type of life, pathologies, etc.

In summary:

  • it is very important know how to read labels
  • seek advice from the veterinarian
  • prefer those companies that favor high product quality
  • avoid poor and inexpensive components
  • choose the diet according to the needs of the dog

Foods to be avoided absolutely

We dedicate a separate mention to everything that the four legs should absolutely not eat. First of all foods: chocolate. The theobromine contained in a chocolate bar is capable of killing a dog. As a rule of common sense, the remains of our meals, fried foods, sweets and bones should be avoided.

Read also: 10 FOODS NEVER GIVE TO OUR DOGS

Ilaria Ferri

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