Healthy eating for your dog

Our dogs/puppies should be having fresh meat. There is some controversy as to whether the meat should be raw or cooked. Some research has suggested that raw meat is better because it digest more completely than cooked meat. In some climates that are hot, many people prefer to cook the meat for safety reasons. If you do cook the meat it should be boiled for about ten minutes to destroy the bacterial elements, but keep the nutrients intact. It should be cut into small pieces that would seem natural for your dog to tear alone. If you wish to feed raw ground or stewing beef or boneless chicken it is best to buy a pound at a time, then divide it into small portions that can be frozen and pulled out of the freezer on the day of use. That takes care of the protein, however there should also be calcium in your pup's diet. You could use a natural supplement like ground eggs shells or get a calcium powder from the store.

Okay so you don't want to cook your dog's food, then there are some things to remember. When buying a dry dog food read the ingredients list on the label. For an active adult dog or even a puppy meat should be the first ingredient. This is because it provides essential protein. Protein levels go from 15% for older dogs to 28% for puppies. A suitable range of protein in dry food is 21-23% for adult dogs. However, if your adult dog is not very active than it is not advisable to given him over 23% of protein, this will cause his organs to work overtime to get rid of the excess protein. As for bones, just about all dogs like them, but research has shows they don't make the best food for your dog, especially if given the wrong type of bones. Never feed your dog chicken or pig bones, the only ones that are fully digestible are the leftovers bones from your cooking

Dog food labels are not always easy to read, but if you know what to look for they can be. And once they are you will know a lot about what your dog is eating. Do you understand what ingredients are? Some of the items commonly put into all the brands of commercial dog food will surprise you. The label you read should say that this dog food meets or exceeds the American Association for Feed Control Official (AAFCO) nutritional guidelines. If not, then be careful because the dog food doesn't meet AAFCO guidelines, it can't be considered complete and balanced, and can cause nutritional deficiencies. You want the label to lists an animal protein source first, such as chicken or poultry meal, beef or any other protein sources listed among the top five ingredients. This is because a food that lists chicken, and then other ingredients as the first five ingredients has more chicken than other stuff, but could still have less chicken than all of the grain products. Watch the grocery store brands lots of them have added artificial sugars, fillers and color, all of which need to be avoided as much as possible. Also be careful of canned dog food, it has a wet and gummy consistency and could stick to your dog's teeth, which could cause tooth decay.

How much food is right for your puppy? Puppies up to 10 weeks should eat three to four times a day. Young dogs should be eat twice a day. Adult dogs can eat once or twice a day, but once is the preference of choice. When a dog becomes older than one year feeding should be reduced to once a day. And always make sure a bowl with fresh water is available.