PlayMore Publishing Books Blog About Dogs

Plan a Healthy Diet for Your Dog

Finding a healthy nutrition and diet plan for your dog should start with consultations your veterinarian. They can help determine plans that best meets the animal’s needs, as well as yours. But most importantly, they need to be plans that can be stuck with to ensure a good, quality diet for your dog.

Nutrition is the single most important contribution to your pet’s health.

The size and breed of the dog dictates the amount of food they intake and that can be expensive. While most people turn to dry food as a sole source of nutrition, healthy leftovers can be added to the diet. These nutrients can usually be found in one of three types of food available for dogs, dry, semi-moist and canned. The main difference between them is the water content.

However adding human foods to the dog’s diet is not recommended by all veterinarians.

Realistically families with small children will inevitably feed the dog human food. A good rule of thumb is 1 teaspoon for large breed dog and 1/8 of the teaspoon for small dog. Any time they get something not nutritionally balanced they are less likely to eat their regular food, resulting in throwing off the balance of nutrition. Another side effect is this can upset their stomach which can result in side effects such as vomiting and diarrhea.

How much do I feed my pet?

The consumption recommendations on most commercial foods are designed for a pretty active and reproductive dog. In addition, most dogs today are spaded and neutered, meaning food should be less than the recommended amounts. It’s a good idea at to visit your vet and have them do a body conditioning score as a guide to finding the proper food amounts. As animals age their food needs change, usually because their energy requirement is lower than that of a younger adults gods.

Sometimes the stomach also doesn’t process as well in older animals. Continuing at the same food amounts may result in obesity.

Measuring out the proper amount of food for the day along with treats, will help you keep your animals diet plan intact.

As for treats, if you going to give them, opt for healthy options such as air popped popcorn, green beans, carrots and apples. If you go to give them a biscuit, break it into pieces and make them think they are getting a lot more than they are. The size of the treat is not important, they’ll still feel happy.

Dogs need a well-balanced diet with the proper amounts of nutrients and vitamins to keep them healthy. A good solid protein is vital to the dog’s nutrititional plan, as well as healthy fats such as fish oil, flax oil and sunflower oil. A good mixture of insoluble and soluble fibers will also help regulate glucose in the body. And finally, a good complex, carbohydrates diet is also needed for any dog.

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Originally posted 2010-06-08 20:58:28. Republished by Blog Post Promoter