Your preference of dog food makes a important distinction in the health of your dog. Pet foods range significantly in quality from the supercheap to the super pricey. They are geared for diverse ages, stages, sizes, and even breeds. How the heck do you know which pet food to choose from amongst the numerous varieties that decorate pet and grocery store shelves?
With the aid of your vet, you can decide what your dog needs to eat. If your dog is healthy, a premium adult maintenance diet is probably just fine. Read the label, look for recognizable meat protein sources listed amongst the first few ingredients, and get guidance from your vet. If you are not positive about which food is best for your dogs, puppies, adult dogs, senior dogs, and dogs with special needs.
Puppies require a high-quality puppy food, but large breed puppies, even the skinny ones, must grow slowly, therefore after the first few months of life, nearly all of these dogs require to be weaned off puppy food. Large breeds like Labs, German Shepherds, Rottweilers, and large mixed breeds are prone to bone and joint abnormalities as they get older. If they grow too swiftly bones won't be as dense, and joints will not develop well. Feed large-breed puppies a high-quality food with moderate amounts of protein, fat and calories.
Senior dogs and dogs with special needs, like injuries or diseases, may have precise nutritional needs. Dogs that develop kidney issues may need a low-protein food, but other seniors require enough protein to keep their muscles nourished. Many good prescription foods address specific health problems and chronic diseases. Consult your vet, who can advise you best about prescription diets to meet your pets particular needs.
To a large extent, price is a good indication of quality, but more high-priced premium foods are actually more of a bargain than you might think. Low-priced pet foods are full of fillers, including protein sources that are not as digestible, where as the more costly protein sources include quality muscle meat. When dogs ingest cheap foods, their stools are large, soft, messy, and quite frankly, stinky. When they eat premium foods, their stool is smaller, tighter, simpler to clean up, and barely smell at all. That is because dogs actually digest more of the food and that means you will not have to feed your dog as much food to get the similar or better nutritional value.
Premium diets come in dry kibble, canned, frozen raw meats, or dehydrated patties. Each one has its individual benefits, and your choice usually depends on what you are able to spend, how much time you want to take preparing the food, and if your dog in fact eats it. Dry kibble contains added fiber and helps keep teeth clean, but it contains a reduced amount of water, so dogs might need to drink more water to compensate. Canned food may taste better and contain more water, but some vets think it may contribute to tooth decay. It also gets pricey for large dogs because it is less concentrated than kibble, so you feed your dog more of it. For some dogs, frozen and dehydrated raw diets might be healthy, if they are from a respectable company, but they can be high-priced and need to be defrosted or rehydrated. Raw food is controversial, discussion rages over if it is more nutritious or more likely to harbor harmful bacteria, so talk to your vet about whether raw food is a good diet for your dog. One variety of food that the majority of vets will not recommend is semimoist. Even though these chewy kibble pieces might taste good to dogs, they are generally packed with sweeteners and artificial colors and are not a quality nutritional choice, semimoist dog food would be considered junk food for your dogs.
