The Benefits Of Grain Free Dog Food

A good number of dog owners are now switching their pets to a grain free dog food diet. This popular trend has caught on recently especially now that some pet nutritionist have been attesting to the negative effects of a grain filled diet.

The choice to switch your pet to a grain free diet may be a costly one, you will have to take into account the cost of this food because the grain free kind is slightly more costly than the normal food you are used to giving your dog.

However you will find that you still do not lose much by making such a switch reason being that your dog will consume a much smaller quantity of this food before it feels satisfied. Regular dog food contains a lot of starch additives so as to increase the quantity, a dog will have to consume a lot more of this formula to feel satisfied, on the other hand your dog will consume much less of the grain free type to feel satisfied.

Another important factor to consider while deciding to make the change is the choice between canned foods and dry food formula. The dry kind usually contains a starch based ingredient so that it may remain with its dry shape, canned food types contain moisture and have no carbohydrate base, and this gives your dog the daily water, also while switching your dogs diet.

While making the switch to the grain free kind, you should also consider the calorie content of the meal, if your dog is slightly overweight, it is better to check the protein content in the food that you give it, this is because when the protein content of the food increases, so does the calorie content and this may not be a healthy choice for your pet.

Also if your dog is over 5 years old, it will be worthwhile to switch its diet to the grain free kind, this is because when a dog grows older, its digestive system begins to have a very hard time digesting food containing a lot of grain fillers, over time your dog will start developing allergies to the grain products contained in the food.

When switching your dog to this diet, be sure to do it gradually, this is because the stomach of a dog contains bacteria that attacks any foreign elements, so switching the food suddenly may cause your dog to suffer diarrhea or stomach upsets.

One way of introducing this meal in a step by step manner is by doing the following, in the first week give the dog a quarter of the new meal and three quarters of the old meal, on the second week, give the dog half of his new meal and half of his old meal, in the third week, give the dog three quarter of the new meal and a quarter of his old meal, you will finally complete the switch in this fourth week.

Dog owners that have changed their animals diet to the grain free type have all recorded remarkable results especially with the dogs health. Allergies were done away with and skin problems were also improved.