Dog Food Advice | Dog Nutrition

Sure, it’s easy enough to run to Target once every few weeks, pick up that giant bag of food, and pour a scoop or two into your buddy’s dish, but is it really the best thing for him? Dogs’ diets can be as complex as ours, and it’s important to hit all of the vital nutritional bases. Lack of the proper vitamins and nutrients can lead to upset stomachs, skin problems, brittle bones, obesity, and even – in the worst cases – death. Proper pup nutrition is the building block of his overall health. Without the right nutrition and exercise, his defenses against disease and disorders are weakened. Educate yourself about the ABCs of poochie health by reading on!

What does my dog need from food?

As you most likely learned in primary school, dogs are carnivores. After centuries of domestication, dogs still enjoy living out the illusion that they are the wolves from whom they were naturally selected. They hunt prey (unfortunately for Kitty), love their bacon and sausage treats, and love the solid crunch of chewing bones or other hard toys. Yet a diet of meat alone is not ideal for your dog. While meat provides most of the crucial nutritional elements to help provide energy and enhance bone growth like protein, fat, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, your pooch’s diet should also include some amount of fiber to help his body digest his food.

Just as in your own body, an overdose or deficiency of any given nutrient, vitamin, or mineral can cause reactions or illness in your dog. We’ll discuss the ins and outs of vitamin supplements later in the chapter, but you should be generally aware of what amount of each nutrient is ideal for your dog and select his food accordingly. Decent guidelines for nutrition are the percentages above. Check the sides and back of your dry food bag and you should be able to find the nutritional content fairly easily. If not, give the manufacturer a call and ask them to provide you with the information. If your dog is a sucker for moist food, you’ll find an adjustable formula later in the section.

Should I feed him dry food, canned food, or a mixture?

Walk down the pet aisle in the grocery or pet store and you’ll be able to tell instantly what type of food is the favorite among pups. Commercial dry food is cost-effective, easy to measure, comes in a wide variety of flavors and types, and, as your dog would tell you if he could, feels nice on his teeth and gums and makes fun noises when he bites down. It works well for millions of dogs.

Canned food, on the other hand, is vacuum sealed and therefore doesn’t contain any preservatives. Some dogs love the meatier taste and consistency, which is closer to what they would enjoy in the wild. Canned foods often contain the same amount of nutrition as dry food, but they don’t have the same dental benefits as dry food, they can be more expensive, and serving them requires more than just a scoop.

Which is right for your buddy? That’s up to the two of you. If you prefer the convenience of dry food and have found a brand that meets the nutritional requirements and satisfies your dog, stick with it. Use the same criteria when selecting a canned food, and when checking the label for nutritional percentages be certain to adjust for the moisture. The percentages listed above apply to dry food, which means we need to figure out the dry food content of a canned food, which is largely made up of nutrient-less water. If the label lists the can’s moisture content at 75%, this means that 25% of the food inside is dry. Now whip out that calculator and try the following formula:

Nutrient percentage ÷ dry food percentage X 100

The result is the actual nutritional content of that nutrient, whether protein, fat, or carbohydrates. Okay, now put away that calculator. You look nerdy and people are starting to stare.

Indecisive? Many people feed their dogs a combination of both dry and moist food for the best (and worst) of both worlds. Again, this decision is completely up to you and your dog, unless your veterinarian has instructed you otherwise. That being said, stick with your decision. Dogs aren’t as interested in variety as their owners, and their bodies aren’t made for it. Switching your dog’s food too often can end up making him sick or even cause him to just lose interest completely in whatever you set in front of him. If a food doesn’t seem to be working out, ease him into a new selection slowly by mixing small amounts of the new food into his current one. Increase the amount at each feeding time until he’s eating only the new food.

Why does he have to eat so quickly?

Let’s play “Let’s Imagine.” Let’s imagine you’re only days old. You’re hungry. You know where the food is, but so do your eight brothers and sisters. Luckily, there are enough food outlets for… six of you. I guess that’s not as lucky as I thought. And guess what! All eight of your brothers and sisters are hungry, too! Do you want to eat now or in 30 minutes, when one of your siblings might have had their fill and let go of their assigned food outlet? Oh, but if you do wait 30 minutes, you run the risk that the sibling, now happily full, just wants to take a nap while still clinging to that lovely, warm food outlet.

Why are you still standing there? Get your butt over to that food!

Now you know how your dog felt for the first few months of his life. With limited access to his mother’s nipples, he and his siblings bit, scratched, and stepped on one another in a race to get to them first. Those who didn’t get there quickly enough ate after the rest were finished or, worse, not at all if their mother was tired of lying still and wanted to get up and move around.

After learning that behavior as a baby, he may still think that his food supply is always limited and on the go. This is why he scarfs down whatever you put in his bowl as though he thinks you’re going to try and go after it yourself, and it’s also why he may feel the need to take the turkey off the counter and run.