Man's Best Friend… But what should he eat?
How to Pick the Right Diet For Your Furry Friend
The Impact of Age
When trying to pick a diet that will make your pup live forever, you must consider all the factors; age, activity level, price, raw vs kibble, toppers, or not.. There are lots of options! Age is an easy one, is your pup old or young? Bringing home a new puppy is no easy feat but having the right diet can help set them up for a healthy future. Puppies from a reputable breeder should come home with a small amount of starter food to keep them on the same food or use it to gradually transition to a new food of your preference. But what is the right food? For dogs between 1-18 months, they should be on a high protein, carb, and fat content. Switching off their mom's milk can be easier by adding goat milk or powdered colostrum to the nutrient value of their transitioning food. At a very young age, the puppies can be on wet food or soaked kibble to make it soft. As they continue growing, their food's fat and carb content should start to decrease. Muscle building should continue from protein, supplements, carbohydrates, and minimal fat content to caution from extraneous weight gain. Dogs from one to five years should stay on this until their metabolism starts to slow down, depending on the dog this can happen sooner rather than later. You always want to keep an eye on your dog’s weight through body measurement and energy level. If after your pup gets spayed, injured, starts slowing down, etc. the fat content of their food should continue to decrease. A dog’s protein source should continue to stay sufficient through their old years but very minimal healthy fatty acids should be the goal as long as there is no extreme decrease in weight on the dog.
Sports or couch potato?
Next, look at your pup and decide their activity level. Are they runners, track stars, sports enthusiasts, or constantly recharging in the sun? Activity level heavily changes what their body and metabolism will need out of their diet. The other question is do you have a goal to change that activity level? If you hope to go from couch potato to constant hiker you will need to change your everyday food. For low-energy dogs without a high-drive energy outlet, you can keep them trim by avoiding the high-fat content in certain kibbles, treats, and table scraps. For lazy dogs that are going to start training for an extreme sport, their metabolism will start to need a high-quality protein, carbohydrate, and healthy fat source to provide fuel to build energy stamina. Dogs in sports will need different diets depending on the difficulty of the events they compete in. For dogs in a sport with fast paced sprinting (i.e greyhound racing) need a higher percentage of carbohydrates to protein in their food for short spurts of energy that get used up quickly and replenish with rest. In comparison for dogs in endurance sports they need a high fat/ high protein diet to increase stamina throughout competition (i.e bite sports or sled dog racing). No matter what your dog is doing make sure you are always providing clean fresh water all throughout the day whether you are adding it to their meals or not.
How do you want your steak cooked? Medium rare?
Ever go to a restaurant and they ask “how do you like your steak cooked? Rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, or well done?” Well, this question can transfer right over to dog food as well. As I mentioned before dog food can come in many forms: raw (frozen or freeze-dried), gently cooked (frozen or freeze-dried), cooked (frozen, freeze-dried, or canned), and kibble (extruded or baked). Raw food can have many benefits as a completely balanced food but you do have to be careful with any food you get that has all the proper nutritional values or you have to add in supplements for what it might be missing. Raw food has been made popular because as far as gut health its one of the best options. For the majority of raw foods on the market, they are made from all natural ingredients (real meat, vegetables, etc.) meaning the dogs have a much easier time on the digestive side of things making their skin, eyes, gut, coat, and mouth (for the stinky breath dogs) much better. Raw food can be used alone or added as a topper in frozen or freeze-dried form (which is very popular for dogs needing extra protein.) Gently cooked and home-cooked meals became popular for people who are squeamish to the idea of handling but still want the benefits to feeding unprocessed foods. There are many options to this such as buying raw and cooking it at home (adding supplements to make it balanced), getting it in powdered form and rehydrating it or buying already prepared balanced meals (including canned or wet food) Finally the most popularized option is kibble. In the processing of kibble, there are options of either extruded or baked kibble. Extruded kibble is going to be almost everything you see on the market which is a process where kibble is put into an extremely pressurized machine to form it into kibble pieces, because of this process kibble should be hydrated (adding water is the easiest method) so that it can go back to its original size before the dog eats it to help with bloating (since it will do this on its own wants in the stomach if not rehydrated). For extremely fast eaters that gobble down their meals baked kibble is the best option because even once it rehydrates it will stay the same size because instead of compressed down baking it will pull excess water out of it to hold its shape. Kibble has also become a popular option because of convenience since you don't have to “meal prep” or plan out when to thaw out or rehydrate your meals. Once you have picked what is easiest for your lifestyle and pup always remember that even if you start on one food you can always choose to switch at a later date in your pups life if their nutritional needs start to change.
Where to buy it?
Now what is the monthly budget? My neighbor’s budget, my budget, and your budget are most likely all different but you can still find a nutritionally correct diet for your dog within your budget, especially depending on where you get it. First, you have to pick your brand, then your distributor. Having decided the needs of your pup (age, energy level, metabolism, goals) research should go into nutrient value mostly looking at fat, protein, and carbohydrate percentages. You also need to strongly consider the ingredients going into your food. Whether you are looking at a kibble, raw, or gently cooked diet make sure you always look at the first five ingredients. If they are not real sources of protein and carbohydrates (real food ingredients) and start with corn meal or processed fat it is probably not the best food. You also have to make sure that whichever food you pick specifically says that the research in the food created it to be a complete and balanced diet. This means that in this food your dog will be getting all the nutrients it needs to have a balanced diet, the same way we as humans make sure we get all our vegetables and protein for a balanced meal. Once you have picked a brand you think meets all your pup's needs you have to pick a distributor. Most food brands you find will be sold from multiple places; stores, online stores, or straight from the distributor. This is something that should be looked into because depending on budget the price point from different places, and different quantities (i.e. bulk buying) should be taken into consideration as well.
Ever heard of doggy whipped cream?
Finally the cherry on top, toppers! Toppers can be used for a multitude of different reasons. Toppers can help with specific dietary requirements, supplement needs, picky dogs, and sick dogs. A couple of examples of popular toppers include wet food, raw/cooked frozen food, bone broth, goat milk, fish oil, vegetables/fruits, and vitamins (lion's mane mushrooms, B vitamins, cranberry, etc.) All of these have specific uses and reasons for being used, which should be thoroughly researched before choosing them for your pup. For picky dogs that really don't have an interest in eating wet food, bone broth, and raw/cooked food are very popular. There are also “meat sprinkles” with different protein options made into a freeze-dried powder for convenient sprinkling onto your dog's food. These are just to add a yum factor to your dog's food to make it so you can stay on your normal dog food and they will be more excited for it. Another reason for toppers is a dog with health issues. Young puppies that have a hard time putting on weight can have great benefits from adding colostrum, goat milk, and gently cooked proteins to their food. Pups with anal gland issues can sometimes have great relief form adding pumpkin, apple, and fiber to their food. If you home cook your dog's meals (or you don't think your dog is getting everything out of the food they need) supplements can be a relief for making sure that your dog is getting all the necessary vitamins for a balanced diet. There are many powders on the market that are specifically for adding to a raw or cooked diet add in the things that will normally be missing, picking one out make sure you fact-check and compare what is already in your diet to what is added to make sure you aren't accidentally tripling up on only one supplement and lacking another. Sadly one other big reason toppers are helpful is for dogs with cancer. Herbal supplements can help in treating or preventing cancer in dogs including but not limited to mushrooms such as lion's mane and turkey tail. Lastly, a consideration for many dog breeds (or dogs in sport) should be joint supplements. There are many good vet-recommended and holistic ones including green-lipped mussels (chondroitin and glucosamine, turmeric (a dog-specific type not human grade for inflammation, has to be used with black pepper), and fish oils (for Omega-3). Whether you go with the ones mentioned or just one from your vet if your pup is doing anything harsh on their joints you should look into joint protection from an
early age.
