What to feed your dog. It can be a very frustrating topic. The choices are endless but the information seems to be very limited. Not to mention, most of the dog foods are all owned by the same “parent” company. How do you decide what to feed your beloved pets? Do you feed them a raw food diet, a dry food diet, or a canned food diet. Maybe even a combination of all three? I have spend years and have talked to countless people regarding this very issue and the most frustrating part is that everyone seems to have a different answer. I decided to compile some of my findings here and you can decide what works best for you and your fur-family.
The raw food diet can be extremely beneficial to your pet but it can be extremely time consuming for you. If you only have one or two pets, this may be a possibility. I have even seen people do a “mostly” raw food diet and supplement with dry kibble. I’m telling you, the options are almost endless. The key elements that you will need for your raw food diet are muscle meat, bones, organ meat, raw eggs, veggies, apples, yogurt. The concept of the raw food diet is to get our pets back to eating what their ancestors ate. According to experts, the benefits of this diet can be shinier coats, healthier skin, cleaner teeth, higher energy levels, and smaller stools. Since there are no “fillers” in the raw food diet, smaller amounts pack quite a bit of nutrients. There are, however, potential risks to this diet, which can include; threats to humans or dogs from uncooked meats bacterias, an unbalanced diet that can cause health issues over a long period of time, and the potential for internal puncturing from the bones.
Canned foods are probably “fresher” than dry kibble and definitely easier than canned food but you will need to carefully read the ingredients to make sure that it is not contaminated with polluted food sources. While I like keeping a few cans of food in the cabinet, for partial or occasional use, feeding a strictly canned food diet can cause a lot of plaque build up on the teeth as there is nothing to cause friction and clean the teeth. If you are a person that brushes your dogs teeth, on a regular basis, this may be a good answer for you.
Dry kibble is probably the easiest and the cheapest of these three options. It is easy to measure, easy to feed, and easy to travel with. Unfortunately, like the canned foods, you need to be diligent about reading labels to ensure that you are not feeding contaminated food supplies to your pets. The highest contaminated foods, that people and their pets should stay away from are corn, soy, wheat, and alfalfa. Unless these are organic, they are genetically modified and sprayed with chemicals and toxins that can cause many health issues like cancer, diabetes, organ failure, and inflammation, just to name a few.
I personally feed a combination of the three diets mentioned above and I always add organic superfoods to whatever I am feeding.
Many blessings to you and your four-legged-loves. ~ Tammy
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