Commercial Dog Food
With the popularity and proliferation of commercial food today, most dog food companies are selling nutritional, well-balanced products. As long as you follow the feeding guidelines on the package carefully, no additional supplements are necessary.
Canned food can contain either meat only or a complete meal. With starch supplements, the meat variety can be a convenient and healthy dietary base provided it is smooth and free of bones or skin. The complete canned food, on the other hand, contains meat, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins and minerals. It provides a balanced diet without the need for supplements. Canned foods store well, taste good and conform to a dog’s natural dietary needs, but may cost more, contain additives and do not clean teeth.
Semi-moist food contains a well-balanced diet and stores well. It is more cost efficient than canned food, but does nothing for cleaning teeth and often contains chemical additives to retain a moist texture.
Dry foods generally come as pellets or biscuits and combine meat, carbohydrates,vitamins and minerals. They are the most economical way of feeding your dog commercial food and sometimes help clean the teeth. Dry foods only last a few weeks once opened, and are therefore less easy to store than cans or semi-moist food.
Some companies also offer special food for young puppies, older dogs and overweight dogs that have been formulated to meet the needs in each particular group. Puppy food generally contains more concentrated nutrition, while food designed for older or overweight dogs has less fat. Adult dogs can live well eating puppy food if the amount is reduced, but a transition to regular food should be apart from dog development. Puppies can be raised on adult food, but the quantities must be property modified. If you feed your dog puppy food, it should remain on that diet until it reaches about fin of its final weight. There are many ways to make your obese dog healthy, and a reduced-fat diet is one step.
Unlike humans, dogs do not need variety in their diets. If your pet eats its nutritional meals happily, stick with it. Changing diets usually creates picky eaters and makes your life more difficult. A tasty food sensed in a clean bowl with a second bowl of fresh water makes nearly every dog happy at meal time.