Types of Dog Food

The following are general types of food available nearly everywhere in the United States, any of which can be fed to dogs.

Meat and By - Products of the Slaughterhouse. There arc few partsof any meat dog a dog cannot cat and digest. Hair, skin, bones, andblood have little value to it, but all the rest has, even the intestinalcontents.

Most dog owners think that meat is a must, but this is not so. Otherproteins are equally good. But meat and its by - products in generalconstitute readily procurable foods. Muscle meat is in itself no betterthan organs, such as the liver, lungs, tripe, udder, brain, and in somecaws is not as valuable.

Needless to say, meat is less expensive when cut from poor - gradedog, such as old cows, bulls, or horses, and it has almost as muchnutritional value as meat from prime steers, except that there is usuallyless fat. There is little choice between beef and horsemeat from thestandpoint of value, though some sentimental people can't bear tothink of feeding a noble horse even to a noble dog.

Now, as to bow to feed the meatcooked or raw, ground or inhunks. The answer is that it makes little difference in its digestibility ifit is cooked or raw, but boiling meat brings flavor out into the waterwhich can then be mixed, fat and all, with other foods, such as breadand cereals. Meat in chunks small enough for a dog to swallow isdigested better than meat ground into hamburger.

Bones occasionally cause trouble by splintering. Raw chickens bonessplinter badly, whereas well - cooked bones snap at right angles. Once ahealthy dog gets a bone in its stomach the bone is quickly dulled anddigested. If a dog crunches through a soft rib bone it usually pushes agood deal of tartar off its teeth, thus cleaning them. These kinds ofhones are the best kind to give your dog, if you give it any. Theycontain worthwhile nourishment in protein, fat, and minerals, includ - ing iron.

However, you should keep in mind that dogs will often drag largebones about in places where they or other dogs have defecated. Wormeggs that are in stool stick to these bones, are ingested by the dog, andthus infect it.

Milk. Research shows that milk is as good for dogs as is meat. Bothcontain a high percentage of water meat has about 65 percent andmilk about 87 percent. Meat has approximately Boo calories per poundand milk about 25o per pint. A dog, therefore, needs three times asmuch milk by weight as meat to produce the same nutritional effect.Milk has much more calcium than meat, and more vitamins. This isone of the very best dog foods. It does not produce worms, as too manypeople believe.

Fish. Raw saltwater fish fed over a long period produces a form ofparalysis in dogs. Cooked fish is fully as valuable a source of protein as ismeat and will keep dogs in sound health. Almost all kinds of fish eatenby humans make excellent dog food. The whole fish, including thebones and intestinal contents, is better than fillets alone, and what isleft of the fish after the fillets have been removed is too high in bonecontent for efficient dog food, although it contains much good protein.

Fish bones. More fish could well be fed to dogs than is now beingfed to them. Nearly everybody wonders whether the bones will stick inthe dogs' throats and, without knowing the answer, decide "when indoubt, don't feed them fish." There have been instances of fish bonesthat have actually done serious damage by sticking in the throat orbetween teeth, but such instances are rare. It might be dangerous tofeed a dog a pan of fish bones left over from the family meal. If itchewed and swallowed them, the stomach fluids would soften thebones quickly; the danger would be to the mouth and throat.Fish bones subjected to the 25o° F temperature of the canning pro - cess become harmless, as anyone will remember from having chewedbones in canned salmon. Whole fish with the bones embedded in themeat seldom do barns. In fact, whole cooked fish constitute a substan - tial part of dogs' diets in many parts of the world.

Cereals. Many cereals, such as corn, wheat, oats, soybeans, barley,rice and their by - products, make worthwhile dog food when cooked.The protein of corn is zein, which is incomplete. Wheat is more nearlycomplete. Oats are especially valuable. Brown rice is useful much better, in fact, than white polished rice. All furnish calories, or heatunits, and many nutritional essentials. Bread is one of the most valuabledog foods; riot by itself, to be sure, but as composing a large proportionof the diet it may be put to good advantage. Besides well - cooked wheat or rye flour, it contains skim milk, salt, and yeast. The devitalized whitebread has almost as much value as whole wheat, since much so - calledwhole wheat has a large proportion of white flour.

Vegetables. Since vegetables contain such great quantities of water,most of them are low in caloric value, but dogs can be taught to eatlarge amounts. Potatoes in their jackets and other vegetables grown inthe ground can be utilized admirably if they are cooked and fed withmeat, fish, or milk. Green vegetables are especially valuable as sourcesof vitamins and minerals and furnish some calories if they are wellcooked but not overcooked.

Probably the best vegetable available for dog food is alfalfa - leaf meal.This is generally ground so fine that much of it is digestible withoutcooking. However, in the raw state it is very laxative, almost like rawbran in this respect, to it must be fed sparingly. Only the highest grades(ao percent protein) should be used to feed a dog, the lower gradesbeing too laxative because of the large amounts of woody stems theycontain.

Fruits. Fruits are a canine luxury and more in the nature of trickfoods. Dog owners delight in showing how their dogs eat even apples,pears, peaches, or bananas. Too little of these fruits is digested to makethem efficient dog foods, but they do no harm.