What Type of Dog Food Should I Feed My Dogs

There are hundreds of conscientious manufacturers of dog foods earnestly working to turn out products that, when fed exclusively, will nourish dogs from weaning throughout the rest of their lives. There are also charlatans turning out foods that have no other qualification than that dogs like them. We have tested scores of these foods. Some were deficient in half a dozen essentials. Dogs fed these foods developed bone problems, showed vitamin B deficiencies, failed to reproduce,developed sore eyes characteristic of vitamin A deficiency, and became anemic because of iron deficiency. And every one of these foods was eaten eagerly by the dogs. Appetite is definitely no guide to the good - ness or completeness of a food. Good or bad, prepared dog foods fall into four general classes.

Canned Foods. There are many brands of canned foods on the market. The chances are good that, if you patronize a large market where many brands are sold, there will be at least two made by one packer from the same formula. That packer and the proprietor of the store know that most dog owners buy on the basis of what a dog likes,so that you may buy one of each of the two brands. At noon you might offer your pet food from one of the cans. Suppose it does not happen to be hungry then and turns up its nose and leaves it. At suppertime you fry another can of the same formula, but packaged under a different label. Naturally your pet is hungry by that time and cats it, and you think, This is wonderful food." Don't judge the food on these grounds. The taste test is no test at all of a nutritious dog food.The best canned foods on the market today are known to the trade as pudding foods. They are poured into the cans as a thick soup that contains enough gelatinizing substance to make a solid cake after processing. Most of them arc 70 percent or more water and about 450calories, which is just about enough food for a dog weighing fifteen pounds. An active, medium - sized Cocker Spaniel requires two one - pound cans a day if fed canned food exclusively. An English Setter weighing sixty pounds needs four cans and that is correct no matter what the directions on the can say.

Dog Biscuits, Cakes or Kibbles. Nearly all dog biscuits, which recomposed mostly of flour, are palatable to every dog. The baking pro - cess by which they are manufactured heating to sometimes 45o° F for an hour or more destroys the heat - labile vitamins and some amino acids of which proteins are composed. Some biscuits are not baked as long as others, and the insides do not become as hot as the crust, so that some of these destructible essentials are preserved.

In all of the nutritional tests we have conducted, dog biscuits stood at the bottom when compared with other foods and judged on the basis of growth promotion. Earnest efforts are being made to improve them.Kib bled biscuits those broken into small pieces and often referred taos fillers are usually fed along with meat and vegetables. Manufacturers know this, and some of them have been less eager than others to make their products complete foods, realizing that the dog owner will provide the essentials.