Top 5 Questions about dog food.
Author: Eric Letendre Here are the TOP 5 questions dog owners have about dog food:
Q: What do you think about feeding garlic to dogs? Does
it depend on the rest of their diet? Or their breed?
A: I have been feeding garlic to my dogs for years. I have
read that some disagree with feeding garlic. Garlic has
been said to combat fleas and ticks, again there are a
whole lot of people that disagree.
All I can say is that after feeding garlic to my dogs
for over ten years I have only seen positive effects - also
I don't use Advantix, Frontline, or any of that stuff and
my dogs never have any fleas.
Q: Can dog food cause a dog to want to scratch all the time?
A: Absolutely. Most commercial food is made with very poor
ingredients. The meat they use is called 4D - dead, diseased, dying
or disabled. It is a way to get rid of meat that they
can't sell for human consumption so it's turned into dog
food. In addition to the meat being bad, the preservatives
can cause reactions that result in your dog scratching all
the time.
Q: There seems to be a big craze towards "raw" food. Ideally
this sounds like a back to nature idea. In reality people generally
do not eat raw food unless it is fresh without
the chance of becoming ill. Also are these smaller unregulated raw
food sellers maybe putting by-products together to market under the
raw food guise. I do not find dog products in general carefully
supervised by outside regulatory organizations. I
would like to hear your comments.
A: Raw food is becoming much more popular. Dogs have a much different
digestive system than humans and in nature, they eat 100% of their
food raw.
I agree with you about the regulatory organizations, they don't do a
great job and it's the reason I tell people to make the food
themselves. If they don't have the time and really want to feed raw
there are some very good companies making raw food for dogs.
Q: I have a question about dog food. Do different breeds of dogs
require different nutritional values in dog food?
A: All dogs require the same nutrition. The only difference would be
in activity level. Very active dogs will require different amounts
of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, etc. than older or very sedentary
dogs. For example, you would need to adjust your diet appropriately
if you were training to run a marathon.
Q: If by nature a dog is a carnivore, what are we doing feeding them
grains and rice?
A: The answer to this question depends on whether you classify dogs
as true carnivores or omnivores, and there is some debate to this
still. Grains and rice are not necessary for proper canine
nutrition. As far as commercial dog foods go, they are a very cheap
protein source.
Vegetable protein from corn can technically fill the "recommended
daily requirement" for protein, but it is poorly digested by dogs and
certainly does not provide optimum nutrition.
There you have it, the top 5 dog food questions. Hope this helps you out.
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