Your dog is a member of the family and you want him or her to eat just as well and healthy as you do. Don’t make the mistake of assuming you can just feed your dog whatever you’re eating, though. Dogs have different nutritional needs than people, so you’ll need to understand what makes a balanced diet for your pet. Once you understand what your puppy can and can’t eat and that a nutritionally balanced diet for your pup is essential, you can start making and feeding your dog delicious home-cooked meals.
Creating Nutritional Balance
- If you feed your dog an unbalanced home prepared diet, it can take years for the problems to appear. This is because it’s the micro-nutrition (vitamins and minerals) that are probably lacking, instead of the calories.
- For example, a dog might do fine for weeks or years, but some time later the dog may get a fractured leg because of long term calcium deficiency in his diet.
Get professional help creating the diet. Unfortunately, you can’t simply look at recipes that look tasty. Since there’s no “one size fits all” option for canine nutrition, you’ll need to feed a diet that’s been designed for your individual dog by a doctor of animal nutrition. For example, a growing puppy needs up to double the calories per pound of body weight of an adult, while a senior dog needs 20% less than an adult.
- Basic diets, even those designed by veterinarians, often lack nutrition. A study analyzed 200 recipes created by veterinarians. The majority of the recipes were deficient in at least one key area of nutrition.
Learn to correctly prepare the food. Once you’ve gotten a recipe specific to your dog, correctly process the food to maintain vitamins and minerals. Always be sure to follow the directions exactly. If the recipe states chicken plus the skin, then that’s exactly what it means. Do not remove the skin since this could throw out the fat balance. You should also weigh the ingredients out carefully, using a kitchen scale rather than cups, which could vary.
- To preserve nutrients, don’t over boil veggies. Instead, try to steam and serve them partially raw in order to preserve vitamins.
- Don’t improvise or substitute ingredients. These can throw off the nutritional balance.
Supplement the calcium in your dog’s diet. Dogs have a very high requirement for calcium and while you could give your dog a bone, there are health risks. Bones can splinter, scratching the lining of the bowels and causing painful inflammation and septicaemia (blood infections). Instead, you can add calcium carbonate, calcium citrate, or eggshell crushed into a fine powder. 1 teaspoon is equal to around 2,200mg of calcium carbonate, and a 33 pound adult dog needs 1 gram a day (half a teaspoon).
- Bones can also knit together within the gut and cause blockages that need surgical removal. It’s also very difficult to know when the dog has gotten enough calcium from the bones he does eat.
Making the Food
Include protein. A 33 pound adult dog needs a minimum of 25 grams of pure protein a day. This can include egg (which has a high amount of the essential amino acids required by dogs), followed by animal protein, such as meat from chicken, lamb, or turkey. High-quality vegetarian sources, like high-protein pulses, seeds, and eggs, can also supplement the diet. Try to make sure that a minimum 10% of your dog’s diet is coming from quality protein (meat).
- Protein is made up of small building blocks called amino acids. There are 10 amino acids which dogs cannot make for themselves and must be supplied in their diet.
- Fat contains fat-soluble vitamins which are essential for good health. They also play a role in creating new cells proper cell functioning.
- Carbohydrates provide energy (while some is given from protein and fat). They also give fiber for healthy gut function.
- Green leafy vegetables (raw or cooked), such as spinach, kale, spring greens, brussel sprouts, Bok choy, and chard
- Butternut squash (cooked)
- Turnip (cooked)
- Parsnip (cooked)
- French beans (cooked)
- Okra (cooked)
Add vitamins. Vitamins are an important part of your dog’s diet. A vitamin deficiency can lead to problems like blindness, poor immune systems, skin lesions, and susceptibility to infections. Since vitamins are found in a varying degrees in several foods, offer a variety of vegetables. Green vegetables are generally a good source of vitamins and minerals, but some dogs don’t like the taste and tend to leave them. Green vegetables can be served raw, but be aware there’s a risk of the dog becoming flatulent.
- Avoid overcooking vegetables since this will destroy the vitamin content.
- Vegetables that you wouldn’t ordinarily eat raw yourself (like turnip, swede, parsnip, or potato for example) should always be cooked to prevent the risk of bowel obstruction and to make them digestible.
Feeding Your Dog
Know how much to feed your dog. You’ll need to research how many calories your dog actually needs to keep him from becoming overweight or losing weight. The calorie requirement for a dog isn’t a linear arrangement. For example, a 40 pound dog doesn’t need twice as many calories as a 20 pound dog just because he weighs twice as much.
- You can look up several charts for basic daily calorie requirements for dogs. That will give you a general idea of how many calories your dog needs based on his weight.
- Once you’ve found a general guideline for your dog’s weight, take into consideration any lifestyle differences that require an adjustment (such as pregnancy, obesity, age of your dog, and whether your dog is neutered or spayed). For example, a 10 pound puppy under 4 months old needs 654 calories while an older neutered 10 pound dog only needs 349.
- Raisins
- Grapes
- Onions (including shallots and chives)
- Garlic
- Tomato
- Chocolate
- Avocado
- Yeast dough
- Caffeine
- Alcohol
- Artificial sweeteners
- Xylitol
- Macadamia nuts
- To prepare chicken and rice, use 1 cup of boiled chicken breast meat mixed with 2 to 3 cups of boiled white rice. Don’t add fat or oil to the chicken.
- Give a similar volume of food to what you’d normally give; use your judgement.Typically this would be around 1 1/3 cups of chicken and rice per 10 pound body weight.
References
- ↑ Small animal nutrition. Agar. Publisher: Butterworth Heinemann.
- ↑ Small animal nutrition. Agar. Publisher: Butterworth Heinemann.
- ↑ Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, a technical report issued by the National Research Council as part of its Animal Nutrition Series. (Relied upon by the FDA to assess pet food standards)
- ↑ Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, a technical report issued by the National Research Council as part of its Animal Nutrition Series. (Relied upon by the FDA to assess pet food standards)
- ↑ Small animal nutrition. Agar. Publisher: Butterworth Heinemann.
- ↑ Small animal nutrition. Agar. Publisher: Butterworth Heinemann.
- ↑ Small animal nutrition. Agar. Publisher: Butterworth Heinemann.
- ↑ Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, a technical report issued by the National Research Council as part of its Animal Nutrition Series. (Relied upon by the FDA to assess pet food standards)
- ↑ Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, a technical report issued by the National Research Council as part of its Animal Nutrition Series. (Relied upon by the FDA to assess pet food standards)
- ↑ Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, a technical report issued by the National Research Council as part of its Animal Nutrition Series. (Relied upon by the FDA to assess pet food standards)
- ↑ Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, a technical report issued by the National Research Council as part of its Animal Nutrition Series. (Relied upon by the FDA to assess pet food standards)
- ↑ Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, a technical report issued by the National Research Council as part of its Animal Nutrition Series. (Relied upon by the FDA to assess pet food standards)
- ↑ Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, a technical report issued by the National Research Council as part of its Animal Nutrition Series. (Relied upon by the FDA to assess pet food standards)
- ↑ Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, a technical report issued by the National Research Council as part of its Animal Nutrition Series. (Relied upon by the FDA to assess pet food standards)
- ↑ Small animal nutrition. Agar. Publisher: Butterworth Heinemann.
- ↑ Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, a technical report issued by the National Research Council as part of its Animal Nutrition Series. (Relied upon by the FDA to assess pet food standards)
- ↑ http://www.animalmedicalcenterofchicago.com/pdf/CalorieRequirementsForDogs.pdf
- ↑ http://www.animalmedicalcenterofchicago.com/pdf/CalorieRequirementsForDogs.pdf
- ↑ ets Now. Foods Toxic to Dogs
- ↑ Small animal nutrition. Agar. Publisher: Butterworth Heinemann.
- ↑ http://www.akc.org/content/health/articles/can-dogs-eat-almonds/
This information is available under the Wiki creative common law license located here @ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
