Food vs. nutrition

 

Luke and Elsa had Mackerel last night, a first. 

 

 

You've gone to the store and bought a big bag of dog food.  You went for the really big bag because it just made economical sense.  20 lbs of dog food for only 13.00, pretty good deal right?  Or is it?  Do you know what you are feeding your dog?  Do you care?  Many people don't really care what they feed their dogs.  Let's be honest.  Canine nutrition is not something that man people concern themselves with.  To them food is food and dogs are meant to eat dog food, end of story.

But that is not the end of the story.  What you eat makes a huge difference in how you feel.  The more nutrient dense a food is the more your body and our dog's bodies can pull from it.  Sure a dog can survive on poor quality dog food just like we can survive on a diet of donuts, hot dogs and mac'n cheese.  Will we feel great?  Probably not, nor will our dogs.

A dog's diet should be based around high quality animal protein.  That said, many dog foods have very little if any high quality animal protein in them.  Instead they are based on fillers; unusable stuff that simply fills the need of eating not utilizing nutrition. 

I have often seen people who have one or two tiny dogs that feed very poor quality food.  This always shocks me because they eat such small amounts that feeding really high quality food will not cost a lot.  Now if you have 5 Great Dane sized dogs; I can see the desire to go cheap, cut corners and stick to a budget.  But no matter what size your dog is; nutrition should always be considered.  Why should we not feed the best that we can afford?  Why do some people shake their head about good nutrition for our dogs?  They deserve good nutrition as much as we do.

There are so many dog food manufacturers out there now.   Many great new ones are popping up with different ways to feed our dogs.  There are also lots of websites where you can read about the quality ratings of each food and go from there.  I say "stay out of the big box stores when buying dog food."  The lower the quality the more chance they will be sold in the big box stores.  Hit the Mom and Pop shops, somewhere they are concerned with quality and your dog.  Online is a great place to buy dog food now.  Especially because many people cannot find a place close by them to purchase the good stuff. 

Don't stop your search at dry bagged dog food.  Canned food is a great option.  There too of course you need to weed through the bad to get to the good.  Great canned food is easy and often something more palatable for our dogs.  Forget the idea that dry dog food is good for their teeth when steering away from canned food; that is another myth put out their by the dry dog food manufacturers. 

The better the food, the less the quantity needed to fuel our dogs.  I am always surprised what a small amount of food is needed to keep a dog in peak shape.  If you feed real quality food, it is very little.  Nutrition is very important and it all started way before someone came up with the idea of dry food kibbles to feed our dogs.  Think about that.