Dog Information on Food and Nutrition

Any good pet owner can tell you that they love their pets and feel completely responsible for their health, happiness and well-being. In order to help them lead such good quality lives, many owners turn to the internet and other sources of dog information to learn about feeding, health and nutrition.

Would you feed your kids fast food all day, every day? Many commercial dog foods contain ingredients like grain and corn, which are fillers with little to no nutritional value, and animal by-products, which at best are fillers and at worst, dangerous. These are the doggy equivalent of a fast food diet, with similar results such as obesity and diabetes.

For the benefit of our beloved pets, we should be educated on their health and nutrition. Cats and dogs are carnivores, and therefore they require protein in the form of meat. A good dog food should ideally contain more than one meat source in its contents. Lamb, beef, turkey meal or other ingredients like these are ideal sources of protein, and even more so if they are among the first five ingredients of the list, which signifies that they compose a high percentage of the total food.

Ingredients like animal by-products and corn based ingredients are not beneficial to our pets. Animal by-products can contain parts like bones, hair and teeth, and even factory waste such as oils, and bits of packaging. Corn and other grains also have no nutritional value to our dogs and provide only empty calories. These are usually used by pet food companies as a "filler", to lower the production costs of the food.

Adding a supplement to your dog's food is not necessary of the food already contains them. Many high quality foods such as lifes abundance dog food list chelated minerals in their ingredient list. Dog information on chelated minerals tells us that these are processed to be easier for dogs to process and are a good option for dog food.

Another option is to make your own dog food. Many pet owners are choosing to do this because it allows them to control exactly what goes in to their pets' food. Some owners even go the extra mile and feed their dogs and cats a raw diet that more closely matches what their pets would have eaten in the wild.

Whatever brand of food or manner of feeding you do choose, make sure you are armed with reliable dog information from informed sources. While these sources can be found in libraries and the internet, please remember that your vet is the best source of dog information.

A caring pet owner should learn to choose a good dog food based on the ingredient list. A premium food like lifes abundance dog food should contain turkey, chicken, beef or lamb as its main protein, and avoid grains and animal by-products. You can also choose to make your own dog food or feed a raw diet like a dog would eat in the wild. Always consult your vet for reliable dog information.

-Melinda Smith