Dog Nutrition

Dogs Are Competitive Eaters

Feeding dogs is like feeding babies in that neither has much say in what they are offered. They depend on us to make the right decisions. Compared to us, dogs have relatively few taste buds. They are also competitive feeders. They evolved to eat whatever is available and to eat it quickly. Watch any puppy at a food bowl. Eat first. Eat fast. Eat most. This is an excellent gambit when food is scarce but for dogs fed by us, this brain-driven need to eat is why so many dogs we see at York Street are overweight.

Digestive Bacteria Love Fresh Food

Energy comes from the protein, fat and carbohydrate your dog eats. Inside your dog’s intestines is a dynamic ecosystem, with bacteria vying with each other and ultimately striking a balance amongst themselves necessary for optimum digestion. The components of food and the good gut bacteria help build an efficient immune system that protects your dog from illness and infection.

Cook For Your Dog

Your dog will tell all the other dogs in the park that you’re simply the greatest if you cook fresh food daily for it. There is information on home cooking on the internet, for example at abcd

Dogs are omnivores. They eat a variety of foods. Here is an example of a balanced home-made diet for an adult dog.

Cook the rice, bone meal, salt and sunflower oil in twice the volume of water. Simmer for 20 minutes then add the chicken and liver, simmering for another 10 minutes. Cool before feeding.

This recipe produces about 800 kcal of energy, enough to feed an active 22 pound (10kg) dog for a day.

If you want someone else to do the cooking visit butternutbox.com. We suggest feeding freshly cooked meals for your dog, supplemented with high quality dry food and bones as training aids and treats.

Raw Food Can Be Risky

Raw food from the most reputable manufacturers is nutritious but we don’t recommend it. Please take care if you are feeding your dog a raw meat diet. While it may be ‘natural’, there is the obvious risk of Salmonella and Campylobacter bacteria. Do not feed your dog raw food is anyone in contact is immune compromised. That means anyone on chemotherapy, on high dose cortisone or HIV positive. (Eating undercooked or raw meat is also the most common way we contract toxoplasmosis.)

What Dogs Want Vs What Dogs Need

All dogs need protein to provide amino acids, the building blocks of all body tissues and the enzymes which support the body’s chemical reactions. Dogs also need fat, the most energy-dense nutrient with more than twice as many calories per gram as protein or carbohydrate. Fat provides energy and palatability to a dog’s diet.

The most natural source of protein and fat is meat, but like us, dogs can get all the essential amino acids they need for sustaining life from vegetable protein. Dogs can survive on vegetarian or vegan diets. That doesn’t mean they want to.

Some dogs eat grass because they like it but grass, roots, berries and vegetables are really emergency sources of nourishment although when they are cooked more nutrients do become available. Protein and fat are the basis of life. And clean water, of course, is the very essence of life. Remember, canine nutrition is common sense, not a religion.

How Processed Commercial Dog Food Is Made

Dry food is prepared by cooking then drying under pressure and spraying with fat to add stimulating odour to increase palatability. A preservative is added to prevent that fat from spoiling. Wet foods are cooked, heat sterilised and sealed in sachets or tins. Because wet foods are vacuum-sealed preservatives aren’t necessary. Nutritionally, one type of diet is no better than the other. Dry food is popular because it stores easily, can be bought in bulk and can also be used as rewards or as hidden treats in activity toys, for your dog to actively search and find.

Cheaper commercial foods have variable formulas but usually a set level of protein, fat and calories. More expensive foods are made to fixed formulas. These are always made from exactly the same ingredients. Even more exacting recipes are used for the variety of ‘veterinary’ diets fed to prevent or treat certain diseases.

Foods To Avoid

Avoid tofu and other bean products as food sources, especially if you have a deep-chested breed such as a Great Dane or any type of Setter. These products stimulate gas production and may increase the risk of stomach bloat which can be life threatening in some breeds.

Take care with dairy products. Puppies produce an enzyme that digests milk but by adulthood in some dogs little of that enzyme is still produced. If cow’s milk causes diarrhea in your dog, and you still want to feed it milk, give her lactose-free milk, available at your supermarket, for lactose-sensitive people.

Dark chocolate in excess is dangerous to dogs. The darker the chocolate the higher the content of theobromine, its poisonous constituent. Baking chocolate is most dangerous while white chocolate is least. One hundred grams of baking chocolate can potentially kill a dog under 4kg.

Bones Are Good And Bad

Dogs love bones. And like every vet in the country, we have had to open up dog’s bellies to repair the damage bones have caused. Bones are also perhaps the most common cause of fractured teeth. Bones are potentially dangerous but also very good for the teeth and gums. Gnawing on a bone does massage the gums and scrape the teeth. If feeding bones, introduce them to your pup as early as possible so that it learns ‘responsible bone eating’. Offer only the hardest bones (beef) and don’t let your dog become possessive over them.

Dogs Can Eat Cat Food But Not Vice Versa

If you have a cat and a small dog, chances are your dog will tell you it will die unless it eats the cat’s food. It’s lying but there is logic in its behaviour. Cat food is rich in tasty protein because cats need more protein in their diets than dogs do. While you should never feed a cat with dog food, because a cat’s nutrient requirements are so unique, a healthy dog can easily convert the extra protein in cat food into available energy. Cat food is safe for healthy dogs. It should be avoided if your dog needs a protein restricted diet.

Dogs Can Be Vegetarians

A dog is able to survive on a well-balanced vegetarian diet but this is a path no dog willingly follows. Dogs are designed to eat best as carnivores. Vegetarianism is a human ethical decision. If you think it is important that your dog shares your ethical principles about meat- eating make sure you get excellent nutritional advice on how to create a balanced vegetarian diet for your dog.

Changing Your Dog’s Food

Plan diet changes to occur over a five day period. Sudden diet changes affect the living environment of microorganisms in your dog’s intestines and the demands on digestive enzymes. Digestive enzymes need time to adjust to new food. Begin by adding a little of the new food to your dog’s existing diet. Gradually increase the proportion of new food over the following days.

Picky Eaters

Finicky eaters are made, not born. Don’t turn your kitchen into a canine restaurant with your customer choosing from a varied menu. From early in life offer your dog a fresh, tasty and nutritious diet. As time moves on, modify that diet according to your dog’s unique demands. Provide more nutrients when they are obviously needed, for example as the weather gets colder. Weigh your dog routinely. Steady weight is just about as good a simple sign of good health as there is. Weight increases or losses mean that the natural balance has been upset. Almost certainly something is wrong and central to resolving the problem may be changing nutrition.

Weight Gain After Neutering

Weight gain after neutering is simple to prevent. When your male or female dog is neutered make sure you know his or her exact weight and arbitrarily reduce food consumption by 20 percent. Chances are your dog will retain its pre-surgical weight. If it is losing pounds, return to the former meal size.

Tackling Canine Obesity

Keep a record of exactly what your dog eats, including all the titbits. This makes you more conscious of all the extras it receives. Cut out titbits but if this is not possible replace them with bits of fruit and vegetable. Feed low fat, good quality carbohydrate foods. Carbohydrates such as barley and sorghum in the diet lead to a more gradual energy release into the blood stream than other carbohydrates such as rice. And it’s sugar in the blood that affects the “satiety” centre in the brain, calming down the desire to eat. Fibre or water added to food also ‘dilutes’ the calories in it. Feed and exercise your dog frequently. This might accelerate its basic metabolic rate. Avoid crash diets. They upset your dog and only drive its metabolism to be more efficient and fat-storing in the future. If you’re being laser-beamed by mournfully melting brown eyes, discuss the problem with her or with us. In these circumstances we make fine, understanding and tough counsellors.

Dogs Can Develop Food Allergy And Food Intolerance

A food allergy occurs when a dog’s immune system reacts to a component of its food. Food allergy usually causes itchy skin or diarrhea. Food intolerance is a reaction that does not involve the immune system but may cause vomiting, diarrhea or other clinical signs. Food intolerance is very common in dogs.

Food allergy is diagnosed by feeding a novel and unique diet for at least a month (and preferably for six weeks to three months) that the dog has not eaten before. If skin disease resolves then returns when the former food is fed this confirms true food allergy.

Feed a home cooked or commercial diet consisting of nutrients known not to cause allergy. The processing procedures used to produce commercial dog food may somehow increase the antigenicity of some foods. This may lead to processed food triggering an allergic response while fresh food using the same ingredients does not. Some dog food manufacturers produce hypoallergenic foods with altered antigen size. We will give you specific advise for your dog and may suggest an “exclusion diet” formulated from foods your dog is unlikely to have eaten previously. For example, Butternut Box produces a venison, lentils and quinoa “exclusion diet”.

Special Veterinary Diets Control Medical Conditions

A variety of health problems from obesity to kidney disease to bladder stones to diabetes can be partly treated through diet.

Good dog food makers formulate diets to treat or control a variety of health problems. We often use special diets provided by the French pharmaceutical company Virbac.

We can advise you whether a special diet may be beneficial for your dog.

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