Important Nutrients In a Healthy Dog Diet
Providing the right amount of food for a healthy diet for my dog
A healthy balance diet is the key for overall health in humans, this is no different for a dog. It is critically important for your dog’s growth, bones and overall health. Besides the special needs, illness-related deficiencies or any special instructions from your vet, a healthy diet can be easily achieved from having a balance dog diet each day.
Dog of different age group and breeds has different nutritional requirements. So Fayie will be breaking it down to help you ensure your best friend gets what they need in order to grow up strong and healthy.
Let’s start off with the nutrients your dog will need
Nutrients are a substance in food that any organism process to provides nourishment. They are essential for the maintenance of life and for growth.
There are 6 common nutrients in life
Protein
Energy is created from the protein in our body. Protein also supplies the body the nutrients to create a strong body structure, bones, muscles, skins as an example
While proteins are made up of amino acids, it is necessary for a dog to have a total of 22 amino acids to produce the proteins to survive. Dogs are able to approximately naturally create half of them while the rest would need to come from their diet.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates or Carbs as short are the primary source of fuel, they are the main source of glucose. While they are not as important as the other 5 nutrients, it is noted carbs are often associated with important vitamins and minerals thus making them a good choice to have in a balance healthy diet.
Fats
Fat’s main purpose is to protect internal organs while assisting in regulating body temperate and promote a healthy nervous system. Not all fats are good for your dog. Your dog only needs certain fatty acids that their body cannot produce naturally. Hence essential fatty acids.
It is most advised to check with your vet to know which ones your dog needs.
Vitamins
Whether it’s growth or health maintenance are all critical roles from Vitamins. The best way to ensure your dog has enough from their balanced diet is only have meals under AAFCO’s Guidelines. Main vitamin includes A, B12, D, E and K which helps the immune system, blood clots and nervous systems, to name a few.
Minerals
Minerals support several critical roles when it comes to a balanced healthy diet. Minerals provides benefits that include and not limited to bone and cartilage formation, nerve and muscle function and oxygen flow.
Minerals such as Iron helps carry oxygen throughout the body while Zinc supports proper wound healing.
Water
Water makes up between 70 to 80% of an adult dog’s body mass. Without sufficient water, dogs will not able to function correctly and will suffer from range wide of serious health concerns. Water dissolves and transports nutrients to cells while also regulate body temperate. It also assists in digesting food and passes waste. This means, dogs need a supply of clean water daily. By textbook standards, normal water intake is 1-2ml per kilogram of body weight per hour. For all you non-math quizzes like myself, this is approximately 25-50ml per kg each day.
Purchasing Dog Food
When you are buying dog food, always buy the highest-quality food you can afford.
While between a budget and premium dog food both provides 20% protein for example.
The noticeable difference comes from the digestibility of the protein. Along with all other nutritional sources.
Another fact pet owners does not know is, pet foods ingredients are also listed by the order of their weight. While each ingredients are weighed separately before it’s added. Ingredients such as fresh meat contains lots of water which are mostly lost during processing while a dry diet key ingredient, maize would usually come out superiorly more nutritious than key ingredient meat in wet foods.
