How to choose a good dog food - the best advice

Food is one of the basic pillars of our dog's health and, for this reason, knowing how to choose a good dog feed is fundamental if we want to have a healthy and long-living dog. Although it may seem easy, it can really be an odyssey to find the right one. For this reason, it is necessary to be advised by the specialists, but also to know ourselves the best keys to be able to discern a good product from a bad one.

From we will explain the basic but necessary steps that we must follow to choose a good feed for our dog, which is healthy and is adapted to their nutritional needs.

How to choose the feed for my dog ​​- tips

Each dog is a world, even within the same race. There are dogs that have a high daily calorie expenditure due to their physical activity and others that spend a lot less calories because they simply go out for a walk or play but not exercise. We can not feed a dog that exercises daily like a dog that goes two or three times alone to walk and play with other dogs. The reason is that if we did, the dog that does not exercise would begin to gain weight gradually by accumulating energy in the form of fats, running the risk of overweight and obesity, among other diseases.

Therefore, when choosing a good feed for your dog you have to look at the calories it contains. The feed of more than four thousand calories and with a high content of fat are indicated for dogs with a high physical activity, while the feed with a low level of fat and less than four thousand calories are more indicated for dogs with physical activity medium or low.

Finding the ideal composition of dog food that works for everyone is impossible, since there is no one perfect formula. Each dog will have some needs or others, so it will be better for one food or another. An example of a good low calorie formulation, ideal for adult dogs that do not perform intense exercise, can be NFNatcane's Beef and Vegetables or Orijen's maintenance range.

The size of the dog also matters, because if our dog is of small breed we should look for a feed that is specially designed for dogs of this size of breeds. Otherwise, we could feed it with a feed whose croquettes or balls are of a medium or large size, causing problems such as difficulty when chewing, damage to teeth and gums and choking among others. In the same way, giving small croquettes to a large dog can cause other problems, such as anxiety about food and eating too fast. Therefore, you have to choose a feed that has the croquettes of the right size for the size of our furry.

Choosing the feed according to the age of the dog is also essential when choosing the most suitable feed for our dog. This is because puppies, adults and seniors or seniors have completely different needs.

Thus, puppies are specially formulated for dogs less than a year old and contain a greater amount of essential nutrients for development, such as calcium. The same happens with the feed for older or senior dogs, since to feed an old dog it is necessary to choose a feed that is specially formulated for dogs that hardly spend calories, in addition to other aspects, since the old dogs do not have the same pace of life than younger dogs.

What ingredients do you have to have a good dog feed?

In order for our dog's diet to be balanced, regardless of its age and size, it must be composed mostly of products rich in animal proteins, such as chicken, beef or lamb. Fish is also an excellent choice as a source of animal protein.

Your diet should also contain a moderate amount of carbohydrates, so the feed should include cereals, tubers or legumes. However, not all cereals are equally nutritious, rice is, by far, the best cereal we can find on the label of a good dog feed.

Fruits and vegetables are also necessary for our dog to feed properly, although they must be present in smaller quantities. The use of fruits and vegetables is due to the dogs in nature as well as their relatives and their common ancestors, such as the wolves and the ancestors that had these species in common, when eating a prey, such as a rabbit, They also ate what was inside, that is, the vegetables in the stomach and intestines. Aside from that, dogs in the wild also eat a variety of vegetables from time to time, although this is not the basis of their diet.

Thus, fruits and vegetables are an excellent source of fiber for our dogs, also providing necessary vitamins and minerals. However, in excess can cause diarrhea and other problems, especially if the excess of these serves to decrease the amount of animal protein in the feed, so it is advisable not to abuse them.

Choose the feed that your dog likes and also you

Marketing is the art of making a product sell even if it is known to be bad and that is why many advertising campaigns will make us think that some feed is good, when in reality its composition is of low quality.

Therefore, we should not decide to buy a brand or another for a convincing advertisement or a beautiful package. Apart from listening to the advice of our trusted veterinarian, we must review the feed list or ingredients table ourselves. A good feed will always be composed mostly of animal protein, such as meat, not carbohydrates, such as cereals.

The brands of feed that use many unsuitable products in their composition, like an excess of cereals, use a high level of animal fat, which is not the same as animal protein, so that the feed smells good for our dog, that way We'll think it's a good feed because our dog eats it well. However, that you like the smell and taste does not mean that it will be healthy or the best option and, therefore, besides liking the dog, the feed should also like us. So, before decanting but one brand or another analyzes the composition indicated by the package, know what percentage of meat contains, how many calories and if it is designed for the size and age of your dog.

There are no magic formulas or better brands than others, each dog is different so the best feed for your dog, can be very different from the best feed for the other dog.