When To Switch To Adult Dog Food
Depending on your dogs breed and individual variation, puppies can become adults at different ages.
Smaller dogs become an adult at around 8 months of age medium-sized dogs around 12 months of age large dogs around 18 months of age and giant-breed dogs, around 24 months of age.
When your dog becomes an adult, switching to an adult dog food is an option but is not mandatory. While some dogs may do well long-term on puppy or all-life-stages food, the extra calories in these diets can create problems with weight gain and obesity.
Note: Dog foods labelled all life stages have the energy content and composition of puppy food.
What To Expect Right After A Tooth Extraction
Right after a tooth extraction, your vet will typically prescribe your four-legged friend some pain medication. You must allow your dog to rest in a comfortable, quiet place while the anesthetic wears off.
Your dog will usually fall asleep during this time. It should last a couple of hours. Please note that after your dog gets a tooth extraction, it is normal that they may not have much of an appetite.
This isnt a huge deal during the first 24 hours, but if it lasts longer than a day, give your vet a call. Your dog needs proper nutrition to heal.
Make Sure Youre Giving Your Dog A Healthy Diet
Occasionally the problem with a picky eater may be that they dont like the brand of food youre giving them. Or it may be that they prefer canned food over dry or vice versa. Both vets tell WebMD that a high-quality commercial brand is important for a healthy diet.
Check the ingredients, and make sure corn doesnt top the list. Murray says, Corn isnt an ideal diet for a carnivore.
If youve tried three brands and both canned and dry food, its time to look for another reason your dog refuses to eat. Most likely, they are holding out for table scraps.
Reserve treats for times when praise is necessary, such as in training. But remember, not all rewards have to be edible. If your dog loves attention, a scratch behind the ears is a treat, Murray says.
If you find that food treats get the best results, create some boundaries.
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For instance, only give a treat after a trick, and always do it in the backyard.
Also, limit treats to three a week, and put them in a separate container so that the entire family knows how many have been given.
Its one thing if your dog knows he only gets certain things while hes training, Murray says. But its another if youre sitting in the kitchen reading a magazine and give your dog a treat because he looks cute.
Louise Murray, DVM, Diplomate ACVIM and director of medicine for ASPCAs Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital, New York.
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Tips For Encouraging Your Picky Eater Dog To Develop Healthier Eating Habits
Tip 1: Start early. Before you bring a dog home, come up with a feeding plan. You and your family need to sit down and decide what the rules will be, Murray says. And you must all be on the same page. If mom gives food off the plate, but dad plays by the rules, it wont work. If one family member is adamant about people food, then agree to mix in some healthy options, such as low-fat vegetables, with the kibble.
Tip 2: Dont feed from the table. Doling out table scraps will cause your dog to eschew dry or canned food and hold out for more salivating options. It can also cause health problems, such as pancreatitis. In addition, variety or changes to the diet may cause diarrhea, as well as reinforce the inappropriate behavior of begging.
Tip 3: Keep dog food and people food separate. Never let a dog associate your food with their food, Hoppe says. You have to keep it very separate. Otherwise theyll start to think they can eat their food and their owners, too. Your dog should only eat food out of his bowl, and should never see food as coming from your plate or from something youre preparing for yourself.
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What Foods Constipate Dogs
Adding a bit of water to your dogs kibble may help, and a fiber source like canned pumpkin can help soften things up.
The more complex grains such as oats, peas, barley, and sorghum tend to have more fiber and can help with constipation as well.
Sometimes probiotics are a great solution to gut health in your dog.
Yorkie Allergy Symptoms.
The Yorkshire Terrier is known for its hypoallergenic coat, meaning it doesnt shed and is a good breed for people allergic to pet dander.
That doesnt mean, however, that Yorkies dont have allergies of their own.
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Can Dogs Eat Chocolate
Not only should dogs avoid eating chocolate because it contains milk, but chocolate also contains theobromine, a highly toxic ingredient that is found in cocoa. Dark chocolate is highly concentrated in cocoa, therefore just a small amount is extremely harmful to dogs.
If ingested, chocolate can cause vomiting and diarrhoea, and in severe circumstances, liver failure. While milk and white chocolate contain less cocoa, you should avoid feeding this to your dog as it can make them very unwell.
If your dog has digested chocolate, they may show the following signs:
- Restlessness
- Seizures
- Muscle rigidity
Please get in touch with your vet immediately if your pet is showing any of these symptoms.
How To Keep Your Dog Feeling Full After Meals
Dogs are food motivated animals. If youre like most dog owners, youve trained your dog to eat at certain times throughout the day. In fact, setting an eating routine for your dog is one of the easiest ways to ensure that your dog stays, healthy, well fed, and well trained.
Dogs on meal routines know exactly when their next meal is coming, and usually consume their food bowls within minutes. A hearty appetite is a good sign that your dog is healthy. But, what do you do when your dogs appetite is too hearty?Almost every dog owner has dealt with an over eager, voracious, and begging dog before. Sometimes your dogs begging can make you feel like youre failing as a dog owner by not feeding him enough.
Judging your dogs actual level of fullness can be difficult. Especially since, in an evolutionary sense, dogs are considered scavengers. When given the opportunity, a lot of dogs dont know when to stop eating and would eat an entire Costco sized bag of dog food, if given the chance. This can be dangerous for pet owners that leave their pets food bowl restocked at all hours of the day.Dogs will beg for food when theyre not hungry for a number of reasons. Just think about humans, we eat for many reasons besides sustenance. We eat for community, and sometimes when were feeling lonely and stressed.
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Do Best Before Dates Matter With Dog Food
A recent article posted on The Consumerist website brings up a very good point that pet owners should take note of
The article comes from a pet owner whose Yorkie became ill, and after a couple of days in the vets office, the owner looked at her Eukanuba canned food and realized it had expired 3 years ago. When she checked the cupboard she discovered several other cans of dog food all recently purchased at PetCo had expiration dates from 2004.
What happened to this pet owner can easily happen to anyone. How many times have you purchased something and never looked at the expiration date?
With pet food somewhere on the can or bag, usually on the side or back of the bag is the Best By date. With most of the manufacturers that I have spoken with, this date does NOT mean the food is officially expired it just means that the food does not provide the nutrition as stated in the Guaranteed Analysis. The best nutrition for your pet has expired but again in most cases per what the manufacturers tell me the food is still good.
So heres what you can do to assure your pet is eating ONLY fresh food providing the best that product offers
With a canned food the ABC canned cat food best by date is also June 2008. This would tell you that this can was made in June 2006 and thus it would be 14 months old in October 2007.
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The Ancestral Diet Of Dogs Holistic Nutritionists Say Is Mostly Raw Meat
Dog food as we know it today that is, either crumbly bits of kibble packaged in bags and boxes or gloopy meat-based concoctions sealed into cans was invented in 1860. Think about that for a moment. Our great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents raised dogs completely without the benefit of Purina. Before 1860, no one poured a pile of chow from a bag marked, Dog. Everyone who had a dog knew what dogs ate and how to feed them.
Considering how many thousands of years that dogs have survived while living in our homes and sharing our meals, it is interesting that most dog owners are shocked and perplexed when it is suggested that they might want to consider giving up their cans and bags of dog food.
Try this as a test: Tell one of your dog-owning friends youve read that dog food is not good for dogs, and she should stop feeding it. Her first question will be, Well then, what WOULD I feed my dog?!
The answer is food . . . real food . . . raw food, the kind of food that canines have been living and thriving on for the last few centuries! Yes, we are talking about meat.
You may have noticed that in the last few years, nutrition experts have rediscovered the value of a Paleolithic diet for humans one that includes far more fruits and vegetables and far fewer grains than we eat now, a certain amount of fresh meat, and certainly no dairy products.
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Scollar Personalized Pet Care
THE MOBILE APP IS YOUR NERVE CENTER FOR ALL THINGS PET!
CUSTOMIZE IT TO BE EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED!
- May 20, 2021
- 15 min read
Ah dogs! Our best friends. The pure, unconditional love of a dog is legendary. And dogs are just so much fun to adventure with and run with and well just hang out with. We could write a long love letter to dogs, but our cat friends might get jealous. What we will do instead is write a comprehensive guide to help you dog lovers understand the best ways to feed your pooch to keep her healthy and happy and keep some extra cash in your wallet too.
We believe that just like you learn to feed yourself to get and stay healthy, learning how to choose dog food is easier than you think. Dont worry weve got you covered. Read on for 10 things you need to consider when feeding your dog.
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How Are Food Allergies In Dogs Diagnosed
The only way to reliably diagnose a food allergy in your dog is through a food trial using a hypoallergenic dog food. You can do this by using a novel protein source or a hydrolyzed protein.
A hydrolyzed diet is made when these animal proteins are not recognized in the body as allergens. A starch, such as potatoes, or rice will typically be used as the carbohydrate since they are very infrequently associated with an allergic reaction.
During this testing period, the food combo should be given to your dog for a minimum of eight to 10 weeks. This gives proper time to adequately test your dogs response since allergic reactions take time to develop. You should notice an improvement within the first four to six weeks after the new diet as begun, but some breeds, such as Labrador Retrievers or Cocker Spaniels, have been known to take a longer time to respond to the new diet.
During the testing period, it is imperative that you only feed your dog the new hypoallergenic diet and avoid all other foods, including treats and flavored medications.
After you have identified the food allergy using the hypoallergenic diet, you should conduct a second challenge to confirm the diagnosis. Going back to the dogs original diet should make symptoms reoccur within a couple of weeks. When the food allergy is confirmed, you can add in single ingredients to the hypoallergenic diet to see what exact food or foods is causing the reaction and avoid this ingredient moving forward.
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How Do You Add Meat Tenderizer To Your Dogs Food
If youve used a meat tenderizer to soften your meats, you know that you apply it when the meat is raw.
Most meat tenderizers come in powdered form. To add them to your dogs food, simply moisten the surface of the meats.
Next, sprinkle a dash of the tenderizer and pierce the surface a few times with a fork to get the tenderizer to penetrate the meat.
Wait for a few minutes then start the cooking process.
What Is The Role Of Steve Brown In Commercial Pet Food Production
In the world of commercial pet food, the name Steve Brown rings a bell. He pioneered the invention and production of raw food as a variety of commercial pet food.
Dogs are omnivores animals just as humans. However, they get most of their dietary requirements from meat consumption.
In this regard, the invention of commercial raw food was a giant step in meeting the dietary needs of canine creatures.
What Is the Role of Steve Brown in Commercial Pet Food Production
Many pet parents are very busy. As a result, they cannot make out time to prepare raw meals for their dogs. However, thanks to the commercial raw products, the dogs dont have to be left out of this important requirement.
Also, many people are concerned about feeding their dogs synthetic products. They are bothered about the preservatives and other items that are not made known.
This worry has been compounded by the various previous incidence.
For instance, in 2007, due to the toxin constituents in some synthetic pet products, over 271 pet health complications resulted in death. This loss affected over 5000 pet food brands.
As a result of this, many pet parents are very particular about the food intake of their dogs. While we are not ruling out commercial raw meals as artificial, the synthetic constituents are not as much as other kinds of dog food.
As an added advantage, commercial raw food is generally richer in nutrients than any other kind of dog food.
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Can You Add Fruit
Absolutely! Fruit has a lot of nutrients that are great for dogs. Just don’t go overboard with it. We often use what is in season or what we have in the freezer. We like to use some kind of berries – strawberries or blueberries are best. Do NOT use grapes as they are very bad for dogs. You can add fruit before or after cooking, just beware that if you cook with blueberries, your dog food will turn purple
Know Your Dogs Body Composition
One way to know how much your dog will need to keep them full is by knowing their body composition score. Body composition scores in dogs are comparable to Body Mass Indexes for humans.A score of one is considered dangerously underweight, while a nine would be a morbidly obese dog. A healthy dog will need to stay between a 4-6. Taking your dog for routine vet checkups will help ensure your dog keeps a healthy body composition score. If your dog is maintaining his healthy body composition score, despite still begging for food, theres a chance hes probably just looking for extra attention.
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Canidae Pure Small Breed Dog Food
Rating:
Canidae Pure Small Breed is one of 12 dry recipes included in our review of the Canidae Grain-Free Pure product line.
- First 5 ingredients: Chicken, menhaden fish meal, peas, lentils, potatoes
- Type: Grain-free
- Best for:Small breed adults
- Price: $$$
This Canidae Pure formula derives the largest share of its meat protein from fresh chicken and menhaden fish meal. Our dry matter label analysis reveals the recipe contains 33% protein, 13% fat and 45% estimated carbs resulting in a fat-to-protein ratio of about 40%.
Free of grains, corn, soy or wheat, this Canidae Pure formula provides a healthy, protein-rich diet for small breed adult dogs. Highly recommended.
Sample buyer reviewAs my 5 dachshunds are finicky eaters. I switched to this dog food and now they all dance and cant wait for the bowl to be set down on the floor. Fantastic coats, less shedding, perfect stools and satisfied tummys. Highly recommend this brand!!
The Diet Typically Includes Raw Meat Vegetables And Some Dairy
A raw dog food diet can vary, but these ingredients are relatively standard:
- Muscle meat, often still on the bone
- Bones, either whole or ground
- Some dairy including cheese and yogurt
- Organ meats such as livers and kidney
- Broccoli, spinach, and celery, but no onions
- Apples and bananas are fine
- Raw eggs
The primary risks intrinsic to a dog’s health with a raw diet is bacterial contamination. Many folks who feed their dogs a raw diet disinfect their meat — particularly on the outer surface.
The idea that feeding a dog the same foods that a wolf would eat is rather obvious. A dog is a wolf that has become a Labradoodle.
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