How to Select Commercial Pet Food - a Quick and Easy Guide

I personally do not advocate for commercially prepared dried pet food diet. From the pet food recall incident, we know that dogs today get sick from cancer, diabetes, liver and kidney diseases at a young age and most died suffering from the onset of the illness. The pet food recall exercise have just confirmed my thoughts about pet diet does contribute and play a major role in their health condition today.

Thus, we cannot ignore the fact that commercially prepared food is a cause of these recent pet health issues. Cook for your pet today instead if you can. Check out my previous article on quick and easy way to prepare home cooked meals. Alternatively, you may visit my site to sign up for regular newsletter on FREE tips on health care for dogs at www.dogcarezone.com If you are unable to provide for homemade natural diet or BARF, here are my suggestions on selecting and doing the best you can with your kibble options for your dog.

• Select from specialty shop like your local pet shop rather then buy from supermarket. This option is most convenient for working adults however, much consideration must be put into selecting premium dog foods to ensure quality food source goes into preparing the food.

• Select only brands that has meat sources listed as first two ingredients in the list. Look out for words like human-grade food source or organic. Avoid brands that list grains as their main source of protein, meat meals and by-products, dyes, artificial preservatives like BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin and propylene glycol. Propylene glycol is known to cause bloat and anemia in dogs.

• Do your research on dog food brands that you are feeding. Talk to dog owners who purchase the same brand as you and observe if their dogs are healthy and coat is looking good.

• Choose premium brands from specialty store and perform some basic research on the source of meats and food source of the brand you choose.

• Consider cooking and making a little extra fresh foods for your dog’s daily meal and let this little extra be about 30% of your dog’s diet. Very simply, just include in your dog’s kibble diet cooked meats with some pulp vegetables and eggs instead of just dried food or canned foods. This will not throw the diet out of balance and your dog will have a more palatable and healthier meals.

• Add enzymes to their meals. Cooked food or kibble diet do not contain enzymes which is responsible for breaking down the food properly. You can consider feeding aloe vera juice with the kibbles. Aloe vera juice is a natural plant full of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and enzymes. Take note to purchase pure aloe vera juice from health food store, not those aloe vera drinks found in supermarkets.

• Enzymes are also found in fresh fruits daily (just a little portion a day (AVOID all citrus fruits, avocados, grapes and raisins), if you feed your dog one meal a day, feed them fruits for their second meal)

• Canned Dog Food vs Home Cooked Meats

• Personally, most canned dog food usually contain some preservatives and/or salt. Though some preservatives are natural, but we have to ask ourselves. If eating canned food daily is not a good for us humans, logically, it is unhealthy for your dog as well. Canned food is a very convenient option and can be used occasionally when you are in a rush or your dog is in boarding. But on a regular basis, avoid giving your dog canned food everyday.

• If you would like to make your dog’s meals more palatable, cook a pot of minced/chopped meats with olive oil, add some minced vegetables and eggs. Freeze a week’s worth of cooked food in portions of 3 days worth. Defreeze as and when you need so you can mix with dry dog food. It will save you a lot of preparation time if you do in bulk but most importantly, you have prepared a much more healthier and wholesome meats for your dog. It is also a cheaper option compared to canned food.

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Veronica Eng @ www.dogcarezone.com/blog

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