Have you been thinking about adding canned dog food to your dog’s diet but every time you pick up a can, your mind has a complete meltdown at the thought of trying to decipher the information on the label? Well, don’t give up, because reading and understanding those labels are an important step in making sure your feeding your dog right and with a little help you can get the hang of the labels and find the benefits of feeding canned dog food to your dog in no time.
Feeding canned dog food can certainly have it’s benefits to your dog’s health but it can also have a downside depending on your dog’s personal needs. One of the first considerations is of course taste. If you have a picky eater, canned food will be a definite plus as it is generally very tasty. It can also hold health benefits if you have a dog that is suffering from kidney issues because canned dog food is high in water content, so it will help your dog go to the bathroom more frequently. Along those same lines, it’s easily eaten because it’s soft and it’s easy on the stomach for those with digestion issues.
On the downside, one of the main problems with canned food lies with owning a larger dog breed. If you dog requires a large quantity of food/calories each day, the amount of canned food required to meet that need is going to be large and expensive compared to a dry dog food diet. It’s also important to note that dog’s that don’t have any dry dog food or chew bones in their diet are going to need regular dental care because their teeth are not getting cleaned properly with hard foods. It is also possible that too much wet dog food can disagree with your dog’s tummy and cause diarrhea.
Once you’ve considered the basic considerations of feeding your dog canned dog food, you need to think about the actual ingredients of different wet dog food brands. This is going to require you to do some label reading. This is easier than you think if you know what to look for. To start with, identify a food that is formulated for your dog according to life stage or size according to the label.
Then you should begin looking for a protein source or meat on the list of ingredients. Your meat source should always be one of the first three ingredients on the list because ingredients are listed according to weight, largest being first, therefore you will want your meat source to be at the top. You should know that if you have a fresh ingredient like chicken as the first ingredient it does not always mean that there’s a large amount of chicken in the can. What happens is, there’s a great deal of water in fresh chicken, this causes the weight of the chicken to go up. However, if the first ingredient listed is chicken meal, then you know that the dog food contains a large amount of it.
When looking for your meat source, make sure it’s a whole meat source, not a mystery meat. Here are a few of the statements that are used on dog food labels that can be misleading:
- With Chicken Flavor – Flavor is detectable but doesn’t have to have any actual Chicken meant present in the product
- With Salmon – The product contains at least 3% salmon. So if you buy a product that says “now with real beef” it may only have 3% real beef in it!
- Beef Dinner – The product must contain at least 25% Beef.
- Liver For Dogs – At least 95% of the product must be liver or 70% including water
After you check out your meat/protein source, you need to make sure the dog food has the other basic nutritional needs such as carbohydrates. The five basics of these energy requirements are protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals.
- Protein – Usually Meat – Should be approximately 20% of the diet
- Carbohydrates – Rice, Corn, Wheat, Soy Should be approximately 50% of diet
- Fats Approximately 9-15%
- Vitamins – A, B, C, D, E & K Complexes.
- Minerals – Calcium, Potassium, Sodium & Magnesium & Other Trace Elements
Choosing to feed your dog a complete canned dog food diet is definitely something you should research and discuss with your vet before beginning. Many dog professional suggest feeding both a dry dog food and canned food diet together to supplement each other. The important part is to make sure you are feeding quality dog food products and reading your dog food labels because feeding your dog healthy will ensure that they live a quality life and live a longer lifespan.
A few months ago I left the business world to pursue my passion of working with animals while trying to improve my health. To do this, I am using my 20+ years experience as a dog breeder and pet owner. I also worked for a well known veterinarian and national vet supply company for several years. I have a B.S. In Agriculture with an emphasis in Animal Science and Ag Business and I worked in the Agriculture Business Industry for over twenty years. So if you are interested in the details of how the right dog food, dog care and just good old fashioned love and affection can help your dog live a healthier and longer life, please join us at:
http://www.love-your-dog-food.com
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