Glucosamine For Dogs

Many dog owners pay scant attention to what they feed their dogs. Often, they base their decision solely on price, rather than taking the time to find out what the food actually contains. If they did they’d be shocked to find that these cheap dog food products often contain ingredients that are harmful to their dogs.

Not only that, but in many cases buying cheap is actually a false economy, as I’ll explain later.For now, here are some tips you can use in selecting a healthy dog food for your dog.

Dogs need an omnivorous diet, with both meat and vegetables at a ratio of about 50/50. What is not needed is the grain based fillers in most commercial dog chow. Want to know if your favorite dog food brand meets this requirement? Simple, just read the label.

Unfortunately, labeling can be confusing, perhaps deliberately so. But here’s a quick and easy way to cut through the misinformation. Check out the first 5 ingredients listed. If they are protein-based ingredients from meat, chances are the product will fulfill your dog’s nutritional requirements, if they are grain based, chances are it won’t.

Not that all grains are bad. It’s just that cheap dog foods use grains as filler to increase the food’s protein content. Grains like rice, barley, millet and oats can actually provide a dog with vitamins, minerals and fiber, but they should be fed whole.

The other things you should look out for are preservatives and artificial flavors and colorings – a quality dog food will not contain any of these. If preservatives are present, take particular note of what kind are used. Chemical preservatives can cause cancer, so rather go a product that uses natural preservatives, like Vitamin E and C.

All this checking of labels can be a bit of a bind after a while though, so why not just cut to the chase. Buy a premium or super premium dog food brand and you can be almost certain that it will give your dog the optimum level of nutrition he needs.

Now you may look at the price tag on some of these products and think, “no way am I paying that for dog food!” If that’s your initial reaction, I don’t blame you. They can seem prohibitively expensive. But what if I were to tell you that they can actually save you money? Here’s how.

With a cheap brand you have to feed your dog much more to deliver the same nutritional punch. And because the ingredients are sub-standard they create all kinds of problems, from obesity to skin allergies, to more serious diseases. These, of course, require veterinary treatment, which in the case of serious ailments can run to thousands of dollars.

Feeding a premium brand means you can feed smaller quantities, so that expensive brand of kibble last longer and also passes quality nutrition to your dog. Your dog will also pass less waste, so there’s less for you to pick up!

Hopefully this article has illustrated why you should always feed your dog the best dog food you can afford. But quite aside from the health benefits, your dog deserves it.

There’s plenty more about best dog food, dog care, dog training tips and other interesting dog information at http://www.dogsanddogtraining.com

Tags: best dog food, dog, dog care dogs, train

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 at 5:11 am and is filed under Dog Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.