Diet

The pet food industry is vast and can be very confusing for pet owners. It is recommended to feed a puppy a good quality commercial puppy food as this has been formulated specifically for the needs of a growing puppy. Once your puppy has achieved an adult size you should switch to an adult dog food as the levels of minerals and calories will be more suitable. A puppy fed mostly on adult dog food is unlikely to achieve their full growth potential.

There is a wide array of different food brands available from a variety of different retailers. This can be very confusing for many people. In general there are two main levels of commercial dog food: standard and premium. In principle a standard dog food will contain the basic ingredients to feed a healthy dog. In contrast a premium dog food will contain much higher quality ingredients and a more concentrated formula which the dog will find easier to digest. Additional ingredients may be supplemented into a premium diet with a variety of health aims. Because the premium diets are easier to digest and more concentrated a smaller meal is necessary. Although gram for gram a premium diet may seem as much as twice the price of a standard diet, due to the quality of ingredients and ease of digestion leading to smaller meal size, on a day per day basis there may only be a few pence difference.

At the Small Animal Practice we recommend Hill’s dog and cat foods as we feel confident that they provide a premium nutritional formula to keep your pet healthy and allow your puppy to achieve its full potential.

Feeding an unbalanced or incorrect diet to a puppy can lead to poor growth and even skeletal abnormalities. Puppies reared on adult diets will not achieve the same potential as puppies fed on a good quality of puppy food.

While it may be convenient to relate dog diets to that of wild wolves the reality is somewhat different as dogs are inherently scavengers. This means that they can survive on a variety of ingredients and many people will treat their dog with human food or even home cook. It is important that your dog receives an appropriate balance of ingredients to stay healthy and this is most easily done by use of dog food. When treating your dog remember that this may alter the overall balance of nutrients and could cause tummy upsets and weight gain if done excessively.

If you decide to treat your dog to some human food, remember to avoid onion, garlic, chocolate, grapes and raisins as these are all potentially toxic for dogs.