Friday, December 30, 2011

Dog Food Today

By Herschel Holzwarth


People feel a great amount of pressure to stay on top of their health by eating right, taking care of their bodies, and exercising daily. No one expects the same of house pets, but we, as their owners, are also responsible for their care. Numerous dog owners are finding out the benefits of making their own dog food at home. Homemade meals are nutritionally and economically superior to many bagged food options, even veterinarian-recommended brands.

Pet owners need only glance at the ingredients listed on store-bought packages of pet food to reconsider. Bone meal, animal byproducts, and similar items can be alarming for a number of reasons. Ingredients such as these certainly may benefit compost piles, providing plants with nutrition, but they are not the healthiest for a pet's internal systems. They may wreak havoc on a pet's digestion, leaving traces of unusable substances in their system. High protein contents may be listed on dog food packaging to appeal to the common pet-owning consumer. However, most owners do not realize that the majority of these proteins are indigestible - sometimes the digestible amount is as low as 60%.

The fat content in prepackaged dog food is another example of its insufficiency in sustaining a healthy dog's nutritional needs. To ensure it is properly storing energy and maintaining healthy kidney function, a dog's body relies on fat. Using creative dog food recipes to prepare your pet's meals on your own will help you to become responsible for your dog's nutritional needs, ensuring its overall good health.

Consider for a moment the bagged food on supermarket shelves, and the volume of artificial coloring and flavoring added to it. A dog's health is in no way served by the substantial amounts of additives and preservatives found in this dry food, though they do keep the food fresh for longer periods of time. Our pets are a part of our family, and their health should be our responsibility and concern.

There is no need to spend too much time, energy, or money on making your own pet food at home. Your dog's tail will wag and he'll be begging for more of any number of easy and healthy recipes that are out there. Healthy ingredients like honey, peanut butter, vegetables, and fresh meats are simple, and most popular dog food recipes require such standbys.Healthy staples to keep on hand for your homemade recipes include honey, peanut butter, vegetables and fresh meats, all of which are fairly simple and included in most dog foods.

Dog food recipes made at home come with so many benefits - discover them for yourself, and put an end to your trust in factory-made food to take care of your pet's health. It may seems strange, at first, to establish a routine in which you prepare your dog's meals alongside your own, but the long-term benefits to your pet's health will definitely be worth the effort.




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