Perfect Puppy Care Book – Chapter 5 – Feeding Your Puppy (Part 3)

Chapter 5 – Feeding Your Puppy (Part 3)

Types of Food

Your puppy can get her daily nutrients in a variety of ways. If you head down a pet supply store’s dog food aisle, you’ll soon discover a dizzying selection of bags, cans, packets, and other containers, all vying for your attention. Some people choose to bypass the store altogether and make their puppy’s food at home. Which is best for your puppy? Learn about the different types of food, along with their advantages and disadvantages.

Commercial dog food diets come in three main types: dry, canned, and semi-moist.

Advantages: Dry food or kibble is very common and easily available. It may assist in good dental hygiene, scraping plaque and tartar off the teeth if the puppy has to chew it significantly. Dry food is usually less expensive per pound (kg) than canned food. It has greater caloric density than does canned food, so puppies need to eat less to get the nutrition they need.

Disadvantages: Some finicky puppies turn their nose up at dry food, but this is more common if you’ve fed your puppy table scraps or started out with canned food.

Advantages: Canned foods are very tasty to puppies. Depending on ingredients, higher amounts of fat could improve skin and coat. Canned foods may be recommended for puppies with special dietary needs or for those who are underweight.

Disadvantages: Canned foods are high in fat and also high in water—about 78% of a can of food is moisture. Puppies have to eat more to get the nutrition they need, which can lead to obesity. Canned foods usually cost more than dry kibble, and the soft, pasty texture can lead to dental disease.

Advantage: Puppies usually like the taste. It has combined benefits of both Dry and Moist Food.

Disadvantages: To make it attractive to consumers (and dogs), semi-moist foods are usually high in sugar and salt. However, this can also lead to dental disease.

Products made by dog food companies are not the only choice available. Homemade diets are gaining in popularity.

You may prefer to cook your puppy’s meals for yourself. If you do, consult your veterinarian and research how to create nutritionally complete meals for your puppy. Books and other resources are available, so study them for recipes. Don’t just feed her what you eat. She’s a different species, and she has different nutritional requirements.

The advantage to a home-cooked meal is that you can better control what goes into your puppy because you control all the ingredients. Keep in mind, though, that feeding a puppy table scraps is a leading cause of pancreatitis and obesity in dogs. Some foods that humans eat are also poisonous to dogs. In addition, cooked bones can splinter and injure your puppy’s esophagus or digestive tract. So if you choose to prepare your puppy’s meals, research exactly what to feed her – in respect to her breed.

Raw or biologically appropriate raw food (BARF) diets are gaining in popularity. Advocates for the diet say that it more closely matches a puppy’s nutritional needs and can help to prevent or cure certain diseases. They especially note that chewing on raw bones helps to clean a puppy’s teeth and can help to prevent the dental issues that plague dogs as they get older. Opponents of the raw diet worry about the risk of salmonella poisoning, or they believe that raw bones can injure or even kill a dog.

Before trying a raw diet, do your research first. Some excellent books are available that outline how to safely feed a raw diet, so read them for recipes. If the thought of finding the time to prepare a raw diet seems daunting, some companies provide prepackaged raw diets that you can purchase.

Treats are great for training your puppy, and a wide variety of healthy treats are on the market from which to choose. You also can use hot dogs, string cheese, oat cereal, turkey, and other “people” food. These types of food are healthy because you’re only going to use small amounts.

If your puppy has a food allergy, please consult your veterinarian before choosing a treat. If she is a small breed or has certain medical conditions, be careful of low-fat “people” food such as low-fat hot dogs or cheese. Some manufacturers take out the fat but add a lot of salt, which is not healthy. In general, treats should be:

• Small and easy to swallow. A treat shouldn’t be a meal but a tiny bite.
• Something that your puppy does not get every day. Everyday kibble can quickly become boring. You need something that’s different so that it cuts through the distractions.
• Something that has an appealing odor to your puppy. Your puppy can smell things you can’t, which just increases the distractions she faces. She can smell someone grilling hamburgers down the block. If you use dry treats that don’t have much odor, these treats will have a hard time cutting through the other odors that capture your puppy’s interest. Use treats that your puppy can easily smell and discern as delicious.

Only give your puppy a supplement if your veterinarian recommends it. If you are feeding your puppy a quality food that already has her daily nutritional requirements, you could be risking her health if you give her too much of a specific vitamin or mineral.