Puppy Dry Food-Reasons To Not Go Exclusive
Puppy dry food is the easiest and most economical way to feed, making this option the most popular choice among owners. While it is perfectly fine that the bulk of your puppy’s nutrients come from quality dry food, there are several reasons why you should at least add one more type of food (Canned food, raw food or home-cooked) into her diet.
- Other feeding options contains more moisture but lower carbohydrates and fewer preservatives.
- A mix of puppy dry food and moist foods help prevent bloat or Gastric Dilation Volvulus.
- Other moister food options contain higher protein, medium-fat and lower card which helps to fight obesity.
- Complementing dry food with another feeding option help prevent the forming of urinary crystals and bladder stones.
- Preventing dry skin, allergies, sensitive gut and improving chronic medical issues.
- Last but not least, puppy dry food are generally less appealing.
Choosing puppy dry food
The popularity of a brand dictates where they are place in the pet store. As such, the more popular brands are always the more accessible ones, but popularity is not an indication of quality. Rarely so in-fact.
Good quality puppy dry food generally share a few things in common on their label.
- Recommended amount of protein should be around 25% to 30% while fats ideally land around the 15% to 20% range. Finally, carbohydrates should make up about 30% to 70% of the food.
- Quality puppy dry food will specify the animal used as food’s protein sources instead of being vague. Inferior choices usually use terms like meat meal, animal fat or animal by-products.
- Won’t have controversial preservatives or humectants such as BHA, BHT, TBHQ, Ethoxyquin or propylene glycol.
- Quality choices won’t contain wheat gluten or other grain by-products. They will instead list vegetables, fruits or whole non-gluten grains.
Happy medium
Huge companies spend a lot of money on marketing and very little in terms of quality ingredients that goes into their dog food.
Going the other spectrum of small lesser known brands aren’t always the best choice either. In-fact more than 80% of dog food recalls in America are from these smaller companies.
One primary reason is while large corporations are mainly concern about getting their ingredients just right within a certain budget and legal confines for maximum profits, many small companies simply don’t have the financial ability to perform all the steps necessary to ensure the quality that goes into their products.
Your best bet? Quality mid-size companies. Taste of the wild, Natural Balance, Nature’s Domain, Orijen and Acana just to name a few quality choices of puppy dry food are great options to start with.
Companies and management change from time to time. As a company grows or decline, business strategy might change for better or worse. Learning to read the label and knowing what to look out for (as discuss earlier in this article) is the best way to ensure you only give the best to your little one.
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