Pet health
Nutrition – What to Feed Your Puppy
There are hundreds of choices for dog food available for your new puppy. Sorting through the myriad diets can be challenging, especially as so much emphasis is placed on marketing the food. Whatever resonates with pet owners in terms of what we think good nutrition should be invariably will show up on the exterior of the food bag.
Myths abound about what dogs should eat, with some people advocating meat first and foremost. Others say vegetarian diets or raw-food diets are the way to go. (We do not advocate raw-food diets due to concern that intestinal pathogens such as salmonella or campylobacter could contaminate the food and expose the dog and family to potentially serious disease.)
Fortunately, most foods available commercially provide the basic needs of pets, but only a handful of companies actually conduct nutritional research to prove the quality of their foods.
While not the only companies providing excellent nutrition, there are only four companies that conduct significant research: Purina, Hill’s, Iams and Royal Canin/Medi-Cal. These companies have created diets to manage many health problems, from obesity and diabetes to urinary tract disease, arthritis and joint disease.
We now have a tremendous understanding of the role of good nutrition on health problems and, by extension, the role of good nutrition in promoting good health. While we do not advocate for any one company, premium foods from these companies are backed by years of research and can be trusted to offer great products.
Safety of food sources is of paramount concern for companies making dog food, as we saw with the melamine scare in 2007. Medi-Cal, for instance, obtains as much of the nutrients for the food as possible from local producers. In addition, each food ingredient is subject to an analysis. The company keeps a graph profile for each ingredient and any food that does not match the profile is rejected for use. In this way, any contaminants or molds are detected before the food is used.
How much to feed is determined by the food and by the activity level of the puppy. Most foods provide general guidelines, but the amount fed may have to be increased or decreased. We expect a puppy to produce two to three normal well-formed bowel movements each day with a good-quality food, and to have a clean, glossy coat.
Please ask us for more information.