Having a dog is real blessing for most people. Its so lovely to have a dog around and we usually wish that our dogs could be with us for much longer than what is the common rule. Most dogs only live a little bit over 10 years. Knowing this it might be a bit shocking to hear that scientists suggest that dogs could become up to 35 years old.

This naturally makes us understand that there must be a lot of things that we could do differently and that would have the ability to prolong the life expectancy of our dogs. Theres not one single thing that does this but more a combination of factors that is good for your dogs health.

One factor that definitely has a great impact on your dogs health is the food youre feeding it. Most of the dog food brands that we find on the market has an extremely low nutritional value and can in many cases even be bad for your dog. It is a good idea to look for other alternatives and they do not even need to cost much more than the regular dog food at the supermarket.

People that does make the switch from the poorest kinds of dog foods to better types of food that is natural and with better nutritional value often notice a remarkable change in the dogs overall health. They tend to have more energy in a balanced way, the coating becomes shinier and the teeth are healthier.

Since our bodies are built from the food were eating this means that good dog food with high nutritional value means a dog that has a stronger health. We know that eating junk food isnt good for us; then why would we want to feed our best friend something that is even worse than that?

If you want to make the switch and know that youre dog is eating good dog food you might want to start cook for your dog yourself. This is a very good option and can be both cheap and easy. What is important to keep in mind though is that there are some ingredients that humans can eat that can be harmful and poisonous for your dog. You also want to make sure that the food youre making contains good proportions of protein, fat and carbohydrates as well as vitamins and minerals.

To give your dog food that that actually is healthy and nutritious youre doing something that will enhance the life of it. This, together with a lot of other aspects that also helps to maintain food health in your dog will make sure that you can live a long and happy time together.

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Having the correct knowledge of what to feed your dog can be very confusing. Every expert out there has his own favourite canine diet and there is such a vast selection of dog food available that it can be quite overwhelming for the first time dog owner to decide what to feed.

In fact lets be honest even us seasoned dog owners get caught up in all the different opinions and who knows what is what? Think of it—-Fresh, tinned, dried, vacuum-packed ..the list is endless. Obviously a puppy has a different food requirement from an adult dog so make sure that you feed the puppy the correct puppy diet from the range of food available.

The majority of pet shops and many vets will probably advise feeding your new puppy or dog on a complete dried food which is considered nutritionally balanced. Some will suggest tinned food or vacuum packed meat products. These types of food are many and varied and are advertised as suitable for most dogs. In fact most of the advertising will suggest that it is the only way to feed your dog if you want him or her to have a long and healthy life. To discuss each and every type of manufactured food product would be a major book in itself so lets look here at another choice…the Natural diet.

This diet is structured on what your dog would eat in the wild and what wolves eat in the wild today. It is a diet based on raw meaty bones and what most people fed their dogs until the dog food manufacturers got hold about 30-40 years ago. It is the diet that your dog is designed to eat. They have the teeth to tear,shred,rip flesh and crunch bones and their stomachs are designed to digest both raw meat and raw bones. Remember that dogs are carnivores and their diet would be mostly meat and bones. They may eat the stomach contents of prey ,that is the vegetable matter but it is not a vital part of their diet and they do not need it.

Most vets will recommend one of the commercial diets as the instructions are on the packet and they do not have the time in a normal consultation to go into the benefits of natural feeding and the quantities needed. Some vets sell dried dog food and so will recommend it. Some pet food manufacturers sponsor Vet colleges so therefore the alternative ways of feeding are not given priority or even discussed and veterinary students do not learn them.

In fact to be honest many dog owners are told that raw uncooked bones are bad for their dogs. The ease of opening a tin,or scooping out a couple of mug fulls of dried food is simple, requiring little or no thought which suits the busy lives that many owners now lead. The fact that there is now a massive multimillion pound industry which effectively tells dog owners that they the owners couldn’t possibly work out how and what to feed their dogs on their own,has lead to increasing numbers of dog owners accepting that the manufacturers must know best and being drawn into buying commercially prepared food and artificial bones.

All tinned and processed foods have been cooked and the resulting changes in the structure of the food means that the dogs digestive system has to work much harder as it was designed to digest raw ingredients. Then there is the major effect that cooked processed food has on the dogs teeth. The majority of dogs fed on an artificial diet will develop dirty teeth and infected gums and will have to be attended to by a Vet several times through their lives.The processed food gets stuck in the teeth causing infection. Just take a look at at your own teeth after you have eaten a biscuit…..that’s what your dogs teeth look like after eating dried pellets. Even using artificially produced teeth cleaning products will leave a deposit on the dogs teeth.! Bacteria enter the body through the diseased and infected gums and teeth and this can set up chronic infections which later may result in liver,heart or kidney problems.

Cleaning your dogs teeth is not going to remove all the gunge and honestly who is going to clean their dogs teeth twice a day! ..imagine it? By eating raw bones the dogs floss their own teeth naturally in the ripping and shredding action. The only teeth that need to be artificially cleaned are the canine teeth which are the teeth designed for killing the prey and are not involved in the ripping and grinding motion. Try cleaning your dogs teeth with an electric toothbrush…believe me it works! If you start when they are a puppy I can assure you they will get used to it.

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What you don’t know could be bad for your dog, causing illness and even death. Most of us don’t pay a lot of attention to what we feed our pets, trusting manufacturer labeling to be accurate and regulations to be followed. The truth is that there really aren’t very many rules about what can and can’t go into dog food.

Not Fit To Eat

Dog food can contain a lot of things we wouldn’t be happy about eating, including bones, nervous tissue, organs, skin, ligaments, hair and meat from animals with diseases. The bodies of euthanized pets and zoo animals have been used, too.

Most of even the good meat that ends up in dog and cat food is heavily processed, removing any nutritive value it once had. Ingredients like poultry broth, animal meal, and other nonspecific foods are unappealing and bad for our pets.

Animal meals are what’s left after all the meat and fat have been processed out of a carcass – any carcass at all. The remainder is ground and dried, producing a “meal” that’s similar in texture to ground grains. The broths in dog food are similarly unpleasant, made up of processed carcasses from all kinds of animals, in all kinds of condition.

It’s Not Illegal!

Unfortunately, none of the disgusting or unhealthy ingredients in dog food are illegal. While we have reasonably strict rules about what can be part of human food and those laws are well enforced, pets don’t have that protection. Rules about pet food ingredients are much looser and more poorly enforced.

This means that just about anything might turn up in your dog’s food, with labeling meaning little. Even the words “healthy and balanced” mean only that there’s a particular ratio of protein and fat, as well as some added vitamins and minerals.

Toxic Additives

All of us have probably heard about the recent recalls due to melamine contamination. What you might not know is that this isn’t the only additive in pet food that might cause illness or death. There are a number of preservatives used in pet food that cause real problems in humans who work with them, and could cause liver and kidney failure or cancer in your dog over time.

Not Only Cheap Brands

Unfortunately, it’s not just the cheap brands that are causing the problem. High end and organic foods are also poorly regulated. They might be higher quality, but there’s no good way to tell what ingredients they’re using. That can make it extremely hard to find foods that are appropriate for your dog, since even those recommended by the vet could be dangerous.

Solutions

There are a number of things you can do to protect your dog. First, learn to read the label – ingredients higher on the label are in larger percentages. That means you should look for named meats instead of generic terms, broths or meals.

You should also learn which additives and preservatives are safe and which ones are dangerous. Avoid foods with too many grains, since they tend to be bad for your pet in the long run. You can also find a number of quality recipes out there to help you create nutritious diets for your dog. Just make sure you do something!

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