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The key to a happy and healthy dog is both what and how much it is fed. The plethora of pet food and treats on the market has led not only to a wide range of choices to suit every dog’s palate but has also led to a marked increase in obesity and poor health.
How has this come about?
While dogs may be the consumers of pet food products, it is the pet owner that will make the decision as to what product to buy, and therefore it is to them that the industry has marketed their product.
At the low end of the market, this means making food that is visually appealing to the owner, while incorporating cheaper ingredients with additives to enhance the food’s flavour. The nature of those ingredients may vary from batch to batch, owing to availability and cost, which is to say that these low-cost products tend to be variably formulated.
At the high end of the market where food quality is better, the more energy-dense ingredients is coupled with enhanced palatability through an increase in fat content, which means without a carefully managed regimen animals run the risk of overfeeding.
So as stated at the outset: Ensuring your dog eats sufficiently is not enough. It is the responsibility of each and every pet owner to ensure that it also eats well.
A dog’s nutritional needs will vary over the course of its lifetime, based on both its age and circumstance. Whether it is a puppy or an adult, a working dog or a pregnant bitch, each has its own energy requirement and level of sustenance.
Those nutritional needs are only met with a diet that comprises the following raw ingredients in both appropriate and relative quantities:
Protein is vital for the maintenance, growth and repair of all tissues within the body, as well as helping to build and maintain a healthy immune system. Along with fat, protein affects the palatability – and hence acceptability – of a food for dogs, and so both the quality and quantity of protein in a meal is of prime importance.
While dogs are often considered to be carnivores, they are really omnivorous by nature, and their diet should reflect that. However, when it comes to protein sources, a primarily meat-based diet is far preferable to a primarily plant-based one, such as corn, soy, or wheat, some of whose proteins are deficient in certain amino acids, including lysine and arginine. Plant-based ingredients also tend to be less digestible, which means the animal has to consume great quantities of food to meet their daily requirement.
That being said, it ultimately depends on the quality of the source. Poor quality meat-based sources, such as animal heads, feet and entrails – usually labeled as ‘animal or meat by-product’ – have comparable or even lower levels of protein than plant-based sources.
An issue with certain meat-based protein sources is that they are known to cause food intolerances and sensitivities in certain dogs. Beef, chicken and lamb are all ranked high in this respect. In these cases, selecting a novel animal source, such as duck, fish, turkey or venison, would be preferred. But remember, it is only novel if your dog has never eaten it before, so you may need to place your dog on an elimination diet to truly ascertain what he will and will not tolerate. For more information on elimination diets, read further down the page, under ‘Diet & your dog’s health’.
Carbohydrates play an important part in a dog’s overall nutrition, not only as an additional energy source but also in assisting the gastrointestinal tract by providing bulk to increase motility, thereby reducing transit time. However, when consumed in excess it is metabolized by the body into fat, which can lead to an increase in weight and eventually obesity.
A lot of low-cost pet foods incorporate high glycemic carbohydrates – such as corn, wheat, and other cereal grains – in order to supplement their protein-poor meat ingredients.
Ingredients usually found in pet foods include corn, oat, rice, and wheat.
Fat provides the most concentrated form of energy of all the ingredients in your pet’s food, but its usefulness does not stop there. It is also the source of the essential fatty acids that your dog needs, as well as aiding in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins in your pet’s diet. It is not only energy-dense but also highly palatable, which is why strict portion-controlled feeding is required for foods containing high concentrations.
Saturated fats are mostly derived from animal sources, while unsaturated fats are primarily plant or marine-based, coming in the form of oils, with two of the most important being the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.
Unsaturated fatty acids are prone to oxidation, so where foodstuff has been improperly stored or fed past their sell-by date, there is always the risk of your pet becoming deficient in these vital nutrients.
Vitamins can be divided into two categories – fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins. The fat-soluble vitamins are vitamins A, D, E, and K., while water-soluble vitamins include but are not exclusive to B-complex vitamins, biotin, cobalamin, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, and vitamin C.
Fat-soluble vitamins can be stored within the body, primarily in the liver, while with the exception of cobalamin, the body is unable to store significant amounts of the water-soluble vitamins. This means that while an excess level of fat-soluble vitamins will sooner lead to toxicity, dogs fed an insufficient amount of water-soluble vitamins will sooner express those deficiencies.
Unlike humans, dogs are able to synthesise vitamin C from glucose and so do not require any further supplementation. However, the other vitamins do need to be provided as part of their diet. Quantities need to be relative to other ingredients. For instance, the amount of vitamin D provided needs to be relative to the concentration of calcium and phosphorous present, all of which is important for bone mineralization and growth; and the amount of vitamin E is dependent on the level of unsaturated fat in the diet.
Important minerals for dogs include calcium and phosphorus, along with trace amounts of iron, zinc, copper, magnesium, and selenium, amongst others.
As with vitamins, there is an inter-relationship between certain minerals, so that quantities need to be relative to each other. The most important of these is the ratio of calcium to phosphorus, as an imbalance can result in skeletal disease and impaired growth. Similarly, excessive amounts of calcium or copper can result in zinc deficiency, and vice versa.
The ingestion of excess amounts of any of the trace minerals can cause toxicity.
Broadly speaking, there are three main divisions of food available for dogs. They are:
Dogs judge a food by their nose first and foremost, and only after that, then, by its taste. So it should come as no surprise that dogs prefer wet food over dry, and favour raw food over processed meals.
However, this is not to say that you should be entirely led by your dog’s nose, as there are pros and cons to each type of diet available.
Regardless of which type of food you ultimately select, you need to ensure that it is both complete and nutritionally balanced – such products are normally clearly labeled – and that the quality of the ingredients is high. While purchasing low-cost foods may seem tempting, ultimately your pet will need to consume more in order to take in the necessary nutrition, and the associated health risks and potential weight gain means that any savings made in the short-term will probably be lost to veterinary bills in the long-run.
Dry food is created through a cooking process called extrusion, in which all the ingredients are mixed into a dough that is then cooked at high temperature before being cut into pellets.
This tends to be the most economical option when feeding your dog and has the added advantage of providing a course, dry surface against which your pet can grind its teeth, which helps prevent plaque buildup and promotes overall dental hygiene.
Care needs to be given when selecting dry food for smaller breeds of dogs, especially those with an inherently weaker jaw structure, as providing kibble that is too large can cause difficulty with chewing and can even cause damage to the mandible over time. For these breeds, be sure to provide smaller size kibble and soften it with warm water.
The downside to dry food is that it tends to be the least palatable option for dogs, especially when the kibble contains poor quality ingredients. For this reason it is important to check that the first ingredients listed are from high quality animal protein sources and not from a grain-based source or animal by-product.
Two ways to make dry food more palatable are to either moisten the kibble with warm water just prior to serving, or alternatively dress up the kibble with a tiny amount of fresh meat or steamed vegetables.
It goes without saying that dry food contains the least amount of moisture of all the types of pet food on offer, so should you choose to take this route you should ensure that there is a freshly replenished bowl of water available to your dog at all times.
Wet food tends to be a more acceptable option for many dogs, as the high moisture content enhances the odour as well as the palatability of the meal. However, this high acceptability can lead to obesity if feeding is not carefully managed.
Feeding your dog solely on wet food can also lead to fussy eating, so that if at some later date you decide to switch your dog to kibble, you may find your pooch turning its nose up at you. Getting your dog used to a mix of both wet and dry food from an early age could offset this, but pay special attention to the overall portion size to prevent overfeeding.
As with dry food, there is the increased risk of nutritionally-poor ingredients being included in the more low-cost items. While food intolerances tend to be fewer than with kibble, owing to the higher water content, it may prove difficult isolating the protein that is causing the problem, as a lot of wet food is based on animal by-product, or meat-based derivatives. What this means is that, even though the can may be labeled ‘chicken’ or ‘beef’, it simply means that meat-source is the primary meat ingredient, but that there may in fact be a whole host of other animal sources included.
A raw food diet comprises of meat and some bone, along with vegetables, fed to the dog in a completely uncooked and unprocessed state.
The benefit of raw food is that none of the ingredients will have been altered or destroyed through cooking or through other processing methods. Owing to its high digestibility, feeding raw food generally produces low stool volumes and well-formed feces.
There is, however, some risk of nutrient imbalance that can potentially lead to either a nutritional deficiency or excess in the dog, unless the ingredients provided are varied and frequently swapped.
Proper storage and handling of raw food is essential in order to ensure good hygiene. Owing to its high palatability, there is unlikely to be any food left in the bowl after feeding, but if there is it should be safely disposed of in short order. Similarly, feces from pets that eat raw food should be picked up and disposed of to minimise the spread of any foodborne microorganism that may have passed through the gut.
In multi-dog households, careful supervision at feeding times will be necessary, owing to the food’s high palatability.
Homemade diets tend also to be made up of raw ingredients, but this practice is generally not recommended, unless it is done in close consultation with a qualified canine nutritionist and your veterinary surgeon. The risk of your dog succumbing to a nutritional imbalance is extremely high, unless you adhere to a strict regime with frequent rotation of ingredients.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter which type of food you select for your pet, so long as you select a brand that is:
One key way of knowing you have achieved all this is by noting the volume and quality of your pet’s feces. Poor diets tend to lead to a higher frequency of defecation, with a greater volume of feces, and stools that are either loose or poorly formed. The more digestible and nutritious the meal, the lower the volume of feces, with a lower but more consistent defecation rate, and stools that are firm and well-formed.
Pet food labels contain three important summaries in relation to their product, namely:
In order to interpret this information properly, there are some important factors to consider and points to bear in mind.
The first thing to find out is whether that line of pet food is listed as a variable- or fixed-formula diet. If it is a variable-formula diet, it means that ingredients used will probably vary from batch to batch, whereas fixed-formula diets tend to be more consistent. Low-cost food items tend to vary in quantity and quality, as producers are keen to use the cheapest ingredients at the time of manufacture, and so their sourcing of those ingredients will be economically-driven and hence market-dependent. They are also less likely to perform analyses on different batches to confirm that what is contained within each can is what is stated on the tin.
Secondly, moisture-content can sometimes cause certain ingredients to be placed higher on the composition ranking than is actually the case. Meat-based ingredients retain more moisture than vegetable-derived ingredients, and so while meat may be presented as the primary ingredient, once the water-content is taken into account, it may be that it is actually a secondary source on a dry matter basis. For the same reason, moisture-content can also give misleading constituent analysis when comparing two different types of food, such as comparing a dry food product with a wet food brand.
The composition portion of the label describes what ingredients have gone into the product, with primary ingredients listed first followed by the trace vitamins and minerals.
As noted above, in order to make a proper assessment of the quality and primacy of each ingredient, we need to take into account the overall moisture-content of the meal, as well as which ingredients retain the most moisture.
Ingredient splitting is another means by which pet manufacturers ensure that the meat ingredient is placed at the top of the composition pile. By taking one ingredient, such as corn, and itemising it separately – corn gluten meal, corn flour, and whole ground corn – each one of those items can be listed lower on the composition chart, when in fact if taken simply as corn it would be placed at the top. Similar ingredient splitting can be done for potato, rice, and wheat, or any other vegetable component that would otherwise rank higher than meat.
And so let us turn our attention to the meat of the matter, or more specifically what is deemed to be meat.
Often you will read labels that describe the meat portion as ‘meat and animal derivatives’, or ‘-byproduct’, or ‘-meal’, or ‘-byproduct meal’. But what does this all mean?
‘Derivatives’ or ‘-byproduct’ refers to meat sources that are not typically used for human consumption. This means: internal organs, muscle meat, brain matter, heads, and feet.
‘Meal’ means that the meat source has been dried and ground down into particles by a similar process that is used to provide farm animals with their feed.
Hence ‘-byproduct meal’ is a meal that has been created from animal byproduct.
The problem with a lot of low cost pet foods is not so much the manner in which the meat is provided or how it is rendered – although there is certainly an argument to be made that a lot of the nutritional value may be lost through that rendering process – but that there is no definitive way in which to say what animals that meat even came from. So for instance a composition label for a chicken-based dog food that states: ‘Meat and Animal Derivatives (60%, including 4% chicken) means that 93% of the meat source remains unknown to the consumer, which makes it impossible to manage food intolerances and sensitivities.
For this reason it is strongly recommended that only food that states its exact meat source be bought, as opposed to one that simply labels its main ingredient as ‘meat and animal’.
The analysis panel describes the percentages of crude protein, crude fibre, fat content, minerals (also described as crude ash), and moisture in the meal. While not always listed, the percentage of carbohydrate present can be presumed by adding up the total values of the percentages provided, which combined should come to less than 100%. What remains, along with the listed crude fibre, can be presumed to be carbohydrate.
Remember that the protein percentage as listed will be a combination of both animal and plant-based proteins, and that it is important to ascertain which of these protein sources is the primary ingredient.
In order to work out the percentages on a dry matter (DM) basis, which would be the only way to compare relative nutritional values in two different types of food, you will need to exclude the moisture-content from each of the respective products.
The best way to illustrate this will be by using the following example – you have a label that reads:
| Nutrient | As Fed |
| Crude Protein | 9.0% |
| Crude Fibre | 0.3% |
| Fat Content | 5.5% |
| Crude Ash | 2.0% |
| Moisture | 81.0% |
The implied carbohydrate percentage is worked out by deducting the protein, fat, ash, and moisture percentages from the hundred percent total, so using the above example the estimated carbohydrate percentage is therefore:
100 – 9 – 5.5 – 2 – 81 = 2.5% As Fed
In order to work out the percentages of each on a dry matter basis, divide each nutrient percentage by the percentage of dry matter, which in the above example would be 19%, or .19. Using the above example:
Now we want to compare this wet food label against a dry food one, whose values are presented as following:
| Nutrient | As Fed |
| Crude Protein | 26.0% |
| Crude Fibre | 3.0% |
| Fat Content | 10.0% |
| Crude Ash | 3.5% |
| Moisture | 12.0% |
On the face of it, it would appear that this dry food contains a better percentage of protein than the wet food label. However, when we consider how those figures stack up on a DM basis, we find that:
Hence there is actually a greater percentage of protein and fat in the wet food option than there is in the dry food, when one takes away the moisture-content of the product.
However, going back to the food composition label, were we to discover that the primary source of protein in the wet food was either plant-based or from animal and meat derivatives, whereas the dry food was comprised of 20% Duck, then perhaps the dry food would still be considered more nutritious, owing to the quality of its source ingredients.
The manufacturer may set some guidelines as to how much of their product to feed your dog on a daily basis. Please remember, this is only guidance, and the amounts may vary depending on your dog’s:
It is up to you to monitor your pet’s weight, to keep it fit and healthy, so portion sizes may need to vary depending on the factors listed above. A good rule of thumb is: The greater the energy density of the food, the smaller should be the portion.
There are three ways you might wish to feed your dog:
Most dog owners tend to prefer the latter option, as it allows them to carefully monitor and control their dog’s daily intake of food while also giving them a chance to bond with their pet. Ideally, daily portions should be broken up into at least two meals for adult dogs – in the morning and early evening – as it will give the dog the chance to better manage digestion, providing a more consistent nutritional intake throughout the day, whilst also reducing hunger and begging for food between meals.
Neither free-choice feeding nor time-restricted feeding will guarantee that fussy dogs will consume enough. There is also the risk that food-obsessed dogs may consume too much or too quickly.
Regardless of the mode of feeding, food-obsessed dogs will generally polish off their meal in no time at all, while others may increase their rate of eating when fed as a group. When done to the extreme, this can result in choking, vomiting, and even health problems. There are a few solutions. You can provide the food in a slow feeding bowl, which are designed to slow down consumption by making your dog work harder to get the food. Similarly, you can place their portion in a food delivery toy. Finally, you can switch their diet to something a little less palatable, such as migrating from a wet diet to dry food.
When switching diets, it is always best to transition your dog gradually over a period of five to ten days, substituting more of the new food for the old each day. This is not only when switching types of food, but also when changing brands and products, as each manufacturer uses different types of ingredients.
While most adult dogs would do well on two meals a day, as dogs age they tend to slow down and run the risk of gaining weight. Adjusting their feeding to three times a day, with careful monitoring of overall daily intake, may help with their digestion. From around age eight and upward, dogs tend to require fewer calories but more nutrients, so switching to a senior dog diet that accommodated this requirement would be recommended.
Dog treats come in all shapes, sizes, and textures, from semi-moist snacks to brittle biscuits and tough rawhide. Some, like dental sticks, are designed to promote good health, while others are there purely for the enjoyment and the reward.
And just as one needs to be mindful of what goes into your dog’s food bowl at meal time, so too should one pay close attention to the ingredients that make up those treats. Take into account their overall caloric value and consider feeding your dog a little bit less at its next meal.
The best type of treats for dogs tend to be those made up of natural ingredients. Try to avoid those that are comprised of grain or wheat, especially if your dog is on a dry food diet. Even if your dog does not suffer from allergies, he is probably getting more than enough of that foodstuff in his meals already.
Rawhide chews, along with hard bones and antlers, aid in the prevention of dental disease, as they promote a substantial amount of gnawing and mastication. However, when giving your dog a hard bone you should closely monitor it at all times for signs of breakage and splintering. Sharp fragments of bone can do substantial damage to your dog’s insides and can cause a blockage. One way to mitigate this from happening is to select bones with a uniformly narrow circumference at either end, as the thickness of the bone tends to be greater and thus less likely to splinter.
Be careful not to over-treat your dog, especially when it comes to items that are rich in fat. Over-treating can lead to health risks and gastrointestinal disease, such as acute pancreatitis.
A puppy’s diet all starts with its mum, both whilst in the womb and immediately after birth when feeding on her milk. Ideally the mum should be on a highly nutritious, digestible diet throughout the pregnancy and lactation phase. Special formulae for pregnant bitches tend to be more energy dense than standard formulae, with higher protein levels and fat content. Daily portion size should match that of adult maintenance for the first three to four weeks, but after that, as her energy requirements increase so too should her daily intake of food.
Supplementation of such a diet – especially in relation to calcium supplements – is generally unnecessary, and in some instances ill-advised, as it can contribute to the development of skeletal disorders in the growing puppies.
Newborn puppies will nurse on their mother’s milk for the first three to four weeks of their life. The first thirty-six hours, however, are extremely important, as the milk produced immediately after birth – also known as colostrum – provides the puppies with special immunological compounds that help in the development of their immune system and protects them from a range of infectious diseases.
Weaning usually occurs when the puppies are three to four weeks old, and it is at this time that they can begin to be introduced to semi-solid food. The weaning process itself can take another three to four weeks, bringing the puppies to around seven to eight weeks of age, which is normally around the time when they find themselves a new home.
It is generally advised that puppies should continue to be fed the same diet that they were on when bought, so long as that diet was sufficiently nutritious. Poor quality food that has a low energy density means that a puppy’s small stomach might become full before it can consume an adequate amount of nutrients. Similarly, overfeeding a puppy on an energy-rich diet can lead to accelerated growth, bone deformity and skeletal issues, such as hip dysplasia, and a predisposition to obesity later in life.
Puppies should be fed smaller portions at least three times a day, with larger breed dogs being fed a diet of slightly lower energy density than small and medium breed dogs. As with feeding the mother during pregnancy, no calcium supplementation should be given to growing puppies.
Once the puppy has reached six months of age, it can be switched to a feeding schedule of twice a day. Small breed dogs can then be weaned over to an adult diet around ten to twelve months of age, while medium and large breed dogs can be weaned over when they are twelve to fourteen months old.
The two key takeaways in relation to a dog’s diet and its health are:
There are times, though, when other factors or circumstances affect your dog’s health, and hence its diet.
Some spayed bitches tend to put on weight post-surgery. Simply being aware of this means that you can monitor their weight carefully, and at the first sign of any weight increase reduce their caloric intake accordingly.
Remember: feeding guidelines from manufacturers are for guidance only, and it is up to you to take into account your individual dog’s circumstances
It is important to recognize that food intolerance or sensitivity is not the same as a food allergy. Allergic reactions tend to be immediate, whereas intolerances and sensitivities can build up over many months or years. So even if your dog has been eating something for ages, it does not mean that it can’t develop an adverse reaction to it.
The most common ingredients to cause an intolerance or sensitivity include: beef, chicken, corn, dairy, lamb, soy, and wheat, along with other grains that contain gluten.
Common symptoms of such a dietary reaction may include:
In order to ascertain what ingredient is causing the adverse reaction, you will need to place your dog on an elimination diet, which means to say a strict diet that contains only one protein and one carbohydrate source. These sources should be novel, which is to say that your pet should not have been exposed to them before.
It may take up to one or two months for you to see clinical signs of improvement, but once you do, you can then begin to add further ingredients to find out which is the offending one.
The difficulty in creating an elimination diet on your own is that most pet foods these days contain multiple protein sources. As stated above, even a foodstuff that has been labeled as ‘duck’ or ‘venison’ will contain ingredients from multiple animal sources. Therefore, in order to ensure a proper assessment is done whilst maintaining adequate nutrition to your dog, any attempt at an elimination diet should be performed in consultation with your veterinary surgeon and a qualified canine nutritionist.
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