Home Made Food for Your Dog and Dog Food Recipes Information
Article by Anne Kingsley
To keep our pet free from the general health problems caused by eating a variety of packaged food, we must focus on our dog's nutrition. Our pet is an important member of our family and so deserves a proper and healthy homemade food.
Our pet dogs too require a perfectly balanced diet that must have the right combination of nutrients for natural growth. A shortfall of these nutrients in a dog's food can lead to improper growth, slower healing after an injury, and an unhealthy life compared to dogs who receive the right nutrition suited to them. Let's look at the macro-nutrients and why they are important.
Protein is one of the most important macro - nutrient in a dog's diet. Proteins are necessary for all round development and growth, and are crucial to structural make up and the body's immune system. Besides, proteins are used up as ready calories and the remaining proteins are converted to, and stored, as fat that is used up as energy later on.
In our human world, we generally look upon fat intake as harmful, fats make up the next most relevant macro nutrient in a dog's food. Fats are very dense forms of energy. They are also required for regular kidney functions, and to help your pet in maintaining a glowing coat and a healthy skin.
Carbohydrate too are not to be neglected in the dog's diet, because dogs are usually very active and so need a readily available source of energy that can be easily used up as energy. A majority of dog owners are being misled into believing that pet food companies are providing the very best nutrients for dogs in their particular brands. What we as pet owners should realize is that the information of the protein levels on bags of dog food is not about the percent of actual digestible protein. Your dog can only digest between 70 and 80 percent from most so-called quality foods. In not-so-great-quality foods, the digestibility could dip to 60 percent or even less. Although chicken or other meat by products, with which most branded dog foods are made are fine but they too are not high in quality.
Now, meat and bone meal, which are also added in dog food, are of much inferior qualities of meat and hence even less easy to digest. If you find some grain listed on the ingredients in the dog food label, it too is not a good digestible source of protein as well. They are just adding only to the overall carbohydrate macro-nutrient.
On the other hand, if you feed your dog a healthy, home-made meal, you can carefully monitor the major nutrients that you are feeding your dog with. In addition, you can properly give the pet its correct portion size for its particular breed. You are also protecting your dog from harmful ingredients like preservatives, additives, and artificial flavorings. All home-made dog food recipes need healthy foods as a mix of fruits and vegetables such as apples, bananas, peanut butter, pumpkins and honey - as well as nutritious meats such as fish, beef, chicken and turkey.
Most people choose to give their dogs home-made meals only after their dogs have been diagnosed with a health condition, or need a special diet, or are in training program, one must simply understand that the branded and packaged dog food is nothing but processed, low-quality food sprinkled with fat only to make it more appetizing to dogs.
Processed and packaged are bad for every member of our family, whether human or pet.
About the Author
Anne Kingsley is a dog food recipes expert. For more great information on dog food recipes, visit http://www.healthiestdogfoodrecipe.com
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