Nutrition

This section is about the Nutrition of your dog. I'm not going to tell you what to feed your dog, but help you find out what your dog needs to be healthy and happy. First you have to know what your dog needs. Then you need to interpret dog food, and supplement labels. Can you feed your dog "table scraps"? Yes if you consider them in relationship to the dogs whole diet. The same thing goes with treats (table scraps are kind of treats) you need to consider them a part of the dogs diet. To determine what a diet should contain you need to know what the nutritional needs of your dog is. The Association of American Feed Control (AAFCO)Officials states that dog food labeled as "complete and balanced" must meet certain standards.

Wouldn't it be nice if Dog Food labels look like the AAFCO's table. Unfortunately this is not the case. They might list some of the nutrients as percentages, other are listed by name in order of weight. If you do a computer search for "pet foods" you can find web for all the major brands. On some of these you can find the dog food label information with a little looking. With others it takes a lot of looking. Then there are those where I'm still looking. Or you can go to a chain pet store and look at labels there.

Before doing any of this you should find out what the names of the ingredients mean. You might know "Brewers Rice", maybe even "Dried Egg Product" but what about "Calcium Pantothenate"or "L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate ". I know you can look them up, try looking here first.

Table scraps and treats make part of your dogs diet and should be analyzed for nutritional content. If you don't want your dog begging when you eat don't feed him from the table, save the scraps to feed later. Table scraps should be the food you could not finish, not the part that you wouldn't eat. No fat, No poultry bones. There are some things that humans eat that dogs can't. ( chocolate, raisins ) Picking the correct table scraps is harder than picking the correct dog food. Treats unlike table scraps come with a label. You should limit the amount of scraps or treats you feed your dog. Otherwise they will wait for these things and not eat their food.

Supplements are things like vitamins, and minerals that you add to your dogs food. They can provide the nutrients that your dogs needs for coat condition, arthritis, and others. However for general well being they are not needed if your food has the necessary nutrients. So check the requirements, check your dogs needs, check your food, then buy your supplement.

Then there are the things to avoid, to never feed your dog.