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DOG FOOD |
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DOG BREEDS AND MONGRELS |
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What should
you feed your dog? This is a huge and controversial question, and there are many opinions about food for dogs. This page is the attitude that home made and natural is preferable. What we know today as dog food, either canned or in a bag, was invented 40-50 years ago. Before that dogs mostly had left-overs from the dinner table and what else was available. And they lived okay with that. The left-overs contained the same food as the people ate, with no additives or preservatives. It was fresh food and it was sufficiently varied. Then a demand arose for something easier and cheaper, and industrial dog food was invented. The principle is simple. You take some portions of everything that is required, mix it all together, boils it down to a mush and dries this in the appropriate small chunks, which is poured into a bag that is sold as dog food. It is easy to pour into the dog bowl. However, it is not always without problems. To get the food to stay fresh, you need to add various substances as preservatives. These substances can be allergenic. To produce the food as cheaply as possible, there is usually added large quantities of grain. Wheat is not a natural nutrient for dogs, they do not eat cereal in the wild. It is used exclusively to make dog food as cheap as possible by filling the dogs stomach. Similarly, on many declarations you can read that some animal by-products are included. This can cover a wide range of products, of which virtually none belong in a dogs stomach, and in which there is very little nutrition. It may, for example. be waste-products from dead animals. It can also be a waste from chickens where the beak, feathers and legs are removed. These are crushed, mixed together and cooked to mush, which is mixed up with the rest of the products in the food. There is not much nutritional value in feathers. But they fill the stomach. Finally, there may be added various flavors and colors to make it more "edible". In many countries, there are laws regarding human food, but no similar legislation around animal food. The number of dogs who suffer from various diseases, such as allergies and skin problems, has exploded since we started using industrial dog food. What can we do to avoid the negative effects from industrially produced food? On these pages we would like to praise natural feeding, which builds on the basic principles upon which wolves live in the wild. The dog's digestive system is still structured as if it was a wild animal, and it has not changed over the thousands of years, the dog has been associated with humans. The dog needs an appropriate mix of meat, bones and vegetables. And it must be raw, since nothing in nature is cooked. This approach to feeding dogs (and cats) is called BARF, which stands for Bones And Raw Food. There are several good books written about this feeding method, and if you google the word barf, you will find plenty of information. The subject is large and wide - too big to go into detail here. When you feed your dog naturally, you will see that it has clear bright eyes, shiny fur, and beautiful white teeth, without the ugly yellow tartar deposits. Dogs that used to have bad allergies and fur problems have been completely asymptomatic after switching to a natural diet. And you can switch to a natural diet without problems. There should be no familiarization period to just get started. The puppies can be fed after BARF principle from the moment they begin to eat themselves. Of course, the quantum of food should be match their size. There is no doubt that the dog will have a healthier life with natural food, perhaps even live longer. Lifestyle diseases can be seen not only in humans, but are also among pets, so just start giving your dog a healthier life free from additives and unnatural ingredients. |
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