Regarding what
type of food to feed, ask the breeder or your veterinarian for advice and have the
recommended food on hand. Remember that
quality dog foods often cost more than bargain brands because of their
higher-quality ingredients, but that the priciest dog food is not necessarily
the best. Some dog foods are expensive
only because they are very heavily advertised on television. It might pay to check the ratings of an
independent review such as those published regularly in Whole Dog Journal. Whole Dog recommends that you look for a
food that lists specific meats (“lamb,” or “lamb meal,” not “meat,” or “meat
by-products,” for example) in the first five ingredients, with a wider variety
of meat being preferable than one or two.
The dog food should be formulated to meet AAFCO nutritional
guidelines.
The
poorest-quality dog foods and treats contain many fillers derived from grains
and will even contain sugar(s) to make the food palatable enough that your dog
will actually eat it. Dogs certainly don’t
need sugar, since it’s fattening and bad for their teeth. Your
Dog, another journal, recommends that you check the freshness date on each
bag of kibble before purchase. The
fresher the food is, the better, but do not purchase kibble more than six
months old. If you open the bag, and the
kibble looks funny or smells rancid, or if a dog used to that particular brand
won’t eat it, return the bag or throw it out.
Feeding dogs a raw
diet or a home-prepared diet seem to be increasingly popular options, but you
should not try this without careful research and consulting with your
veterinarian. Care needs to be taken
that any dog not eating commercially-prepared food obtains a complete and balanced
diet. There is also a health risk of
diseases such as salmonella to the humans in your household if you fail to
prepare and handle raw foods appropriately.
According to M. Christine Zink, DVM, PhD, there is also an increased
risk of the dogs contracting salmonella themselves and of passing it along to
humans in their stools.
Ask your breeder
or veterinarian what is recommended for chew-toys or bones while you are asking
about the food. Opinions on what is
desirable and safe vary tremendously. There is general agreement that dogs need chew-toys. This is especially true of teething puppies
and of dogs that are stressed, and the move to a new home is stressful! I
particularly like a type of sturdy rubber toy called a Kong that can be stuffed
with goodies for your dog or puppy to lick and chew out. Be very careful when choosing bones: certain types of cooked bones, such as
chicken bones, splinter easily and can easily kill a dog! I avoid any cooked bones completely for fear
of the dog chewing too hard a surface and splintering teeth or ingesting
splintered bone (I avoid cow-hooves for the same reason). I do not feed pigs’ ears because they are too
high in fat, although dogs love them for this very reason.
There is variety
of advice on using raw-hides. Keep in
mind that raw-hides are a choking hazard and can cause a blockage of the
intestines if chewed off in large chunks.
Supervise carefully whenever your dog has chew-toys, and keep rawhides
away (especially any small chunks!) from the more aggressive chewers. Rawhides can also adversely affect your dog’s
appetite, because dogs swallow them like food, but they are not nearly as
digestible. A dog that fills up on
rawhide may lose interest in more nutritious fare. Rawhides also carry a risk of transmission of
salmonella, so always wash your hands carefully after handling them. If you give rawhides, look for the thickest
ones you can find. They should be rather
manila in color, because white ones (and some flavored or colored ones) are
generally bleached. Also look for
rawhides made in the U.S.A. The United States has more stringent
standards for processing cattle than most foreign countries, so rawhides
processed in the U.S.
are less likely to contain some types of chemical or bacterial dangers to your
dog.
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