Features Of A Balanced Diet For Dogs

2023 Author: Molly Page | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 12:41

The abundance of ready-to-use dog foods presents the owner with the challenge of choosing a diet for their pet. Often, it is not the feeds that enjoy well-deserved authority in the countries of Europe and America that gain popularity, but those that were the first to enter the CIS market or are more advertised, often not even by professionals in cynology or veterinary medicine.

It is very difficult to answer the question of how to choose the right food correctly. On the one hand, there is a huge variety of ready-made feeds of any class, on the other, there is an army of purebred and outbred dogs of different ages, different health conditions, varying degrees of activity and, ultimately, different tastes and habits.

Border collie puppy drags a sandwich from the table, photo photography

According to the classification, ready-made dry food can be divided into 3 large groups:

Top category (Super Premium)

First category (Premium)

Food for supermarkets, grocery stores, etc. (Grocery Utilitarian)

There are significant differences between these three food groups in terms of ingredient content. For example, Super Premium feeds do not contain artificial colors or preservatives, and the by-products that may be included in some feeds of this class always meet the highest quality standards.

It is also interesting to compare the efficiency of different feed classes

Table 1

Characteristics Super Premium Premium grocery Utilitarian Number of food cups per day (250 ml = 100 g) for feeding dogs about 23 kg 2-3 3-4 4-7

Explanations: A higher quality feed corresponds to a higher density of nutrients per unit volume, better quality and digestibility of ingredients and, accordingly, their better absorption by the body. Thus, as the quality of the feed improves, less is required to saturate the dog and maintain optimal health.

Without going into a detailed discussion of the differences in the properties of these three classes of food, we will repeat only a long-tested truth: only the use of Super Premium class food guarantees that your dog receives a 100% balanced diet and does not require additional nutritional supplements. But when choosing a feed, it is not enough to just make sure that the label says "Super Premium". In order to navigate and choose exactly what your dog needs, do not be too lazy to read the list of ingredients on the back or side of the package, be sure to pay attention to the order in which they are indicated (the ingredients are arranged in descending order of their quantity). Consider how the various ingredients contribute to the nutritional value of a feed.

Dogs need a total of 22 different amino acids for normal growth and functioning, which are the building blocks of body proteins. Ten of the total amino acids are essential and cannot be synthesized by monogastric animals such as carnivores. Thus, these amino acids must be supplied to the body from the outside, that is, with food. Comparison of the content of these essential amino acids in proteins of animal and plant origin is shown in Table 2, which shows how much easier it is to compensate for the deficiency of essential amino acids using animal proteins. Comparative analysis of the amino acid content in proteins of various origins.

table 2

Amino acid name Mammal meat Chick A fish Corn Rice Methionine 0.65% 1.2% 1.9% 0.2% 0.17% Cystine 0.35% 1.0% 0.6% 0.18% 0.1% Lysine 2.40% 2.7% 4.7% 0.24% 0.18% Tryptophan 0.29% 0.5% 0.7% 0.09% 0.1% Threonine 1.7% 2.0% 2.8% 0.26% 0.2% Arginine 3.5% 4.0% 3.6% 0.36% 0.36%