Get to know your dog better
While picking food for your pet, consider their breed, age, activity and allergies, if known. Most commercial brands have food options for different age groups and breeds. If you have a young dog, you could choose from puppy food among the options laid out for your dog’s specific breed.
Puppies and younger dogs usually need more calories than older ones. Lactating mothers need more calories as well, so switch the food quantity and quality up accordingly. For specific quantities, it’s best to speak to a vet so your dog gains weight in a healthy way and gets stronger as they grow.
For many of us, an important filter could be affordability. Here’s a quick breakup of dog food brands in India.
Affordable: Pedigree, Drools, and Purepet
Mid range: Royal Canin and Famina N&D
Higher end: Acana, Arden Grange, and Orijen
Find the nutritional balance
Now that you’re a pet parent, it’s time to start looking at the food you give your dog for its nutritional value. There are many schools of thought when it comes to feeding a pet. Briefly, here are a few of them:
• Commercial diet: This is made of majorly packaged food options that are ready to serve for your pet. You’ll find a range of wet food, dry food, treats, and chews that make life very easy for a pet parent. A lot of commercial food options work well because they pack a lot of nutrients in a single packet. While you choose, however, try to find an option that isn’t too high on preservatives.
• Fresh home cooked meal: A large community of parents prefer feeding their pets meals that are cooked fresh. While it feeds dogs natural, preservative-free food, it may be time consuming for many to prepare each meal for their pet. The food we cook at home for humans may not always work for dogs, so it’s important to consult your vet about best practices while choosing this diet for your mutt.
• B.A.R.F diets: BARF stands for Bones and Raw Food, which is a protein heavy diet with meats, bones, and uncooked vegetables. This is meant to make dogs muscular. While it makes for a good option, our vets at Supertails advise to opt for this only under professional supervision. Since the diet is low on carbohydrates and fats, dogs on BARF diets can become deficient in micronutrients. Moreover, because of raw meat, there are frequent cases of infection and stomach issues that arise from ingesting parasites that would’ve been killed if the meat was cooked.