Feeding a dog is a matter to which we must pay special attention. His health, his well-being, his growth and his energy depend on it. Precisely because of the importance that its diet has in its development, deciding how we are going to feed the dog is a decision that we should not take lightly.
There are many ways to feed the dog. For example, offer natural homemade food or BARF diet, based on raw foods. Now, if we are going to opt for any of these methodologies, it is imperative that we have certain knowledge and make sure to meet the nutritional needs of the animal.
The feed continues to be the majority choice by dog ??tutors. It is more economical, practical, comfortable, easy to buy and offer to the animal, it does not expire… But the variety of feed on the market is overwhelming and choosing the right one is not an easy task either. Their compositions are very different and we can find very low quality feed, which has a negative impact on the health of our four-legged best friend. For this reason, we must take into account a series of keys to know how to recognize a good quality feed.
We tend to believe that price is an indicator of quality, but this is only true up to a point. It is true that if the food is too cheap, it is most likely to be of poor quality. However, there are also brands with high prices whose quality leaves much to be desired.
Consequently, the best way to recognize the quality of a feed is to look at its list of ingredients. These will always appear in order of quantity, as this is stipulated by law. That is, the ingredient with the greatest presence in the feed will appear first on the list and so on.
In this list of ingredients, protein is the most important factor. It is best to indicate “meat from” followed by an animal, generally chicken, turkey, veal, beef, lamb, salmon… The percentage of protein should occupy between 20% and 40% of the total ingredients.
If, on the contrary, we read among the ingredients “flour” or “flavor of” followed by an animal, this is an indication of poor quality, since there is no good meat as such, but are animal remains with very little value. nutritional or only additives. If the proteins are specified as a by-product or don’t specify what animal they come from, be wary.
Other indications of good quality are that fruits and vegetables appear in the list of ingredients, as well as vitamins and minerals. As for grains, prevent cereals with gluten and preservatives and additives from appearing at the top of the list of ingredients, since it is common for them to be included in abundance to reduce costs and this does not report any benefit to the dog.
