If you have a puppy that has already been weaned from the mother or there is little time left to do so, it is time to start looking for a good diet for your puppy. What contains all the nutrients you need to grow healthy and strong.
There are many brands of food for puppies and most of them claim to be premium or super premium, however they are simply advertising campaigns to confuse consumers, us.
That is why from Dogsis we are going to explain everything you need to know about feeding your puppy and what are the best feed brands in the world. Are you ready to invest ten minutes of your time to inform yourself to improve the quality of life of your puppy?
Index of contents
- 1 1º Do not believe the manufacturers of food for puppies, the brands lie
- 1.1 The Fresh Meat Trick Puppy Feed Makers Use
- 2 2º Select the most suitable feed for your puppy, not for you
- 3 3º Use the best feed for puppies with common sense
1º Do not believe the manufacturers of food for puppies, the brands lie
Since the beginning of this website we have been insisting on how important it is that we get involved a bit with the feeding of our dog or in this case puppy. Feed brands spend millions on deceptive marketing that will make us believe that a feed is good when in fact it is not.
It is extremely important that we know how to differentiate for ourselves between a high quality feed and a low quality feed. Maybe you think they are all the same and they serve to feed your dog … if so, you are really wrong.
We must always look at the ingredient label of the food for our puppy, the law requires manufacturers to publish the ingredients in descending order. So the first ingredient is always (or almost always) the one with the highest quantity.
Dogs are carnivores by nature, it is not what we say … it is that their jaws are designed to eat meat. Furthermore, your digestive system is designed to process meat products. Do you need more proof?
That is why it is essential that the main feed ingredient for our puppy is meat. In Spain it is called I think commercial food for puppies, in Mexico Balanced or Croquettes….
The other ingredients may be a compound of healthy fruits for dogs, vegetables and nutritional supplements that simulate the content of the prey that a wolf (origin of the dog) would eat. That is, they are carnivores but they also eat small amounts of vegetables.
Over the years the dog has adapted to eat the leftovers of humans, so that they tolerate small amounts of carbohydrates present in tubers, legumes or cereals. Although beware, not all are nutritious.
So the first thing we must do when buying high-quality puppy food is to look at the label and make sure that the first ingredient or ingredients are meat, being the best meats:
- Fresh meat (avoiding meat by-products or derivatives)
- Dehydrated meat (avoiding meat by-products or derivatives)
You may also find meat meal (meat meals), meat derivatives, meat by-products, etc … We must avoid all these ingredients since they are of very low quality. We should always keep fresh or dehydrated meat.
All the ingredients of commercial puppy food go through a process of stripping, it is the process in which the ingredients become the well-known kibble that we find inside the bags of puppy food.
It is important to know that the best process for meat products is hydrolyzate, because it separates the molecules from the meat, making them more digestible and nutritious for dogs.
It should be noted that hydrolyzate is also the most expensive process, economically speaking, that a manufacturer can perform to improve its products. That is why not all brands use hydrolyzate, because they prefer to reduce costs in manufacturing by offering inferior quality products.
The Fresh Meat Trick Puppy Feed Makers Use
We live in a world where the only thing that matters to companies is sales, that is why they use and will use any legal trick at their disposal that may confuse consumers by believing that their product is the best. that’s why choosing the best puppy food is not an easy task.
In this case we are talking about fresh meats introduced into puppy food. Many manufacturers indicate that their feed contains a high percentage of meat, but when we look at the label we only see something like “fresh meat XX%”.
What they do not specify is that the feed does not come fresh, but with pellets or dry kibble. So the meat that they say is fresh comes to us dehydrated, dry. Approximately 75% of fresh meat is water, being generous actually.
So if a manufacturer says that his feed is made up of 80% fresh meat, in reality his product is equivalent to approximately 21% dehydrated meat. Can you see the trap? He made you think that you are buying something that contains 80% meat, when in fact you are buying something that contains approximately 21% meat.
Another factor to take into account is that when they say “fresh meat” they do not specify if that meat has been frozen for 20 years … since frozen meat is also considered fresh meat.
Let’s move on to a practical example:
Acana Puppy & Junior: Fresh boneless chicken (16%), dehydrated chicken (13%), dehydrated turkey (13%), fresh chicken giblets (liver, heart, kidney) (6%), fresh whole sole (4%), dehydrated Atlantic herring (3%): Total fresh meat: 29% Total dehydrated meat: 26%. If we remove water from fresh meat, we have a total of approximately 7%, which added to 26% of dehydrated products gives us a total of: 33% of real dehydrated meat approximately.
NFNatcane Puppy Gourmet: Minimum 40% hydrolyzate of various meats (lamb, turkey and chicken meat), hydrolyzed salmon: They use a minimum of 40% hydrolyzed meat (already dehydrated) and they also add salmon (we do not know the quantity) so we gives a total of: Over 40% real dehydrated meat And last but not least, it is also hydrolyzed, that is, it has gone through the best commercial puppy food manufacturing process available.
That is why it is vital to know how the world of dog food works, the best food for a puppy is not the most expensive or the one that advertises the most, but the one that contains the best ingredients to feed our puppy.
2º Select the most suitable feed for your puppy, not for you
When choosing the food for our puppy, we must choose the best feed for puppies in value for money, completely forgetting the advertising and photos of the feed sacks.
Do not think that the feed that they sell at Mercadona or in other shopping centers is the best feed for puppies, because surely the perfect excuse to buy it is its low price, but products with such low prices are also super low quality products. Look at its ingredi
ents.
Perhaps it is cheaper to buy a feed of this kind for your dog, but in the medium and long term this poor diet will cause health problems and allergies to your dog that will lead to a lot of veterinary expenses and medicines. Are you sure you save buying a low quality feed?
Remember that depending on the breed and size of your puppy you must choose the best feed for puppies of its size, that is, if you have a small breed puppy you must choose a feed for small breed puppies, because the size of the kibble will be more small, adapted for your little mouth.
On the other hand, if you have a large breed dog, you should look for a good feed for large breed puppies, since they contain more special calcium for rapid bone development and the size of the kibble is adapted to prevent choking.
Remember that the best puppy food in the world is not the most expensive or the one that is most advertised, but the one that offers the best ingredients in its products. Do not be fooled. Always choose a puppy feed for your puppy, as adult dog food contains less calcium and nutrients necessary for development.
3º Use the best feed for puppies with common sense
That’s right, brands of puppy food can give you indications of how much feed you should give your puppy on a daily basis. But your common sense is more important than these indications.
As a base you must follow them, offering your puppy the recommended daily amount divided into three or four feedings. That’s right, puppies need to eat three or four times a day. But if you appreciate that your puppy is fattening or losing weight, use your head.
Some dogs have a lot of physical activity a day and others little, some are more nervous and others calmer, so some spend more calories a day than others. You must monitor the weight of your dog, and if it gets fat, decrease the daily ration. If you lose weight, increase it.
It is common sense right? Well, you can not imagine the number of people who do not use it. Enjoy a puppy and above all, feed it with quality products, because with this you will be investing in its quality of life and its health.