Feeding your pet

Part two - the adult dog.

In the last issue we discussed the importance of correct balanced feeding for your puppy. As your boisterous pup matures it has to be said that feeding should become a lot easier. Most vets would recommend using a good
reputable food, pre-prepared, balanced and nutritious. Most of the foods available are perfectly good for most adult dogs and the choice is often down to cost and convenience. I have deliberately not included wether your
dog “likes” the food. This may seem odd as we, like most vets have many of our patients who are quite fussy eaters. However, most of these animals will eat if hungry.

Like many aspects of our pet’s behaviour it is worth thinking of how they behave in the wild. Wild dogs, wolves or foxes are all hunter/scavengers. The strong acid in a dog’s stomach means they can digest most meat, however old. If they hunt, it is likely they will only eat about once every 3 days. Contrast this with our cosseted canines who are fed twice a day and more if you include treats or left-overs.

Getting a dog to accept one particular food starts with the puppy who can be trained to accept this food quite early on. There is currently a bit of debate within the dog owning world as to the importance of diet, with some people feeling that the dogs should be fed on raw meaty bones only as this most closely resembles the natural diet. All sorts of claims are made for this regime. Most of which can not be tested. It would be fair to say that most vets disagree with this diet. It may be close to the natural regime, but it is not exact (one would have to include
skin and intestinal contents) and has problems such as the risk of infections on the raw meat and the risk of fractured teeth or an impacted bowel from the bones themselves. It also cannot be ingnored that modern dog foods, especially the dried variety are very convenient and nave little
mess.

One aspect that the bones and dried food have in common is the impact on dogs teeth. Dental  disease is as common in dogs as people and, apart from regular brushing, the best way to avoid this is to feed a dried, biscuit diet. The biscuits do not clean the teeth, they just don’t get them as dirty.