Trupanion Offers Health Care Information About Dog Food

There are many dog food formulations out there, ranging from inexpensive grocery-brands to expensive premium food. You should find out what suits your dog best: while many dogs have done just fine on dog chow, others do much better with other foods such as Nature's Recipe, Iams, Pro-Plan, etc.

The theory behind the more expensive foods is that they are more digestible and contain less "bulk" and "fill." Hence, your dog will eat less in volume (and thus the extra cost of the food is somewhat offset) and excrete small and firm stools. You may need to experiment to find out how your dog does on different brands. Dogs vary in their individual reactions.

Food should be fed once or twice a day. Put the food down and take it up again after ten to twenty minutes regardless of whether your dog has finished eating it. This discourages "picky eating" and lets you be certain of exactly how much food your dog is eating. Frequently, a problem is first indicated when your dog's feeding goes off, so scheduled feeding like this (rather than free feeding) will tip you off to potential problems right away.

The larger or younger your dog is, the better multiple daily feedings are; simply divide up each day's portion into individual feedings. Fresh water should always be available, and changed at least once a day.

Vegetables
Many dogs appreciate vegetables. In particular if your dog is fond of munching on the grass, you can often alleviate this by feeding vegetables to your dog. Stick with fresh, raw foods: carrots, broccoli and cauliflower stems, apple cores, etc are popular. Stay away from potatoes and onions.

People food
Feeding your dog "people food," i.e., table scraps and such is a poor idea. First, you may encourage your dog to make a pest of itself when you are eating. Second, feeding a dog table scraps is likely to result in an overweight dog. Third, if your dog develops the habit of gulping down any food it can get, it may seriously poison or distress itself someday.

Eating problems: gulping, etc.
For a dog that gulps the food down so rapidly that gas is a result, you can slow down the rate of eating by putting large, clean rocks (3-4" diameter) in the dish along with the food.

Home Cooking Food
Cooking food for one's own dog is a trend that is increasingly popular. It is controversial, with some adherents claiming every kind of benefit possible and detractors pointing out problems. Whatever position one takes on this concept, it's clear that for the dog owner who wishes to proceed with, thorough research must be done. Tracy Landauer has kindly supplied a good overview. Please note that improper attention to the nutritional requirements of your dog will make him quite sick. This is not something to undertake lightly or on a whim:

For anyone considering switching over to a raw diet, do your homework first; don't just jump in blindly.

All of the books below should be available at either Amazon.com or Direct Book Services. Most folks start with the Pitcairn book. The first Billinghurst book spawned the unfortunate acronym, BARF (Bones And Raw Foods). Kymythy's book is also very easy to comprehend and use - she even includes charts and blank grocery lists. Goldstein's book is an excellent read.

• Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats, by Dr. Richard Pitcairn, DVM
• The Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog, by Wendy Volhard
• Reigning Cats and Dogs, by Pat McKay
• Give Your Dog a Bone, by Ian Billinghurst (Australian vet)
• Grow Your Pups on Bones, Billinghurst
• The Natural Remedybook for Cats and Dogs, by Diane Stein
• The Complete Herbal Handbook for Dogs and Cats, by Juliette de Baircli Levy
• The Ultimate Diet, by Kymythy Schultze
• The Nature of Animal Healing, by Martin Goldstein, DVM

Wellpet is an email listserv dedicated to natural pet care and diets; warning, it's a high-traffic list, but for starters, their web site has a lot of the basics and great FAQs. Their web site would be the best place to get basic info about feeding raw and why. It's an inexact science, be warned. Subscription info there too. See http://www.wellpet.org/subscribe.htm.

There's also a discussion group on OneList called rawdiets, and another email list called K9 Cuisine.