Have you ever wondered why dog food comes in this huge bag filled with tiny kibbles of compressed unknown ingredients? Much of what goes into dog food is not high-quality in nature. Blood meal, bone meal, and fat frequently come from animal carcasses containing potentially harmful drugs or disease. Is it time to consider something better for your dog’s diet?

Before marketing and advertisers took over the world of big business, what did dog’s eat? We take a look at how dog’s in the wild gain adequate nutrition. A wolf, for example, survives from a kill. The contents of the animals stomach are eaten first. Doing this, the wolf takes in grains and vegetables, as well as, enzymes needed for good nutrition. Next, the wolf devours the meat and some bones. Protein and calcium have now been added to the diet. This natural diet in the wilderness has been effective in maintaining quality health over the years. Unlike the domesticated dogs of today, such animals generally have excellent immune systems.

When your dog’s diet consists primarily of unhealthy animals, can you not assume that your dog will become unhealthy, as well? Today, veterinarians have seen more health problems with dogs than ever before.

The natural raw diet feeds the immune system of your pet. Your dog’s diet will contain natural foods that provide the body what it needs to repair itself and perform at its best.

The raw diet is prepared one time a day. It is not complicated and well worth the time and effort to ensure the excellent health of your dog. Always consult your vet before altering your dog’s diet. The raw dog diet has helped many dog’s combat health issues such as arthritis, skin problems, and weight trouble.

Ingredients of the raw diet include meat, veggies, and grains. Approximately half of the diet is meat. Vegetables, fruit, and grain cover the rest.

When preparing the dog’s diet, feed the dog about the same amount of the raw dog diet as you would kibble. This is a good starting point. From here, you can adjust the diet as necessary to meet your dog’s specific needs.

Contact a local butcher to purchase ground turkey, for example. Each day prepare a bowl of 50% raw ground
Turkey with some wet oats. Juice some vegetables such as carrots and swiss chard and add the juice to the mix.

Juicing the vegetables helps to digest the enzymes for your pet. This is similar to the wolf consuming the contents from a stomach. Your dog’s diet will need a variety of different vegetables daily to maximize the potential for best vitamins and nutrients.

Carrots should always be the base and alter other veggies daily. The carrots will regularly supply potassium, calcium, vitamin A, B, C, D, and E. Greens offer vitamin A, C, and chlorophyll. Apples are good for vitamin C.

Certain veggies have healing properties. Kale, for instance, helps to remedy digestive disorders. Watercress and mustard greens help to cleanse the intestines. Parsley helps the metabolism and thyroid. Celery has numerous advantages. It helps with chemical imbalances, blood flow, and is a natural diuretic. Beets are good for the blood. They offer copper and manganese.

Some foods to avoid include broccoli, cabbage, and turnips. These create intestinal gas. Cucumbers, onions, and potatoes do not digest well in a dog’s diet.

Flaxseed is a fabulous addition to the raw diet to encourage healthy joints and coat. The omega 6 and 3 fatty acids help with such conditions.

The raw diet for your dog can combat several health issues. The natural diet allows your dog to eat what nature intended. You know what foods are in your dog’s diet. The raw diet is high in quality and healthy for your pet.

Over the course of your dog’s lifetime, there may be several occasions when you need to switch your dog’s diet. If is important to know the proper method to change your dog’s diet to ease your pet through the transition.

Many reasons exist that may cause you to feel the need to switch your dog’s diet. A puppy, for example, must change from milk during nursing to dog food. Your adult dog may need to transition to a dog food diet specifically designed for senior dogs. Health reasons may be yet another cause for a switch.

After consulting with your vet about the change to your dog’s diet, you will want to consider all of your options. Upon making the final decision, you will want to make the change gradually and over time. Do not stop feeding one type of diet on Sunday evening and begin a completely new regimen on Monday morning. Such a drastic change will undoubtedly create some serious results.

Switching your dog’s diet too quickly can result in your dog having an upset stomach. Diarrhea is likely to result.

The proper way to switch your dog’s diet takes several days. Over the course of two weeks, gradually reduce the amount of the original diet and slowly increase the food for the new diet. For example, if you typically feed your pet a diet of 3 and 1/2 cups of kibble per day, you will only want to change the diet at the rate of 1/4 cup each day. Keep in mind if you feed your dog’s diet twice daily, divide the amount in half at each feeding.

Day 1 of the switch you would feed your dog 3 and 1/4 cup of the original kibble and 1/4 cup of the new dog diet. This total amount should be portioned between the number of meals during the day. Day 2 you would feed 3 cups of the original diet and 1/2 cup of the new diet. On day number 14, your dog’s diet will have been completely changed over.

This gradual process may seem slow at first, but be assured, it is for the best. A dog’s diet is not like a human’s diet. People vary their diet on a daily basis. Sometimes we stir things up from meal to meal. Your dog’s diet is best when it is consistent. Do not change brands or feeding methods frequently.

Once you find a dog diet that works well to promote the health of your pet, it is best to stick with it. In fact, you should allow several weeks, and preferably months, on a new diet before assessing the results. This is true unless otherwise directed by your vet. Some instances may arise when this is not a plausible plan.

Your vet can best educate you on when and why to switch your dog’s diet. Unless otherwise directed, proper method for changing your dog’s diet takes time. The gradual change will reduce the stress and change to your dog’s system and digestive tract. Whenever a diet is working well for your dog, it is best to leave your dog’s diet alone. Consistency is helpful to maintain your dog’s ultimate health potential.

Early research indicated that higher levels of protein in your dog’s diet would lead to kidney failure. Do you know if your dog’s diet is safe? Are you killing your furry friend by providing too much protein in your dog’s diet?

The studies that showed a relationship to high protein levels and kidney failure that sparked concerns about protein levels in dog’s diets were not sound. The research was performed on rats, not dogs. Rats primarily eat plants as their natural diet. Naturally, rats biological makeup would indicate trouble digesting diets containing high levels of protein. The rats have difficulty excreting protein due to their specific dietary needs, not because the high protein diet causes kidney failure.

Still, where do we stand on protein and your dog’s diet? Dogs are naturally omnivorous. In the wild, dog’s would hunt or scavenge. The dog’s diet would consist of both plants and animals. Naturally speaking, dogs are meat eaters, too. For this reason, a dog can easily tolerate a diet consisting of 30% protein or more.

When protein intake is reduced in a dog’s diet, renal function does not improve. Renal lesions are not less likely to form when a dog is fed with a low-protein diet. It is not until a blood urea nitrogen, or BUN, test indicates a level of 75, that a reduction in protein intake be considered for your dog’s diet.

If you have concerns about the amount of protein in your dog’s diet, schedule an appointment to speak with a professional on the subject. Your trusted vet can advise you on the specifics in regards to your dog’s diet.

It is a myth that dog’s cannot properly digest high levels of protein in their diet. Kidney troubles do not result from high levels of protein in your dog’s diet. Large amounts of protein can be safely digested in your dog’s diet, especially when they come primarily from animal origins.

Ten amino acids must be provided in your dog’s diet through protein. Only twelve of 22 amino acids can be manufactured in your dog’s liver. For this reason, meat such as heart, spleen, and meat by-products all have a place in your dog’s diet.

A high-quality dog food should contain meat as the first ingredient. This will provide the proper amount of protein for your dog’s diet. You know you are on the right track when you turn to nature for advice. Do you ever recall seeing a wild or stray dog happily grazing through the cornfield at mealtime?

Senior dogs should not be automatically placed on lower protein diets exclusively based on age. In fact, some older pets require a dog’s diet higher in protein than during their younger adult stage. Unless medically indicated, provide your pet the benefit of quality protein in your dog’s diet.

Feeding your dog protein should not cause you concern. You want what is best for your dog and nature tells you that protein will help your dog to thrive. If you have questions about the myth of protein and kidney failure in your pet, speak to your vet about your dog’s diet.