Ask Dr.Linh
D: Introduction ...
D: How important is a dog's nutrition?
L: Nutrients are the components found in foods that are essential for the body's metabolism. There are nutrients the body can synthesize and not synthesize itself. For example, dogs can synthesize vitamin C in their liver by themselves, so there's no need to add vitamin C to their diet. However, many other minerals and proteins cannot be synthesized and added to food. Thus, a reasonable diet is a diet with balanced nutrition, sufficient, no excess, and no shortage.
There are 6 main types of nutrients: water, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, and vitamins. Each class has a different function in the body.
Water is an essential component of your dog's body, which promotes healthy digestion and metabolism, in addition to helping regulate body temperature. Maintaining the right amount of water the puppy needs is mandatory.
Protein is a crucial component in the process of forming, regenerating, and nourishing cells and forming muscle mass in the body. Dogs cannot store protein, so they need a source of protein from their daily diet. Dogs cannot produce essential amino acids on their own, so food supplements are necessary. Proteins provide energy for the body to function when there is not enough carbohydrate and fat. It helps to support the growth of tissue, muscle, ligaments, cartilage, skin, and hair. Participate in the process of making hormones, neurotransmitters, antibodies, and enzymes for the daily activities of the body.
Fat provides the dog with the most energy with twice as many calories as protein and carbohydrates. Fatty acids are essential: omega-3, omega-6 helps to absorb fat-soluble vitamins, promoting a healthy nervous system.
Vitamins help the dog's body grow and function normally. Dogs can store fat-soluble vitamins and use them gradually, but they need to continuously supplied with vitamins in the water through the diet.
Essential minerals help support the growth and maintenance of dog organs (life support). Several crucial minerals, including calcium and phosphorus, help with bone growth, blood clotting, and muscle development as well as nerve functions.
Dogs can synthesize glucose from fat and protein in their diet, and carbohydrates are the only nutrient not necessary for dogs.
Nutrition is an essential factor in the development of a pet. A wrong diet will lead to various diseases like malnutrition and obesity. Providing inadequate food for pets, especially in the early stages, will significantly affect the development of the skeletal muscle system as well as development. In the opposite direction, providing too much nutrition leads to obesity causing many types of cardiovascular disease, cough due to organ compression ... This is especially serious for older pets. Therefore, a balanced diet will bring the best health for your baby.
D: What is a sensible diet for dogs?
L: A reasonable diet means ensuring adequate nutrition for animals at that time, without excess and deficiency. To do that, we have to build a diet based on the following points:
Firstly, depending on the variety, we have different diet choices. For example, there are tiny body breeds like the Phot squirrel, the diet, the amount of food that can not be as much as the big breeds like Golden Dog or Beagle.
Second, Depending on the stage of development, we have different diets such as 8-week-old puppies need to eat 4 meals per day. When it is 3 months of age should eat 3 meals per day, 6 months of age eat 2 meals per day. Diet and diet for puppies aged 3 to 7 months are the most important because this is a period of rapid bone and puppy growth. Until 1 year of age, just give him a light breakfast and a full meal in the afternoon.
From 1 to 3 months of age: This stage, puppies are not yet fully developed, so you need to pay attention to the food lines that are good for the digestive system such as calcium, protein, vitamins, eggs, milk, meat…
The period after 6 months of age: At this stage, you need to supplement foods rich in calcium and protein to enhance the growth of muscles and bones. As well as promoting weight growth, height as the dog begins to enter the adult segment.
Pregnancy stage. This period is when the dog needs the most nutrients to be able to develop and nurture the fetus.
Postpartum period: This is the period when a dog recuperates and breastfeed. Then the mother dog needs to be provided with foods rich in phosphorus, iron or vitamins, calcium ...
Thus, depending on the specific characteristics of each animal, we have a sensible diet that provides adequate nutrition for each animal. Besides, we should see the puppies as friends, then we will understand what their body is like, what they want, and from that, we can take better care of it.
D: What are some nutritious dog food?
L: Currently, there are many foods to compliment the well-developed dog. In particular, they are sub-divided into 2 types of food. That is:
Dry food for dogs: Dry food contains full of nutritional ingredients such as cereals, meat, vitamins, and other meat products (eggs, milk) ... This type of food is not highly commended for its quality and quantity. It also saves you time, no need to prepare your dog food. This food line is usually produced and processed according to the stage and age of the dog. Therefore, you absolutely can choose the right product.
Fresh dog food includes fresh foods such as pork, beef, chicken, fish, vegetables, fruits, etc., which are processed appropriately. These are all nutritious, fresh foods, so when properly prepared will be very good with the comprehensive development of dogs.
Each type of food will have different advantages and disadvantages. E.g.:
Dog dishes made from fresh food will be diverse, nutritious, safe, easy to absorb, and digest better. However, for each age and physical condition of each dog, you must have a diet suitable for them. And if you are a busy person, it will take time to prepare a meal for your pet. To adjust the diet appropriately, you should give the dog a try first for the first few weeks, then track the development, weight gain, body condition of your dog. From there, we can give a balanced diet for them.
For dry food, the most outstanding advantage is time-saving. Besides, a unique feature that many people prefer to use dry food because it helps the waste of the dogs to be moulded, very easy to clean. However, the use of dry food also has some unavoidable disadvantages. Firstly, because it is dry food, the nutrient content is relatively limited in fibre, making it difficult for the dog to have indigestion, affecting development. Therefore, you should supplement fibre by feeding dogs more vegetables, tubers, fruits, ... to ensure the best health for dogs. At the same time, the cost of some high-class foods is relatively high, to provide enough daily food for dogs, the money is relatively expensive.
Thus, if you can harmonize these two foods, taking care of your pet will be more comfortable and your dog will be happier.