What is Colostrum?

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What is Colostrum?

No matter how close a puppy’s formula resembles the mother's milk, there is one ingredient that the dog owner cannot provide his puppy. This formula is the colostrum. Colostrum is found in the first few days of the mother's milk and protects her puppies from disease while their tiny bodies are learning to protect themselves.

There is no substitute for colostrum. Whenever possible, every newborn puppy should nurse a newly freshened female dog, even if she is not the puppy's own mother, for at least the first 24 hours of the puppy’s life. The losses among hand-fed puppies that fail to get colostrum during that first 24 hours are incredibly higher than among those that do. On the other hand, even colostrum cannot protect newborn puppies against the more dangerous bacteria. Also, colostrum cannot protect the puppy against overwhelming numbers of the less dangerous ones, such as numbers that come with unclean utensils and feeding equipment. When colostrum-filled milk is not available, the necessity for cleanliness and proper handling of all items used to house and feed the newborn puppies is increased ten-fold.

Puppy Feeding Program

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Puppy Feeding Program

The best time to determine the proper feeding programs for your pet is during puppy hood. Meanwhile, the average time for the dog owner to assume the responsibility of feeding a dog is at weaning. Sometimes, this task begins at birth or shortly right after. In some unfortunate circumstances where a puppy is orphaned, or in situations where the mother whelps so many puppies that she cannot feed them all, the dog owner may have to begin his feeding chores while the puppy is still only hours old.

Bur whether the puppy is five hours, five weeks or five months old, there are three basic feeding steps that are essential in any puppy feeding program. The first step is to weigh each puppy. A record of his weight and the date it was taken should be kept on a separate record for each one. The second step is to determine the type of diet to give to the puppy. This will depend on the stage of growth the puppy has attained. The third and final step in puppy feeding is to determine the quantity of food needed to start the program. This will depend on the age of the puppy, his weigh, and the caloric density of the food.

Setting Good Eating Habits

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Setting Good Eating Habits

A dog's eating habits are controlled by three things: its brain, its experiences, and its environment. The very first experiment in behavioral psychology was done by a scientist named Pavlov who taught dogs to get ready to eat when they heard a certain sound. Since that initial experiment, scientists have observed over and over how important the things happening around, and to, a dog are when it comes to affecting the dog's eating habits.

Once, when dogs were wild, most of their daily activity was devoted to obtaining a meal. While the need for this activity has practically disappeared, mealtime still constitutes one of the most important events in a dog's life. And, many of a dog's behavioral responses are still linked to its eating routine.

Today's dogs have become creatures of habit. They thrive on monotony and are most comfortable when things remain the same. Few dogs appreciate a sudden change in their sleeping quarters or the surprise of a new food in their bowl. The more that can be done to prevent change in a dog's feeding program, the better it will be for both the dog and its owner. Regularity in feeding promotes good appetite, good digestion and regular eliminations. Therefore, the first general consideration to be made when feeding any dog should be the establishment of a regular feeding schedule and should stay that way without being altered.

Puppies have conventionally been fed small portions of their daily diet at frequent intervals during the day. The rationalization behind this is sound, but the frequency of feedings often is too high. Even newborn puppies do quite well when fed only four times daily. Some breeders even reduce this to three times daily, but unless your schedule absolutely prohibits it, a minimum of four feedings should be the limit. The feedings need not be separated exactly six hours apart, but it is desirable to space the feedings as evenly as possible throughout the 24-hour time period. For example, my own schedule usually works out best when I feed around 7:00 A.M., 12:00 Noon, 6:00 P.M., and 1:00 P.M. Yours may be different.

The frequency of feedings should not be reduced to three a day until the puppies are weaned. Whether you are feeding newborn puppies four times daily, or older puppies three times, once the pattern of feedings has been set, it should not be changed, but should occur at the same time every day.

How To Feed The “Outdoor Dog”

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How To Feed The “Outdoor Dog”

The dog that is kept outdoors all of the time, or an exclusive diet of dry food, does not need to be restricted to portion control feeding. These dogs will do quite well when self-fed. One precaution should be pointed out about outdoor pets that are put on self-feeding programs. If they have not been eating dry food, their water consumption will jump considerably when they begin to eat it. A special effort should be made to keep plenty of cool, fresh water before these dogs at all times.

Outdoor dogs require even more water during the summer because a dog's body-cooling processes that depend on water. When outdoor pets are individually fed they can be fed by either ad libitum or portion control. The feeding location should be under some kind of shelter. This will keep the direct sunlight, dust, and dirt to a minimum.

Outdoor feeding locations should also be located away from garbage cans. A back porch, back steps, or corner of the garage may be convenient, but if there are garbage cans nearby such places are unsuitable as dog feeding locations. First, such places allow flies of all descriptions to contaminate the food. Flies are not particularly objectionable to a dog. Most outdoor dogs go through life snapping up and swallowing a fly now and then. Ordinarily this is no cause for alarm, but around garbage cans flies become so numerous in a dog's food that they constitute a disease danger.

With dogs that are fed outdoors, it is of particular importance to pick up any food remaining uneaten after 20 or 30 minutes. Food served at room temperature, then allowed to stand outdoors, quickly warms to temperatures at which contaminating bacteria rapidly multiply. Most dogs do not find the odor of over-ripe dog food unpleasant. Many, in fact, consider the smell quite desirable. The toxins and other waste products produced by bacteria, at the same time they are creating that smell, may have a distinctly detrimental effect on the dog.

There is perhaps more important reason for feeding an outdoor house-pet at the same time and place every day and allowing the food to remain before the dog only 20 or 30 minutes. It is to train your dog to eat only at that time and at that place. lf the dog does not, it learns quickly that it must wait until the next feeding before it gets anything more to eat. Your dog will soon become accustomed to eating at only a specified time, and will come to the specified place every day around that time anticipating its food.

How To Change A Dog's Diet

How To Change A Dog's Diet

There are five basic steps when it comes to changing your dog's diet. They are as follows:

Step 1: lf a dog is in a new environment, has a new owner, or is being required to undergo some other emotional or physical strain, food changes should be postponed until the stress has been eliminated or the dog has adapted to it. With changes in ownership, the diet fed by the previous owner should be obtained if at all possible and fed until the dog becomes accustomed to its new surroundings.

Step 2: Once the dog is in a proper emotional state to accept a dietary change it should be accomplished without delay. Start by substituting 25 percent of the old food with new food. Mix the two thoroughly making every attempt to conceal the new food within the old. This mixture should be fed until the dog eats the mixture with the same relish that it ate its previous food. For some dogs this may be the first time the mixture is fed; for others it may take several days or even weeks. Don't hurry the procedure. After all, the dog may have had 24 months to get accustomed to its old diet. Don't expect it to change all of that in just 24 hours. Once the dog is eating the 25:75 mixture as well as it did its previous food, proceed to step three

Step 3: During the third step, 50 percent of the old food is replaced by new food and slightly less effort is made to conceal it within the old food. Again, when the dog is eating the 50:50 mixture with the same gusto it did its previous food, proceed to step four.

Step 4: Now 75 percent of the new food is present in the mixture being fed, and little if any effort is made to conceal the new food except to mix it evenly with the ordinal food. By now, most dogs will readily accept the increased mixture the first time it is fed. If the dog accepted the 50:50 mixture at the first feeding, step four can be eliminated and you can proceed directly to step five.

Step 5: This is the final step, the one in which all of the old food is eliminated from the dog's diet. One hundred percent of the new food is fed from then on. For some dogs this procedure may take only three days and require only steps two, three and five. For others it may take longer and must progress through each step separately. Do not become discouraged. With dogs, food likes and dislikes are mostly learned from previous experiences. Changing a food is a process of unlearning and relearning, and such things cannot be hurried.
The third general consideration that should be made by all dog feeders any time they feed a dog has more to do with human behavior than it does with a dog's.

Determining The Amount Of Dog Food Needed For Your Dog

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Determining The Amount Of Dog Food Needed For Your Dog

The pet dog has the same nutritional needs as any other dog. The only difference is the reduced number of calories it uses because of the type of life a dog leads as a household pet. The house dog living exclusively indoors is probably one of the least active animals in the world. More inactive, even, than its owner.

Most of a house dog's time is spent sleeping. Its greatest effort, in many instances, consists of a 10-foot walk from the back door three times a day for eliminations, and a 10-foot walk from the family room couch to its food bowl in the kitchen. As a consequence the house dog is the most overfed and suffers from the greatest overweight problems of all the house-pets.

The dog that spends most of its daylight activities outdoors, but comes in at night, has a higher energy need than the pet kept indoors constantly. Not only does it get more exercise, but it requires extra energy to maintain its body temperature during cooler weather outdoors. Even with such additional requirements it is not uncommon to find indoor/outdoor pets that are fed too much and are borderline overweights.

The dog that stays outdoors all of the time is the pet least likely to develop obesity. As an outdoor dog it enjoys the same, or more exercise as the indoors/outdoors dog. In addition, outdoor dogs have a considerably increased need for energy to maintain body heat.

This need for extra energy for body heat becomes especially high at night and in colder weather. In fact, there are occasional instances where outdoor dogs, when improperly fed, begin to appear just like the undernourished farm hounds of a past era of dog feeding.

Calculation: The quantity of food a house dog needs is determined by the same things that determine the amount of food any other dog eat, which is its optimum body weight and the caloric density of the food it eats. The amount is calculated in the same manner as for other dogs. Determine the number of calories a dog needs daily to maintain its optimum weight. Then divide that number by the number of calories in a pound of food you are feeding. The results will be the quantity of food you should feed, measured in pounds.

Diarrhea Associated With Changing Your Dog's Diet

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Diarrhea Associated With Changing Your Dog's Diet

In some dogs it is not unusual to notice a mild diarrhea following a change in food. This is particularly true in younger animals. In most instances it persists only until the dog's intestinal tract adjusts to the new food. In rare instances the diarrhea resulting from a change in diet lasts longer and may precipitate more serious forms of diarrhea.

To prevent diarrhea from developing during a dietary change, make the change gradually. A gradual change allows the intestinal tract to make a slow transition from the ingredients and physical characteristics of one food to those of the other.

Should diarrhea develop despite the precautions taken, reduce the amount of food being fed by one-half for a day or two. If this fails to correct the upset stomach then return to feeding the old food until the stool is normal again. Should the addition of the new food a second time also precipitate diarrhea, it is probable that the new food does not agree with your dog. If a third food is available it may be best to try an alternative method rather than to continue to subject your dog to a food that fails to agree with it.

2 Important Dog Feeding Tips If You Have Two Or More Dogs

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2 Important Dog Feeding Tips If You Have Two Or More Dogs


Tip 1: Uneaten food should not be left around for more than 30 minutes. lf you feed only one or two dogs, removing the uneaten food within 30 minutes should offer no problem. You should begin to pick up the food containers just as soon as you have completed feeding the last dog. Pick up the feeding containers in the same order that they were put down. Don't get in such a hurry to get them, however, that you forget to record each dog's food intake.

Tip 2: Dogs should have regular elimination times. Dogs that are kept in relatively close confinement should be taken out for eliminations immediately after feeding. This will establish a regular pattern. Such a pattern promotes regular eliminations, stimulates better digestion, and increases food utilization. Perhaps equally important from the multiple dog owner's viewpoint is the fact that a regular elimination time allows you to keep your dog well-trained to know when it is time to go, and without having accidents inside.

Too Much Dog Food Can Be A Bad Thing

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Too Much Dog Food Can Be A Bad Thing

A common cause of disease of excess food is the unwise use of vitamin and mineral supplements. A dog's cells use most vitamins and minerals at only so fast a rate. Once the cells are using them at the maximum rate, the cells cannot use these Vitamins or minerals any faster, regardless of how much of them is
present.

Any excesses due to too much in the diet will either accumulate in the body or will be excreted by some organ. If the excess nutrients build up so rapidly that the organ cannot keep up, the same substances that are vital in small amounts, may become deadly in excess amounts.

A dog does not eat to meet its need for vitamins, minerals, protein, or any other nutrient. It eats to meet its need for calories. If too much vitamins, minerals or protein are fed in relation to the number of calories in a diet, the dog will consume an excess of these nutrients. If too little is fed, the dog will develop a deficiency, yet will not seek out more of the deficient nutrient as long as its energy requirements are being met.

Diarrhea Associated With Changing Your Dog's Diet

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Diarrhea Associated With Changing Your Dog's Diet

In some dogs it is not unusual to notice a mild diarrhea following a change in food. This is particularly true in younger animals. In most instances it persists only until the dog's intestinal tract adjusts to the new food. In rare instances the diarrhea resulting from a change in diet lasts longer and may precipitate more serious forms of diarrhea.

To prevent diarrhea from developing during a dietary change, make the change gradually. A gradual change allows the intestinal tract to make a slow transition from the ingredients and physical characteristics of one food to those of the other.

Should diarrhea develop despite the precautions taken, reduce the amount of food being fed by one-half for a day or two. If this fails to correct the upset stomach then return to feeding the old food until the stool is normal again. Should the addition of the new food a second time also precipitate diarrhea, it is probable that the new food does not agree with your dog. If a third food is available it may be best to try an alternative method rather than to continue to subject your dog to a food that fails to agree with it.

Gradually Changing Your Dog's Diet For Better Results

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Gradually Changing Your Dog's Diet For Better Results

lf it becomes necessary to change the time at which a dog is fed, the most satisfactory way to do so is by making gradual time changes from the old time to the new time. For example, suppose you change jobs, and start getting home an hour later than when you usually fed your dog. It is far better to start about two weeks before you make the change and feed the dog live minutes later every evening for twelve days, than to abruptly offer your dog its food 60 minutes late the first day you start the new job.

Probably the most often changed item in any dog's feeding routine is the food itself. There are occasions when circumstances dictate that you must make a change in a dog's food. Whatever the reason for making the change, if it is made too abruptly it may cause a digestive upset.

The micro-organisms growing in a dog's digestive tract become accustomed to one diet. So does the dog's digestive tract itself. An abrupt change does not allow sufficient time for either to re-accustom themselves to the new diet.

Vitamin & Mineral Sources: Part 2 (The Magic of Liver)

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Vitamin & Mineral Sources: Part 2 (The Magic of Liver)

Milk and cheese are probably the only important sources of calcium and phosphorus among the foods that are not fed as much as they should to dogs, especially as sources of these minerals. Magnesium is found in nuts and beans, potassium in almost any natural ingredient. Most trace minerals in a natural diet are derived from the natural ingredients.

Liver: Newborn puppies, dying from the ''failing puppy syndrome", have a tablespoonful of chopped liver added to their mother's diet. Overnight, the pups snap out of it and start gaining again. Orphan puppies, stunted because their formula is inadequate, have a little liver puree added to that formula and those same puppies suddenly begin to grow and gain weight.

A young adult male, starting his second year at stud is listless, uninterested, and underweight. A daily teaspoon of raw liver returns the stud to his original luster and aggressiveness. A dog struck by an automobile fails to respond even though surgery has successfully corrected its injuries. About a week after the operation a tablespoonful of liver is prescribed three times weekly. By the end of the third week all of the dog's lost weight has been regained and healing of the external wounds appears complete.

All of the dogs described above had one thing in common; liver was added to their diet. Perhaps liver should be called a "miracle" food rattler than a mystery food. But whatever you call it, the recoveries described were the results of liver, and whatever it is that enables liver to produce such ''miracles'' remains a mystery.

For years veterinary nutritionists have referred to the ''unidentified liver fractions'' and their seemingly miraculous effects. Whatever it is in liver, known or unknown, few canine nutritionists deny that liver does something special when it comes to a dog's diet. If there is one single food that every dog should have in its diet, that food would have to be liver.

Vitamin & Mineral Sources

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Vitamin & Mineral Sources: Part 1

Vegetables: While a few vegetables may serve as natural vitamin sources, most vegetables have little value to a dog. Dogs can only digest about 30 to 50 percent of most of the vegetables eaten by man. Many of these vegetables are practically all water. What roughage they may contain can just as easily be obtained from cereal grains. Vegetables contain too little fat to be of any value as energy sources. Any plant protein they contain is likely to be of low biological value to a dog.

Fruits: Fruits are of even less value to the dog than vegetables are. The main vitamin for which fruits serve as a natural source is vitamin C, a vitamin that is not required in a healthy dog's diet. The healthy dog produces enough vitamin C from glucose to meet its MDR.

Other vitamin sources: Several other natural sources of vitamins are available to a dog owner to feed his or her dog. Some of these, like eggs, cheese, bread, and fish, have already been touched upon under other headings.

Of all methods, by far the most accurate and efficient way to provide a dog's requirement for each vitamin when compounding a diet from natural ingredients, is by using a vitamin mix. You must then calculate the exact amount to add that will provide an adequate supply of vitamins.

Mineral Sources: The minerals, like the vitamins, are best balanced in every diet by using a mineral mix in amounts calculated to supply the requirement for each mineral, and balanced to the caloric density of the diet. In natural diets most of the trace minerals are found in adequate amounts in the natural ingredients. It is important that the major minerals (calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and sodium) be balanced during diet formulation to insure that they are present in the diet in adequate amounts and in the proper ratio.

Bone meal: Bone meal contains calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium in almost the exact ratio required by a dog. As long as it is fed in a finely ground form, most of the mineral it contains will be usable by the dog. Bone meal should be added at about 1/2 ounce for every pound of raw meat put into a dog's diet. It should never be added in excess of 1/2 ounce per pound of the total diet.

Because it is inexpensive and easily available, bone meal is too often fed as the cure-all for any dietary mineral problem. This invariably leads to a greater imbalance in the mineral portion of the diet, not to its correction.

The Dog's Mechanics of Eating

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The Dog's Mechanics of Eating

Many dog owners think that every different breed of dog must be fed different, according to some sort of specification. However, the eating behavior of a dog is characteristic of the whole species, not of any individual breed, since all dogs eat the same way. As a result, there are certain general considerations that can be made when feeding any dog.

A dog is not required to eat its food the same way a man does. A dog has no hands. It's jaws are suited for biting and cutting rather than chewing. There are few “gag” reflex nerves at the back of a dog's mouth, but many in a person's throat. A dog has fewer taste buds on its tongue, but a much greater sense of smell than a man has. There are many other differences as well.

How A Dog Eats

While the eating behavior of a dog may seem strange or awkward to some dog owners, to the dog it is the most comfortable and satisfactory way of getting its food from its bowl into its stomach. The normal pattern of swallowing in a dog is often described as “bolting.” The dog picks up a piece of food with its front teeth and with a short, quick thrust of its head, tosses the piece of food back onto the top of its tongue. The piece of food is then rolled (without being chewed) to the back of the mouth. As the piece reaches the base of the tongue, a reflex causes the back of the tongue to push the food upward and backward into the esophagus. From there it is carried directly into the stomach.

When a piece of food is too large to be swallowed, the dog holds the food with its paws and uses its front teeth to tear off smaller pieces that can be swallowed. If the food is too tough to be torn, the dog will cut it into pieces small enough to be swallowed, using two specialized jaw teeth.

These teeth are called carnassial teeth and have large shearing surfaces that act like scissor blades which can cut through such tough substances as muscle, hide, gristle, and even bone. While the powerful jaw muscles of a dog are useful for cutting chunks of food into swallowing size, these muscles are used very little for actually chewing those pieces. A dog's teeth are few in number and poorly equipped for mastication.

Taking Stock Of The Quality Of Food Given To Your Dog

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Taking Stock Of The Quality Of Food Given To Your Dog

Most dog owners whose pets are household family members consider it an inconvenience to evaluate dog food. They usually feed only one or two dogs, never weigh them, and rarely keep any records on them at all. Many base their selection of a dog food solely on how well their dog eats it, not on what the food does for their dog nutritionally. Moreover, the shopper for the dog's food is usually the same individual who shops for the rest of the family's food; the housewife. From the early morning news to the final night-time talk show, the housewife is bombarded with TV commercials, newspaper ads, and magazine ads who are selling the virtues of one brand of dog food over another.

Food chosen for your dog should always be made by proper research and never by some TV commercial. Stop and consider for a moment that TV commercials and magazine ads are designed to sell you the food. So is the food's packaging and other promotions that they are concerned about. After all, your dog can't read and doesn't understand a word the ad man pitches. Just remember your dog does have to eat the food you buy and feed it.

Simply because you like your food with gravy is no reason to believe that your dog does. Just because some people say all your dog needs is meat won't stop your dog from dying from the calcium deficiency produced when it is fed an all-meat diet. You may prefer that hickory smoked flavor, but your dog prefers the essence of rotten rabbit, for example.

And, if you toss in a little extra human gravy to make sure your dog gobbles up his food without pausing for a breath, remember that how fast your dog eats a food has little to do with the nutritional value of that food. The mere fact that your dog eats a food every time it is fed is no indication whatever that the food is good for your dog. Most dogs love the all-animal-tissue foods, but an exclusive diet of nothing but meat will prove fatal.

While dogs kept as pets may fall into any number of categories, only three are important where feeding is concerned. These three categories are related to where the dog lives: exclusively outdoors, outdoors/indoors, or exclusively indoors. There are naturally some areas of overlap, but these three categories are generally easy enough to separate. Most dog owners can place their dogs into the correct category without too much difficulty when it comes to the starting point of establishing the dog's diet.

Is Your Dog Malnourished?

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Is Your Dog Malnourished?

Once upon a time the poorest fed dog in America was the farm dog left to fend for itself for food. These dogs, undernourished bags of bones, were once so common they almost became symbolic of impoverished rural America. Today vast numbers of those small farms have vanished. With them have gone the gaunt, hollow-eyed hounds that greeted every farm visitor with a hungry, ill-tempered bark.

The farmer has snored to the city, gotten a job, and become the suburbanite. With him have come his companion dogs. And, the suburbanite house-pet has replaced the farm dog as the poorest fed dog in America. Probably 75 percent of all dogs in the United States owned by private individuals are household pets.

Most of these dogs are anywhere from 10 percent to 50 percent overweight because the most frequent error made by feeders of house-pets is overfeeding. Unlike their predecessors, today's poorest fed dogs are not underfed, but overfed. The irony of it all is the fact that, while they may be overfed and overweight, they may also be undernourished! Unfortunately, there is a widespread misconception among dog owners that any dog food that comes out of a can or box that they bought at the grocery store is adequate and nourishing enough for a dog.

This belief has led politicians, sociologists, and even some nutritionists to express the opinion that most American house-pets are better fed than most Americans. While these statements may grab sensational headlines, the accuracy of such a proposition does not stand up under critical exploitation. While it certainly is true that some house-pets receive far better nourishment than some people, it is also true that many dogs in this country are woefully malnourished. Some of the dogs suffering from the greatest malnourishment are those eating the very item to which the politicians and sociologists attribute such grandiose performance-commercial dog food.

Not all, probably not even most, of the canned dog foods in this country are guilty of malnourishing a dog, but some do exist, and they are being fed. Nowhere does a dog feeder need to evaluate the food he feeds more than he does when he is feeding canned foods to a house-pet. Yet, the number of pet owners who actually feed their dogs based on their evaluation of the foods available to them is practically zero.

2 Important Dog Feeding Tips If You Have Two Or More Dogs

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2 Important Dog Feeding Tips If You Have Two Or More Dogs


Tip 1: Uneaten food should not be left around for more than 30 minutes. lf you feed only one or two dogs, removing the uneaten food within 30 minutes should offer no problem. You should begin to pick up the food containers just as soon as you have completed feeding the last dog. Pick up the feeding containers in the same order that they were put down. Don't get in such a hurry to get them, however, that you forget to record each dog's food intake.

Tip 2: Dogs should have regular elimination times. Dogs that are kept in relatively close confinement should be taken out for eliminations immediately after feeding. This will establish a regular pattern. Such a pattern promotes regular eliminations, stimulates better digestion, and increases food utilization. Perhaps equally important from the multiple dog owner's viewpoint is the fact that a regular elimination time allows you to keep your dog well-trained to know when it is time to go, and without having accidents inside.

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• The Reasons For Feeding Raw Dog Food To Your Dogs (mypetkingdom.info)

Gradually Changing Your Dog's Diet For Better Results

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Gradually Changing Your Dog's Diet For Better Results

lf it becomes necessary to change the time at which a dog is fed, the most satisfactory way to do so is by making gradual time changes from the old time to the new time. For example, suppose you change jobs, and start getting home an hour later than when you usually fed your dog. It is far better to start about two weeks before you make the change and feed the dog live minutes later every evening for twelve days, than to abruptly offer your dog its food 60 minutes late the first day you start the new job.

Probably the most often changed item in any dog's feeding routine is the food itself. There are occasions when circumstances dictate that you must make a change in a dog's food. Whatever the reason for making the change, if it is made too abruptly it may cause a digestive upset.

The micro-organisms growing in a dog's digestive tract become accustomed to one diet. So does the dog's digestive tract itself. An abrupt change does not allow sufficient time for either to re-accustom themselves to the new diet.

How To Feed A Guard Dog

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How To Feed A Guard Dog

Most dogs used as guard dogs are German Shepherds, with an occasional Doberman Pinscher, Boxer, or Labrador Retriever. The average weight of an adult male guard dog is about 70 pounds. None should weigh less than 50 pounds. To satisfactorily provide a guard dog with adequate amounts of energy and nutrients every day, its food should have the following three characteristics: 1) It should contain approximately 2000 calories in each pound. 2) It should have the nutrients balanced to be fed at about 40 available calories per pound of body weight. 3) The overall digestibility of the food should not be less than 80 percent.

No food exists, in normal commercial food channels, that will satisfy the characteristics just listed. While a few canned foods meet the digestibility requirements, no dry foods do. Neither type meets the caloric density or nutrient balance requirements. Soft-moist foods meet the digestibility requirements, but have even lower caloric densities than the dry foods.

The addition of fresh, or canned, meat and meat by-products to a dry food usually improves the digestibility of the protein and fat in the diet. But, because of the high water content of meat foods, their addition actually reduces the caloric density of the final diet combination.

Caloric density can be increased by the addition of corn oil. This procedure works well only when increased energy needs are minimal. With a guard dog's energy requirements, however, so much corn oil is needed that it, too, will dilute the food and nutrient deficiencies are apt to occur.

All guard dogs should be fed by strict portion control. How each dog's weight, general condition, and performance are affected by its diet can be much more accurately compared when feeding by portion control. Guard dogs whom are from a self-feeder are apt to become overweight, sluggish or unresponsive. The last two are particularly fatal to a guard dog and its mission.

Guard dogs should be fed no less than three hours, before or after, their tour of duty. To feed any closer to the tour is an invitation to bloat, torsion or other gastric distress. The danger of these diseases is further increased if the dogs are eating low-quality foods containing poorly-digested nutrients.

Feeding guard dogs is an exception to the rule that all dogs should be fed at the same hour every day. A guard dog's tour hours are subject to frequent change. Also, its meal hours must changed because feeding three hours before duty tours is more important than regular feeding hours. Actually, once their feeding routine is learned, most guard dogs will become accustomed to being fed three hours before going on duty and will adapt their behavior to cue on their feeding time the same way any dog does that is fed at the same time every day.

Feeding Your Dog Table Scraps

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Feeding Your Dog Table Scraps

Until about 20 years ago most dogs could still eke out a living on table scraps. With the advent of modern merchandising methods, both the quality and the quantity of the usable scraps has declined. Meats are sold already trimmed and boned, carefully wrapped in cellophane and cardboard, and ready for cooking without additional alterations. Frozen foods have eliminated trimmings from vegetables, and dairy and poultry products come from cartons and coolers, not cows and chickens. Everything is prepackaged in convenient quantities so that purchases can be adjusted to family appetites with almost no leftovers.

The scraps from a meal made from these pre-trimmed, pre-battered, pre-buttered, pre-cooked, and pre-packaged foods consists of only bits and pieces which are either inedible or unwanted by human beings. Such bits and pieces make neither a balanced nor an adequate diet for a dog.

The true value of today's table scraps are succinctly brought home when the dog owner who feeds his dog table scraps asks himself, ''What would I do with these scraps if I didn't own a dog?" lf his answer would be to save them in the refrigerator for his own next meal then a dog can probably eat the scraps, too. However, If he would throw the scraps into the garbage can, then he is literally feeding his dog garbage when he feeds table scraps.

There is an even greater danger in table scraps. In spite of their poor nutritional quality, table scraps frequently are quite palatable to a dog. All too often such table scraps are used with the idea of increasing the palatability of a less palatable, but better balanced, commercial food. Unless the scraps are finely chopped and blended with the commercial foods, most dogs will simply pick out the table scraps and leave the balanced food behind.

Most table scraps are fats and carbohydrates, yielding lots of calories and little else. As a consequence, the dog obtains a sizable portion of its daily caloric need from the useless scraps and loses his appetite entirely for the commercial food. By refusing to put table scraps on the food, a dog owner may feel he is forcing his dog to eat a food it does not want. But, in the long run, most dog owners will agree that it is better to starve a dog with concern than to kill it with kindness.

Energy Sources

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Energy Sources
Originally, dog owners who fed their pets natural ingredients were attempting to replace the natural diet of the dog. Natural ingredients used today are no longer the foods eaten by an animal ''naturally'' in the wild, but have become modifications of those original foodstuffs to more confinement or longer-lasting forms.

The human diet consists of a large selection of such modified natural foods, most of which have been tried for feeding a dog. Besides these human foods, there are still a few natural ingredients available to the dog owner that are not normally considered to be human foods. Examples of such foods are horse meat, hog livers, and bone meal.

Meat is, without question, the most common natural ingredient fed to a dog. It is also the most common source of protein. It is not the only source, however, nor is it the best. Eggs, milk, and plant proteins also make up a large reservoir of protein sources available to dog feeders.

All natural foods containing nutrients are energy sources, since most nutrients can become energy. Some natural foods supply more energy than others and are customarily used as energy sources. These are the foods containing the largest quantities of fats and carbohydrates. Fats are the primary energy source in any diet for a dog. Most meats come with the fat already attached, especially in the chopped and ground varieties. Fats also can be found in nature in the pure form as vegetable oils or as tallow and lard.

Carbohydrates, while not as concentrated an energy source as fats, are lower in cost. Carbohydrates are useful to dilute the protein in high-meat diets or lower the caloric density of diets containing too much fat.

Probably the most universally useful source of energy for a dog is corn oil. Corn oil supplies 9 calories in every gram, 250 calories in every ounce, 124 calories in every tablespoonful, and 62 calories in every teaspoonful. When used as the only fat in a food it also furnishes about ten times the amount of essential fatty acids needed by a dog. Corn oil is inexpensive, easily obtainable, and has a reasonably good keeping quality. Other vegetable oils that can be used satisfactorily as an energy source for a dog are olive oil, peanut oil, safflower oil and soybean oil.

Can I Feed My Dog Meat Only?

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Can I Feed My Dog Meat Only?

There are a few dog feeders who foolishly insist that meat is the only thing a dog should ever be fed. Meat alone is entirely inadequate for a dog. The foremost deficiency in a diet of meat is its lack of calcium. lf the meat is trimmed of fat there is also likely to occur a deficiency in energy. There are numerous other deficiencies, but none as dramatic as these two.

Meat, nevertheless, is the single most important source of protein fed to dogs. Thousands of tons of horse meat and beef are used each year in producing commercial dog foods. Hundreds of tons more are fed as a supplement to commercial foods or in home-made rations.

When fed as an addition to a balanced commercial food, meat can be added up to 10 percent of the weight of the mixture. When added in any greater amounts it will dilute the commercial food to the extent that the diet will no longer be balanced or adequate. When used as the sole source of protein in a home-made ration, meat should constitute at least 25 percent of the total weight of the diet. However, home-made rations should ever contain more than 75 percent of its weight as meat

All meats except pork can be fed to a dog either cooked or raw, but will usually furnish more nourishment in the raw state. Vitamins are destroyed by the heat of cooking. Fat also is driven out of meat during cooking, and unless it is poured back into the ration, it will become lost as an energy source. The only real justification for feeding a dog cooked meat in a homemade ration is because it is pork, or because the dog does not like raw meat. Dogs having a genuine dislike for raw meat are few and far between.

The nature of the animal from which the meat comes does not seem to be too important where protein is concerned. Nutritionally, most proteins from different animals seem to be about equal. For years it was contended by some dog owners that pork could not be fed to dogs. Feeding experiments do not find this to be true. In fact, pork liver is probably among the most nutritious livers commonly available to dogs. The only restriction which pork has when being fed to dogs is that it be cooked.

5 Common Natural Food Sources For Dogs

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5 Common Natural Food Sources For Dogs

Eggs: Eggs for feeding dogs can be bought by the dozen in the grocery store, by the hundreds from hatcheries or by the thousands from egg ranches.
Regardless of how many or where they are obtained, an egg should never be fed to a dog raw. Raw egg whites react with the vitamin, biotin, and prevent a dog from using it. In fact, feeding raw egg whites is the exact way scientists produce experimental biotin deficiency in a laboratory.

Milk: Much controversy has raged over feeding milk to dogs.
Milk has been accessed of causing diarrhea and other digestive upsets. While it may produce these problems in large amounts, if milk is kept to about two ounces of fluid milk or two tablespoons of dry milk per pound of food, few problems will be encountered.
The value of the milk, when fed in proper amounts, exceeds the risk of upset. Milk supplies calcium and phosphorus in the proper ratio and amounts, a host of vitamins, and also a protein which approaches the value of whole egg.

Cottage cheese: Cottage cheese is little more than the major protein fraction of milk casein. It does not have the same value as the protein of whole milk because the lactoalbumin, normally present in whole milk, has been washed away in the whey. The value of the protein in cottage cheese compares favorably with that of horse meat.
Cottage cheese offers the dog feeder an inexpensive, readily available source of quality protein for his dog.

Cheese: Another dairy product made from casein is cheese.
Cheese, unlike cottage cheese, also contains a considerable amount of fat. The fat makes cheese a valuable source of energy as well as of protein. Because they are made as human foods, and are sold in competition with other human foods, cheeses are among the more expensive protein sources for feeding dogs. For dog feeders who wish to spend the extra money, cheese is a worthwhile consideration.

Fish: Fish is not commonly used in dietary formulations for dogs, but there is no logical reason to eliminate it from consideration as a protein source for a dog. Indeed, fish protein is one of the better proteins, for the money, that a dog feeder can use. Fish, too, should always be cooked before being fed. In this case the heat destroys a chemical found in many fish that will destroy vitamin B1 (thiamine) if left unchanged.

Examining Baked And Hard Foods For Your Dog

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Examining Baked And Hard Foods For Your Dog

Examine baked and kibbled foods for the presence of burned spots on the biscuits. The presence of a single burned biscuit is not sufficient evidence alone to indicate that a food lacks nutritional adequacy. But, the presence of large numbers of burned biscuits may indicate that the food has been cooked at too high a temperature, in which case nutrients are apt to be destroyed.

Eliminate from your list any baked or kibbled food in which more than 25 percent of the biscuits have burned spots on them. Do not buy them again. If dry products are damp, soft or stale, it may mean that they have been improperly processed, gotten damp in transit, gotten damp during storage, or that they are old.

Dry products that become damp quickly deteriorate from the action of mold and eventually bacteria. Sometimes the only indication that mold is beginning to attack a dry food is the musty odor smelled when a bag is opened. At other times it may be seen as a white, hairy beard or a bluish-green or black velvety coating over the food. Any food found to be moldy should be destroyed immediately and never fed to dogs.

Can You Trust Your Dog Food Company?

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Can You Trust Your Dog Food Company?

The proper selection of a dog food is the most important thing a dog owner can do. Why then, when the procedure seems such a necessary step to proper feeding, do so many dog owners refuse to subject the food they feed to a critical evaluation before they feed it to their dog?

The answer is probably because they don't know how to. Companies making dog foods, who do know how, have traditionally provided only "feeding instructions," but never instructions for a procedure that might enable a customer to discover a product that was superior to their own.

The widely held belief that any food, simply because it is the product of the American pet food industry, is automatically adequate and nourishing to a dog, is pure myth. A feeling of security because the food has been purchased from your trusted local grocery is based on even less reality.

There is only one way to select a food that you can be confident will provide your dog with adequate nourishment. That way is to subject all of the foods available to you to a critical evaluation program. The time taken to correctly make a food evaluation is time well spent, and the procedure should never be slighted.

Nutritional Needs For Different Dog-types

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Nutritional Needs For Different Dog-types

While the first dogs were undoubtedly kept as companions, it probably did not take long to realize the working value of this newly-made friend. Even before the history of dogs was recorded, these pets were helping man for a variety of purposes, mainly to hunt for food. In those days, however, hunting was not a sport, but serious hard work.

Today the dog still helps man in his quest for food, but the nature of the job has taken on a different form. The dog still helps man to hunt, but for a different reason. Whatever the purpose or nature of the job, the performance of work always requires time expenditure of energy. As a consequence, every working dog's primary dietary need is increased energy. Whenever dietary energy is increased, those B-complex vitamins, minerals, and the water necessary for burning the energy must also be increased.

Except for this increased need for energy and the nutrients to burn it, working dogs require most nutrients at no greater levels than non-working dogs. When working dogs eat large quantities of ordinary maintenance dog foods to obtain all of the energy they need, they frequently consume some of the nutrients in excessive amounts. Paradoxically, they may also eat such large quantities that the digestibility of all the nutrients in their diet are adversely affected and some nutrients may actually be obtained in inadequate amounts.

In other cases, a working dog simply cannot, physically, eat all of a food needed to supply its energy needs. In these instances the dog suffers from the lack of total digestible energy, and loses weight. If the condition is allowed to continue, the dog will reduce its activities in order to reduce its caloric demands. If the dog is forced to continue working at the same pace, it will lose weight faster and laster, and eventually work itself to death.

Herd Dogs are the most common working dogs that are fed in the United States. Herd Dogs are dogs that wattle or protect animals use the least amount of extra energy of any of the working dogs. They seldom are required to expend energy in excess of normal activity for any duration of time. Even their short-term expenditures of energy are not very great. The only time herd dogs ever utilize large amounts of energy are when they are rounding up strays, lost or semi-wild animals running at large.