Nowadays, you can easily find no less than thirty kinds of dog food products by opening any shopping website.

They all promote themselves as "comprehensive and balanced" dog food, which can provide dogs with the comprehensive nutrition they need every day. Faced with such dazzling rhetoric, we are easily impressed.

I hope that everyone can learn to choose their own food and take the initiative to help those around them who are new to the pet industry and need help.

As a pet owner, how should you choose a dog food suitable for your pet?

The following suggestions can be used as a reference. If you have better ways to choose grain fields and clever operations, please leave a message to share.

Don’t always buy one type

It is recommended that you choose several foods suitable for your dog and rotate them frequently.

Because there may be no problem in eating a certain brand of dog food continuously in the short term, but using the same brand or the same product for many years may cause certain nutrients to be too low and cause health problems, such as mineral poisoning (such as iron, copper, etc.) , selenium), etc.

You may be hesitant because switching foods may disturb your dog's gastrointestinal tract, causing soft stools or even diarrhea. But the truth is, the vast majority of dogs have more powerful digestive tracts than us humans.

For thousands of years, they have been omnivores, and "eating" for them literally means everything edible in front of their noses, including grass, fruits, eggs, dead animals (including mammals, birds, fish) , amphibians, reptiles, bugs).

So why does your dog have soft stools or even diarrhea a week after changing the dog food? There are two possible reasons:

The first is that due to eating the same food for many years, the body no longer secretes the enzymes needed to digest such food, resulting in a partial loss of digestive enzymes and intestinal bacteria in the digestive tract.

In this case, it will take 1-2 weeks to completely switch dog food.

The second reason may be that your dog is allergic or intolerant to a certain food. In general, a variety of diet is recommended, which can strengthen the dog's digestive system (unless there is a certain food allergy or intolerance).

The current dog food market can be said to be a chaotic mess. Anyone with a hundred or eighty yuan in hand can buy two sets of small equipment and open a studio to produce dog food, euphemistically called handmade dog food.

Not to mention formula research, some self-made grains can’t even meet the national standard requirements. They can be said to be useless except for constantly creating new concepts to fool novices. How can such dog food beHow to let dogs grow up healthily?

So when buying dog food, you must look at the formula and nutritional promise.

Look at the formula and nutrition facts list

If the formula description is very vague, such as using general terms such as meat meal, grains, and vegetables, then you can basically pass this dog food. However, new dog food regulations will be implemented soon. It is estimated that such dog food will not be available in the future. Not here.

Then the nutritional commitment value must meet the standard. If the promised value does not meet the standard, the actual situation will be even more worrying. There is no doubt that such food does not need to be considered at all.

Dog owners also need to learn how to read formulas and nutritional ingredients during actual purchases.

1) Ingredient list

In the ingredient list, raw materials will be listed according to their specific gravity in the formula. The first to suffer is usually animal protein. We strongly recommend that you buy dog ​​food that clearly states the type of animal protein, such as chicken, beef, or lamb, rather than vaguely labeling it "meat" or "poultry."

For the same reason as animal protein meals, try to avoid buying dog food with vague concepts like "meat meal" and "poultry meal" labeled on it.

In an ingredient list, the first three ingredients are generally the most important ingredients of the dog food.

We recommend that you buy dog ​​food with the highest ranking of animal protein powder (such as chicken meal), and the higher the ranking, the better.

Because fresh meat has a very high water content, if it appears first on the ingredient list, it acts as a diluted protein source.

Although it adds a flavor appeal, it won't actually be a major contributor to protein in your dog food. That’s why we need another animal-based protein source in the top three ingredients.

The ingredient list of the best dog food starts with something like "chicken and chicken meal."

It is recommended that you try to avoid buying dog food that contains the following undesirable ingredients in the ingredient list: such as lungs, spleen, kidneys, brains, livers, blood, bones, empty stomachs, intestines, necks, feet and poultry heads of certain animals.

Secondly, vaguely labeled animal fat or poultry fat may also be a source of undesirable ingredients.

You also want to avoid buying dog food that contains added sweeteners, as sweeteners increase palatability while masking the off-flavors of unhealthy animal proteins and fats in the food..

Avoid choosing dog food with artificial colors, flavors and synthetic preservatives.

　2)Nutritional composition table

The nutritional label (Guaranteed Analysis/GA) is a very important label, especially the protein and fat content.

First, let’s talk about protein.

Protein is the material basis of life and an important source of energy - each gram of protein can provide approximately 3.5 kcal of energy.

What protein content of dog food is suitable for my dog?

Research shows that puppies need to be fed protein content of approximately 29% of their body weight. These proteins need to supply 20-25% of their daily caloric consumption, while adult dogs only need 18%.

Therefore, the protein content of dog food specially designed for puppies is generally higher than that of Chengquanlai.

What happens if your dog eats too much protein? Long-term consumption of dog food with too much protein can cause serious harm to dogs, especially puppies - such as bone problems.

The pH value of protein is acidic. Eating high-protein foods for many years will force dogs to balance their own pH by consuming alkaline substances in their bones.

Bones "dissolve" to form calcium and phosphate, which can lead to bone loss and kidney stone formation.

Therefore, when choosing dog food, you should choose dog food that matches your dog based on his physical condition and amount of exercise. You should judge "how much is too much for your dog" through the reaction after feeding and the condition of the stool. , how much is too little.”

High-quality dog ​​food usually contains more protein and fat than low-quality dog ​​food.

So if you switch from a low-breed dog food to a high-breed dog food, you will need to reduce the amount you feed a bit.

Don’t buy gimmicks

The most common and most powerful gimmick is "grain-free natural grains". This is actually a combination of two gimmicks, "grain-free" and "natural". Grain-free is a gimmick that has been speculated for many years.

But unfortunately, this is just a gimmick! "Grains are sensitive to allergies" and "grains are difficult to digest" are all used to harvest IQ and have no other use.

What we are talking about here is not to buy “gimmicks”This is not to tell you not to buy "grain-free" and "natural grains", but I hope you will not go grain-free for the sake of being "grain-free", be natural for the sake of being "natural", and don't spend high prices to buy low-quality products because of the promotion of merchants. Grain-free natural grains.

But if the price is the same and the quality is similar, then natural grains will definitely be the first choice, but it really doesn’t matter whether there are grains or not.

Good-looking does not necessarily mean good dog food

Some dog food, in order to cater to the beauty-loving mentality of young ladies, makes the dog food colorful and cute, but are those colorful colors extracted from plants? Or are they artificial pigments?

If the manufacturer clearly states that the pigment used is extracted from pure plants, then it is completely OK and the color will not be affected. However, if it is a synthetic pigment, be careful.

On the other hand, dogs’ requirements for dog food are not as good as humans’. They only need aroma and taste. The aroma can attract them to eat, and the taste can make them eat more. But they won’t eat a few more bites of dog food because it looks good, or they won’t have a better eating experience.

Some dog foods that claim to add freeze-dried plants should be avoided. Dogs’ digestive function of plants is relatively weak, and unground freeze-dried plants are naturally more difficult to digest.

Therefore, if you want your dog to have a good stomach, please avoid dog food that adds unknown pigments and freeze-dried plants!

When importing, you must buy original goods

Friends who like imported dog food, I sincerely recommend that you buy the original ones with complete packaging. Domestic repackaged dog food is really unsafe! Unsafe! Unsafe!

Who knows whether merchants will adulterate during packaging? Is the packaging environment dust-free and sterile, and is there any problem of secondary contamination? And I have never seen those expired dog food returned from physical stores. Who has ever done public harmless treatment?

Not to mention broken bags of dog food. The problems are the same as above. Broken bags bring the risk of adulteration, and hygiene issues are also worrying.

If you like imported grain, you must buy genuine and authentic products from reliable sources. Don’t wishfully think about how conscientious the agents will be. Shipping from bonded warehouses is useless. Bonded warehouses guarantee tax, not quality.

Dog food in bonded warehouses can be mixed and reprocessed with approval.

Learn more about it yourself!

Don’t buy all kinds of “flavors”

Some dog foods have very artistic names, such as chicken-flavored natural adult dog food, beef-flavored small dog milk cake, but if you look at the ingredient list, you will find that there is no trace of meat at all, and some are just flavoring agents! The taste is all due to additives, just like the big meat we ate as children. It tastes great, but it is junk food.

Finally, the key to choosing dog food is to match your dog’s daily schedule, living habits and physical condition. When purchasing, Wangwang Dog Walking recommends that you try to choose dog food that is more than half a year away from the best before date (Best By), preferably 10 months away from this date, which means that the food was produced recently.

Article source: WoWoDogWalk public account