What Difference Can Food Make?
Your dog’s behavior, happiness, health, longevity and overall well-being are inextricably intertwined with what you feed him. Dogs, just like everyone else, have specific nutritional needs. And, to complicate matters, the needs of individual dogs vary. For example, even though your first dog may have done wonderfully well on Barfo Special Blend, it may be completely wrong for the dog you have now. We are not trying to turn you into an expert on canine nutrition, but you do need to know some basic concepts.
The most common and most visible symptoms of nutritionally caused deficiencies are allergies of one kind or another. Allergies can be, and often are, unrecognized deficiency diseases. Recognizing nutritional deficiencies will save you a great deal of frustration and allow you to make the necessary adjustments in your dog’s diet.
Not all dog foods are alike and there are enormous quality differences. The cliché “garbage in, garbage out” applies with terrifying validity. There are so many choices available today that trying to make an informed decision can become an overwhelming task. We are going to tackle the job by the process of elimination. Three commonly used criteria immediately come to mind: advertising, ingredients and price.
A Quick Checklist - Is your Pooch getting what he needs?
He does not want to eat his food
He has large, voluminous stools that smell awful
He has gas
His teeth get dirty and brown
His breath smells
He burps a lot
He constantly sheds
He has a dull coat
He smells like a dog
He is prone to ear and skin infections
He has no energy or is hyperactive
He picks up fleas easily
He picks up worms easily and must be wormed frequently
He frequently gets infections and his immune system becomes impaired
All of these can happen with any dog, but only occasionally. When one or more of them occur frequently, or continuously, it is time to find out why.
Your dog is a carnivore, not a vegetarian. He needs meat. Unlike a human’s, his teeth are made for ripping and tearing meat— they do not have flat surfaces for grinding up grains; his digestive process begins in his stomach, not in his mouth; all of the enzymes in his system are geared toward breaking down meat and raw foods. Clearly, there can be no doubt: Your dog is a carnivore. Your dog’s body is made up of cells, a lot of them. Each cell needs 45 nutrients to function properly.
Protein (consisting of 9 to 12 essential amino acids)
Carbohydrates
Fat
Vitamins
Minerals
Water
All of these nutrients need to be in the correct proportion for the necessary chemical reactions of digestion, absorption, transportation and elimination to occur. If the cells are going to continue to live, the exact composition of the body fluids that bathe the outside of the cells needs to be controlled from moment to moment, day to day, with no more than a few percentage points of variation. When these nutrients are not provided, cells die, and this contributes to premature aging.
CALORIES
The term calories indicate the amount of energy in food. The food you feed your dog must provide enough calories so his body can:
Produce energy to grow correctly
Maintain health during adulthood
Reproduce
Live to enjoy a quality old age
Dog food packages tell you how much protein is in the food. Protein content is important, but even more important is its source. The manufacturer chooses the kind of protein to put into the food. Generally, the percentage of protein in the food is a combination of proteins found in less expensive plants or grains, such as corn, wheat, soy, or rice, plus a more expensive animal protein, such as chicken, beef, or lamb. By law, the ingredient in the greatest quantity is listed first. By looking at the list of ingredients on the package, you can easily see the origin of the protein in the food. For example, if the first five ingredients consist of four grains, it tells you that much of the protein in that food comes from grains. The more grains in dog food, the cheaper it is to produce.
PROTEIN DEFICIENCY
When your dog does not get enough animal protein as part of his diet, or there is an imbalance of his nutrients, one or more of the following may occur:
Chronic skin and/ or ear infections
Compromised reproductive system, heart, kidney, liver, bladder, thyroid and adrenal glands
Epilepsy or some kinds of cancers
Spinning or tail chasing
Aggression
Timidity
Lack of pigmentation
Excessive shedding
Crooked whiskers
Gastrointestinal upsets, vomiting or diarrhea
Poor appetite
Impaired ability to heal from wounds or surgery
Weakened immune system that cannot handle vaccines and may even contract the disease
This is only a short list of the more common symptoms associated with protein deficiency. It has been our experience that most of the working breeds, sporting breeds, toys and terriers need extra animal protein in their diets. Dogs that lead a couch-potato existence can survive on food with more plant and less animal protein.
AMINO ACIDS
One more thing you need to know about protein— amino acids are the building blocks of protein. When they are heated, they are partially destroyed. All dry and canned commercial dog food is heated in the manufacturing process. So, commercial food may contain protein that is somewhat deficient or destroyed through heating. To compensate for this loss, besides meat, you need to include an amino acid complex tablet in your dog’s diet.
During the first 7 months of your dog’s life, he will increase his birth weight anywhere from 15 to 40 times, depending upon his breed. By 1 year of age, his birth weight will increase 60 times and his skeletal development will be almost complete. For everything to go well, he needs the right food. He also needs double the amount of food as an adult dog needs while he is growing, especially during growth spurts. Nutritional deficiencies now, even for short periods, can cause future problems.
CARBOHYDRATES — SPARINGLY, PLEASE!
Once you have selected a food based on its protein percentage, your job isn’t quite done. You must check a few other items. For example, your dog also needs carbohydrates. He does not need many carbohydrates to be healthy, but he does require some grains and vegetables for energy, proper digestion, stool formation and the correct functioning of the thyroid gland. Oats, wheat, barley and brown rice are whole grains that contain a lot of vitamins and minerals as well as protein and fat. Corn is a popular grain found in commercial dog foods primarily because of its price. Soy is another carbohydrate that is found in some foods. Soy admittedly is high in protein, but it binds up other nutrients and makes them unavailable for absorption. Stay away from dog foods that contain soy.
Carbohydrates must be broken down for a dog to be able to digest them. Dog food companies use a heat process to do this and therein lies the problem. The heat process destroys many of the vitamins and minerals contained in grains.
Fat is either saturated or polyunsaturated and your dog needs both. Together these fats supply the essential fatty acids (EFAs) necessary to maintain a dog’s good health.
Saturated fat comes from animal sources and is used for energy. For dogs that get a great deal of exercise or participate in competitive events, the food must be high in animal (saturated) fat. Dogs do not suffer from heart disease caused by higher levels of animal fat, or from fatty deposits in blood vessels. However, moderation is the key. The diet needs to have some animal fat but not too much, and anything between 15% to 18% is okay. Not enough animal fat in the diet can create:
Lack of energy
Heart problems
Growth deficits
Dry skin
Cell damage
Too much animal fat in the diet creates:
Obesity
Some kinds of cancer
Polyunsaturated fat comes from vegetable sources, such as flax seed oil, safflower oil, wheat germ oil, olive oil and corn oil. Your dog needs polyunsaturated fat for healthy skin and coat. If your dog has a dry coat, you may need to add some oil to his food.
Linoleic acid is one of the three essential fatty acids found in polyunsaturated fats that must be provided daily in your dog’s food. Cold-pressed safflower and flax seed oil provide the best source of linoleic acid and are the least allergenic. They are better than corn oil that contains only a tiny amount of linoleic acid.
Note: Flax seed oil can be difficult for some dogs to digest.
Lack of polyunsaturated fat can cause:
Coarse dry hair coat Improper growth
Skin lesions on belly, inside the back legs, and between the shoulder blades
Thickened areas of skin
Horny skin growths
Skin ulcerations and infections
Poor blood clotting
Extreme itching and scratching
Be aware that in the manufacturing process of most dog foods, fat is sprayed on as the last ingredient. Fat makes the food palatable, like potato chips and French fries. Look for a food that has both animal fat and vegetable oils in it. Some less expensive foods do not list individual fats and oils. They only say the percentage of fat in the food. Better foods list them individually.
Your dog’s food needs vitamins to release the nutrients and enzymes in it so his body can absorb and use them.
There are two types of vitamins— water-soluble and fat-soluble. Vitamins B and C are water-soluble. Any excess is filtered through the kidneys and urinated out four to eight hours after ingestion. Because any excess is eliminated naturally (urination), they must be present in every meal.
Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble and are stored in the fatty tissues of the body and in the liver. Your dog needs both water and fat soluble. Vitamins are not only lost in the manufacturing process of dog food but begin to deteriorate as soon as you open up the dog food bag and expose the food to light and air. Particularly sensitive are vitamins B and C. Vitamin C is needed for healthy teeth and gums.
A common misconception is that dogs do not need extra vitamin C because they produce their own. While it is true that they produce their own, it is not enough to maintain good health, especially in our polluted environment. Your dog needs sufficient vitamin C to break down the animal protein in his diet, strengthen his immune system, speed wound healing, help the function of his musculoskeletal system, and whenever he gets wormed, is given drugs of any kind or put under any kind of stress. A lack of vitamin C in the diet commonly results in urinary tract infections, cystitis and limping in the front or rear legs.
The same holds true with vitamin B, which is made up of several individual parts called, B complex. A fragile, water-soluble vitamin, vitamin B is needed for energy, breaking down protein and promoting biochemical reactions in the body which work with enzymes to change the carbohydrates into glucose. Since not enough of either vitamin B complex or C is contained in any processed dog food, you must add both of these Vitamins to his diet.
MINERALS — A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY
Minerals make up less than 2% of any formulated diet, and yet they are the most critical of nutrients. Although a dog can manufacture some vitamins on his own, he is not able to make minerals. They are needed for:
The correct composition of body fluids
Proper formation of blood and bones
Promotion of a healthy nervous system
Co-enzyme function together with vitamins
Since 50% to 80% of minerals are lost in the manufacturing process, we recommend that you add extra minerals to your dog’s food.
One more piece of information, so everything will fall into place for you.
Your dog should always have access to fresh water in a clean stainless-steel or glass bowl. The exception would be when a puppy is being housetrained. Then you can limit his access to water after 8: 00 p.m. so he will last through the night without an accident.
From the editor: Much of what you have just read are excerpts from: Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog by Wendy Volhard and Kerry Brown D.V.M. Get the full scoop on your pet’s diet by reading the full book today!