Homemade Puppy Food and Its’ Benefits

After you make the decision to bring a puppy into your life, there is so much about puppy care that is necessary to learn. Keeping up with all of the basic needs of a young puppy can be overwhelming, but feeding him can be easy and rewarding.

As with many prepackaged items purchased from a store, most puppy foods are full of chemicals, additives, cheap fillers, preservatives, and other unncessary ingredients. Due to this, alternative forms of puppy food have started to become increasingly popular, such as homemade puppy food.

Homemade puppy food is really quite simple to make and is actually the healthiest and safest way to feed your new pooch.

First, you should understand that the diet you choose for your puppy will be a large factor in your puppy’s overall health. A dog’s immune system can actually be weakened with poor ingredients in a diet making it harder for them to fight off infection and disease as they age. In recent news, there have been many commercial pet food recalls which caused pets to suffer fatal kidney failures and other deadly reactions. If you know exactly what your puppy is eating at all times, this can be avoided.

The commercial pet food companies market themselves as knowledgeable in what nutrients are needed to keep your puppy young, healthy, and strong. However, are you completely confident that the health of your dog is their number one priority? Lots of money is spent by big corporations aimed at luring pet owners into buying from them. Always keep in mind, no one will care for your puppy better than you will, so it is well worth the extra time invested in preparing homemade puppy food.

Your puppy will not only be healthier with homemade puppy food, but it will also provide you with cost benefits as well. You will be able to save a fair amount of money not having to purchase prepackaged dog food or special ingredients by utilizing some of the ingredients from your own meal preparations.

Even though making homemade puppy food has the potential to be extremely beneficial to your pooch, you must be aware that many people foods can be dangerous, or even deadly, to dogs. Some ingredients you should avoid while preparing your homemade puppy food are chocolate, caffeine, mushrooms, raw eggs, garlic, yeast, onions, avocados, grapes/raisins, mustard seeds, macadamia/walnuts, and even tomatoes.

Have your ever browsed the dog food aisle and noticed that for different sizes and ages of dogs there are different varieties of foods? That same idea needs to be applied when developing your own homemade puppy food recipes. Small dogs need different nutrients than larger dogs and the same applies to young versus old. When fed properly, a dog’s lifespan can be increased by numerous years.

When cooking, a good rule of thumb is to make sure that every meal is at least 1/3 protein, 2/3 produce and some portion of grains. When putting together your new puppy recipes, most cooked meat will work fine like chicken, lamb, beef, eggs, bacon and liver. Peas, carrots, green beans, spinach and broccoli are all acceptable forms of produce. As for grains you can use rice, wheat germ, oats, and corn meal. Don’t pass up the opportunity to make occasional treats as well using items like vanilla, butter, brown sugar, and fruit.

Canine senses are much more sensitive than ours so remember that you don’t need to season your homemade puppy food. Salt can even be harmful to your puppy. For your puppy, plain and simple is better.

Even though not all veterinarians will agree that homemade puppy food is the best choice, discussing the idea with them is still a good idea. At the very least they can provide you with an idea of serving sizes and how often particular breeds need to eat along with what sensitivities, if any, the dog could be predisposed to. In respect to a particular breed, they may be able to fill in the missing details that you will need in order to properly formulate your very own homemade puppy food recipe.

Considering more organic substitutes for our pets is only natural now that people have become more sensitive to obesity and healthy eating. Natural food can help your dog stay fit as he ages as well as reduce the likeliness of allergies.

Making homemade puppy food for the newest edition to your family will not only save you money, but it will also reward you with the confidence that you are doing the very best job possible caring for your puppy.

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