You wouldn’t eat microwaved meals and canned food every single day of your life, so why should your dog? Over the past couple of years, the availability of cheap canned dog food and packaged snacks has become a huge problem. Dog owners all over the world are starting to rely on them either due to their financial situation, or simply because they’re lazy and think that they’re giving their dog enough nutrition and satisfying them.
Much like humans, feeding your dog canned food all the time isn’t ideal and there are many advantages to adding some fresh foods to their diet. In this article, we’ll be covering five of the many advantages of cooking real pet food for your dog or at least adding some fresh ingredients to balance their diet better.
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Better Digestion
The ingredients listed on commercial dog food can be confusing. If you’re worried about the safety of your dog, then it’s a good idea to check out this guide to pet safety and avoid any commercial dog foods that try to show off its ingredients or companies that play with the wording in order to confuse you. For instance, if something is advertised as high in protein, there’s a chance that not all of it is easily digestible. This ultimately leads to smelly stools and your dog needing to pass stools more frequently. On the contrary, if you offer your dog highly-digestible sources of protein, then the nutrients go straight into your dog’s body instead of being passed as waste.
Improved Health
Eating the right foods and getting the right nutrition can greatly help your dog. A fresh diet will provide plenty of benefits such as improving your dog’s immune system, boosting their energy and reducing their body fat. Proteins found in fresh food are much more effective than from dried or canned dog food, and the antioxidants found in high-quality ingredients can help your dog fight against illness and keep them healthy. Commercial dog food is often created in environments which strip the food of its nutritional content, essentially turning the food into wasteful calories that don’t offer much benefit to your dog.
More Control
A huge advantage of making your dog’s food is being able to control what goes into the food. There’s no more guessing what’s in the dog food that you buy your dog, no more checking ingredients to see the exact percentages and you’ll no longer be fooled by companies trying to sell you dog food that is advertised as being better than it really is. Whether it’s giving your dog a reliable and tasty source of protein or removing any strange additives and preservatives in your dog’s diet, knowing what goes into your dog’s food will give you more peace of mind and control over their nutritional intake.
Healthier Body Weight
Being able to control your dog’s diet means that they’re far more likely to have a healthier body weight. You get to control the nutrients and calories that your dog takes in, and this ultimately means that your dog will have a longer lifespan as well. Most dog food that you purchase from a store will contain copious amounts of additives and preservatives, all of which can negatively impact your dog’s health. In contrast, using fresh ingredients and cooking up your own dog food can provide healthier calories, more energy and better health.
Convenient to Make
A lot of the food you buy for your own consumption can be modified to be a great source of food for your dog. This means that you don’t need to go out of your way to buy specific ingredients to give your dog a healthier diet, and it means you can use leftovers to whip up something delicious and nutritious for your dog. For instance, these double bacon balls can be made from just a few slices of bacon, turkey, cheese and flour. They’re simple to make, don’t take long to cook and your dog will love them as a treat.
As you can see, dogs can benefit greatly from fresh food in their diets. While it’s incredibly common to give your dog basic food from a store out of a can or a bag, think about the advantages that adding some fresh food can offer. Even if your dog’s current diet mainly consists of canned food and kibble, try and add some fresh food and cook up some treats for them to see if they enjoy it. Most dogs will appreciate the purer flavours, the extra nutrition and the move away from commercial food.
Disclosure: This is a contributed post.
