"May your medicine be your food, and food be your medicine." This is a famous phrase by Hippocrates, considered the father of modern medicine, who already warned that food was a factor of great importance for our he alth, capable of improving or aggravating it.
However, food and he alth not only have this important link in the human body, since an adequate diet is also essential for our pets, in fact, it is estimated that 40% of Dogs present gastrointestinal problems at some point and these are generally derived from a poor diet.
To keep your dog in optimal he alth, in this AnimalWised article we talk about the best balanced foods for dogs.
The balanced feed
The dog food deserves all our attention because in it we find a very effective tool to ensure that our pet enjoys good quality of life.
Although the homemade diet can be highly recommended for dogs with heart problems or kidney diseases, it is generally recommended to feed our friend with balanced food.
Balanced food is the technical name given to feed and is called that because its objective is to cover all the nutritional needs of our pet in a he althy state, although more and more often we also find balanced products intended to nourish pets with he alth problems that change their nutritional requirements. In the following sections of this article we will understand how the best balanced food for dogs should be
What nutrients should a good balanced dog food contain?
If we want to choose the best balanced food for our dog, we must find out about its nutritional composition and go beyond the product's advertising slogan, since only in this way can we ensure that a certain feed is suitable for the nutrition of our pet. It is essential that a good balanced food for dogs contains the following nutrients:
- Fiber: Dogs need 4% fiber in their diet, this substance is essential to facilitate digestion, prevent constipation and keep your pet's gastrointestinal tract free of toxins.
- Proteins: They are essential to form and maintain all the structures of the body, from muscle tissue or skin to systemic antibodies. defenses, although all nutrients are important for our dog, proteins deserve even greater importance.
- Fats: They are essential for your dog to absorb fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K), they are also a a very important source of energy, it is the most caloric macronutrient, providing 9 calories per gram.
- Carbohydrates: They are nutrients that our dog's body uses as the main source of energy, since its metabolism obtains glucose. It is especially important that carbohydrates are complex and of good quality, this will guarantee a progressive absorption of glucose and will provide our pet with energy for a longer period of time.
- Vitamins and minerals: They are essential micronutrients for our dog to metabolize carbohydrates, fats and proteins, in addition, they participate in multiple essential chemical reactions for the organism.
You must ensure that the feed for your dog contains all these nutrients, an observation that you can verify by consulting the nutritional label, obviously, you should never buy a balanced food that does not have complete nutritional information.
Nutrient quality
It is just as important that the balanced food we choose contains the nutrients mentioned above as that they are of good quality. For example, all feed includes protein, but many times these proteins come from animal sources of poor quality, such as poultry beaks, which is harmful to the system digestive system of our dog.
The same can happen with carbohydrates, although they are generally well digestible, they may contain multiple traces of herbicides or be excessively refined, which reduces their nutritional quality.
The best way to guarantee that we are dealing with quality balanced food is to choose a feed that belongs to the high range or "Premium", or failing that, choose a medium range, which still retains good quality, under no circumstances choose a low range of balanced food to nourish your pet.
The low range has a very cheap price, but unfortunately what you don't invest in food will very likely have to be invested later in veterinary visits.
The best balanced foods for dogs are those that include "human grade" nutrients, that is, quality and he althy nutrients that our pet can digest without any problem.
Is the best balanced food dry or wet?
This question is not without controversy. The physiology of our dog's body is prepared (and requires) having food containing approximately 70% moisture, in order to maintain an optimal degree of hydration in all tissues.
So far there is no problem, we can say that the best balanced foods for dogs are wet, however, we know that this can be somewhat detrimental to their oral he alth. When it comes to preventing the accumulation of tartar in our dog, the best food is dry food, as it is more abrasive and helps eliminate residues that persist in the oral cavity.
The ideal is to feed our dog with balanced wet food and periodically also provide dry food, another option is to use dry food regularly but complement it with fresh food with a high water content, such as fruits and vegetables.
The best balanced foods for dogs
We can conclude that the best balanced foods for dogs are those that meet the following requirements:
- They contain all the nutrients our dog needs
- They contain good quality nutrients (we will find them in the high and medium range)
- They adapt to the nutritional requirements of each life stage (puppy, adult and elderly)
- They provide enough moisture to maintain proper hydration
