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Complete Dog Food

Whether dogs are better off on a meat diet or a formulated dog food diet has been debated for a long time; probably since the first complete dog food was realeased.

Some owners swear by dog food saying that since it has been around for so long and has been carefully put together to ensure it's nutritionally balanced to meet a dog's needs then it must be fine. Other owners say simply that dogs are carnivores, therefore they are meant to eat meat and so that 's what they shall get.

Deciding what's best for your dog can be challenging and you need to weigh up the pros with the cons for each type of diet.

Regular Complete Dog Food. This is the food which actually has 'complete' written on the packaging as opposed to 'complimentary' which is basically just a treat. Complete food is made by the manufacturer to contain everything they believe the dog needs in order to be a normal healthy animal. Causes for Concern: The main cause of concern for owners is that the cereals present in dog foods cause allergic reactions, hyperactivity, excesssive thirst and diarrhea. There has been a LOT of bad press on this subject, especially on the internet.

But you have to remember the internet is not regulated and people only write in to forums to complain, never to say the food was fine so you need to assume that for every angry customer that are probably 100's of happy ones.
In fact food allergies in a dog's diet only make up around 10% of those tested by veterinarians. The other 90% are caused by either pollen, cleaning products or dust.

Can you tell which is a good complete dog food by the ingredients? The answer is no. Dog food manufacturers are well aware that these days dog owners have been brainwashed into thinking a complete food which lists a cereal first is bad. So they go to great efforts to put a meat meal first in the ingredients list, though this does not actually mean the main ingredient is meat.

Example: If a complete dog food contains 100g beef meal, 50g rice, 50g wheat bran, 50g hulled rice and 50g of hulled corn then the first ingredient listed on the food will be beef meal despite the fact the food contains twice as much cereal as beef.

So you cant go by the ingredients listed.

Balanced Diet: The key to having a healthy dog is to remember that they need a balanced diet just the same as we do. No one type of dog food is going to contain everything they need for their entire lives, no matter how expensive it is. If you vary your dogs food you stand a much better chance of giving them everything they need. So try out different dog foods, cheap and expensive, until you find one that your dog likes and doesn't upset his digestion. Then vary what you add to it, give him scraps from your cooking; vegetable and meat alike. Cook him a bit of extra minced meat and add that to his rations to make sure he has plenty of protein.

Basically just be sensible, remember that dog food manufacturers are out for profit just like every other business, and losing their customers because of a shoddy product will ruin them. If your dog is full of life, strong and fit with a healthy glow to him then he's a happy dog and that at the end of the day is what you want.