Welcoming a puppy to your house is more challenging than bringing the new pet home. You must ensure your puppy’s safe space, begin Crate training, and go through potty training. Find your accurate dog diet to benefit the development of your pup.
Giving your puppy a nutrition plan that encourages improvement and enhances her health is easier than you believe. If you remember some key factors at the forefront when choosing the diet for your puppy, choosing an appropriate puppy’s food is easy.
Why Puppy Food?
Puppy puppies have different nutrition requirements from adult dogs. This is why feeding them “puppy food” is essential. One of the most crucial steps in selecting a suitable pet food is choosing the one with a label specifically for puppies or “formulated for growth.” The right puppy food for your pup will add these in the quantity that will benefit and support the development of your dog:
- Protein
- Fat
- Carbohydrates
- Calcium
- Phosphorous
- Copper
- Amino acids, specifically arginine, Phenylalanine and the amino acid tyrosine
A puppy’s digestive tract is developing, and the food you feed your puppy should be highly digestible to alleviate stomach discomfort and upset.
What To Look For in a Good Puppy Food
It’s a fact that there are enough puppy food varieties and brands out there, and there are many different brands and formulations available, but not all of them are equal. If you’re trying to choose which is the desirable puppy food for your dog, take note of these things:
- Expected Adult Size
If you are looking for giant and large-breed puppies (expected to weigh more than 50 pounds at the time of their adulthood), think about an adult food designed specifically for large- and large-breed breeds of canines.
One of the most significant issues with feeding giant or large breeds of puppies is that they need to supply more calories and nutrients. This may cause your dog to expand too fast. Rapid growth leads to irregular bone growth and bone abnormalities that affect the ability of your dog to move around and be active later on. Specially designed puppy food to accommodate larger dogs favours lower calories as well as lower levels of calcium than the other choices and benefits to control the puppy’s skeletal development of muscles.
- Breed
Many dog-friendly foods are advertised in the form of “breed-specific food.” These foods are not required for your new puppy, but they could benefit by providing the best amount of kibble for your pup and a customized nutrition profile for your dog’s breed. Examples:
- Breeds with longer coats could benefit from a growth formula containing more fat and essential fatty acids. This would help maintain a healthy hair coat and skin.
- Large-breed formulations are more likely to contain greater amounts of fibre, which can benefit the rise in stool quality and firmness.
- Other ingredients can be added to fight common breed-related issues, like Eukanuba’s Boxer formulation, which contains extra omega-3 fats, Taurine, L-carnitine, and other important nutrients beneficial to heart health.
Although it isn’t necessary an individual puppy food for your breed can focus on providing an extra nutritional advantage to your pet.
- Ingredient Profile
There is no particular ingredient to consider when choosing excellent puppy food. However, pet parents should ensure that the food is manufactured by a trusted manufacturer and made with high-quality components.
Feeding your puppy a grain-free diet is not advised due to its association with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) growth. The problem may not only be the absence of grains but also the addition of ingredients in lieu of grains, which could change the way nutrients are processed to ensure proper heart and function development.
Particular breeds cause this problem, mainly related to the diet. The research on this subject is still ongoing and contradicting. However, for the moment, it’s perfect to be cautious and stay clear of grain-free diets, especially for your puppy, as its vital organs are maturing.
The Best Puppy Food Brands
There are many brand names of dog food available for you to pick from that your choices could be daunting. To benefit from narrowing your selections, choose a company dedicated to conducting rigorous research into the products it makes through regular feeding tests.