One of the first things you should consider when taking care of your pup is their diet and nutrition to prevent any deficiencies in their growth and development.
As a fur parent, you don’t need to fret about which dog food you should choose to excel in pet care. There can be a lot of questions, from the vitamins to which ingredients are good for their diet. In this article, you’ll have the answers to start shopping and getting the right dog food for your pup.
You may ask what essential vitamins and minerals your puppy should have. Most dog foods are already formulated with the right amount of vitamins and minerals appropriate for their age and weight.
But if ever your puppy gets deficient in some of the required vitamins and minerals, there are vitamins for humans that your puppy may also need. You can check out this list of vitamins suitable for your puppy and some of their food sources.
Now, you can check on these foods rich in the following minerals for your puppy.
You should consider their weight to get the right nutrition in your puppy’s dog food. As your puppy tends to grow, consider its weight to know the amount of food it needs to consume.
Monitoring the appropriate weight for their age and breed is also important to know if they are underweight, obese, or in a normal range. Puppies below the normal weight range may indicate their nutrient deficiency. As for puppies beyond the normal weight range, they may later have orthopedic problems or may affect their usual activities.
If they’re overweight or obese, you should consider dog foods with less fat content. Luckily, PETstock has stocks of different dog foods appropriate for small, medium, or large breeds of puppies’ nutritional requirements and dietary conditions, which can also support digestive health and immunity.
Puppies are more energetic and active than adult dogs, so their food should have higher calories. They burn calories faster because of their activities and would also need it for muscle and bone development.
The puppy’s breed says a lot about its biological structure, which can vary in size, shape, and metabolism. Puppies such as a Chihuahua and a Golden Retriever would have different bone growth, as Golden Retrievers can grow between medium-sized to large breeds.
Thus, Chihuahuas and Golden Retrievers should have different types of dog food that should be based on their development needs. For large breed dogs, minerals such as calcium and phosphorus should have a specific ratio in their dog food to accommodate proper bone development.
Check on the dog food ingredients to see if it’s providing vital nutrients for the puppy’s development and should have a higher amount of nutrients than adult dogs. The essential fatty acid DHA should be present in the dog food ingredients to develop the puppy’s nervous system.
Also, getting a high amount of DHA into the puppy’s diet could increase their memory and make them more trainable.
Switching to dog food you think is more appropriate or what the vet has recommended should be done slowly for their digestive system to adapt. This also prevents them from upsetting their digestive system, which may lead to diarrhea, vomiting, or even loss of appetite.
You can start by mixing 75% of their previous dog food with 25% of the new one. You can mix half of the previous dog food and the new one a few days later. Eventually, mix 75% of the new dog food with 25% of the previous one until you feed the puppies 100% of the new dog food.
