Title: How To Give Your Pet A Balanced Diet
Author: Derek Rogers
Just like all other living creatures, pet animals like dogs and
cats require a combination of carbohydrates, fats, vitamins,
proteins, minerals and water. This balance can be achieved by
creating a balanced nutrition diet, providing sufficient calorie
amounts to meet the daily needs of the animal for activity,
growth and repair. While many pet food bags claim that they are
"complete nutrition" foods, this claim means absolutely nothing
unless the nutrients within are in a form that the pet can
absorb into their system.
For example, since the hemicelluloses and celluloses of plant
cells is not digestible in raw forms by dogs and cats, foods
that are based on grains as a primary source of protein and
carbohydrates absolutely must be processed in a manner that
allows the nutrients to be extracted by the animal's digestive
system. Not only do most major pet food companies work hard to
balance their pet foods, but they also make every effort to
provide ingredients in the most usable form possible.
Pet foods must contain vitamins and minerals in concentrations
that are balanced as well. If there is too much of one mineral
or vitamin, it may actually have interference against the
absorption of another vitamin or mineral. Too little of a vital
nutrient can interfere with vitamin or mineral use. Major pet
food companies generally strive to provide the most balanced
proportions of minerals and vitamins and other nutrients based
on years of studies, and most pet food companies are constantly
fine tuning their recipes to benefit the pets that their foods
feed.
There are differences in the way that each pet food maker
processes their food, and in the quality of ingredients they
use, which can contribute to the balance of the food's
nutrition. There are also finished product, storage and
ingredient humidity and temperature changes that contribute to
variation in the quality of the food. Some pet characteristics
affect nutritional needs in food, including age, breed, activity
level and level of health. More and more pet food companies are
coming out with specialized foods for certain animal breeds,
activity levels (overweight, sporting, working), size (small dog
formula, large dog formula) and age level (senior formula, baby
formula) and so on.
For some pets, a balanced nutrition requires an anti-allergen
food, such as a duck and potato blend for dogs and cats with
allergies to certain grains.
The best way to determine what the right balance is for your
dog or cat is to speak to your veterinarian. Your veterinarian
will have a good idea of the myriad of food choices out there,
and will be able to recommend a food that will offer the right
nutritional balance for your pet. It might be fruitful to
explore a second opinion, or even a third, because some
veterinarians give preferential treatments to certain food
brands and may be making a somewhat biased decision.
However, slight differences in processing temperatures, in
quality of the ingredients purchased, and storage humidity and
temperature of ingredients of the finished product can cause
variations in the quality that may affect a particular dog, a
particular breed, or a particular line of dogs within a breed.
In addition, some breeds or groups of breeds may require
slightly different percentages of particular nutrients.
Therefore, all dog foods are not perfect for all dogs, a factor
that leads to the production of a plethora of different foods,
claims, and processing methods.
About The Author: Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who
represents a number of UK businesses. For advice on pet food, he
recommends Seapets, one of the UK's leading suppliers of
http://www.seapets.
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