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Feeding guidelines:
For
puppies, I recommend a high
quality commercial diet with reasonable levels of calcium
and calories, hopefully along with canned and/or
pre-made raw diets that meet the same guidelines. Excess calcium
and calories can
cause a lot of damage in a growing puppy.
There is some room for error in an adults dog's diet,
but NO room for error in a puppy's diet. For this
reason, I do not recommend any type of home-formulated
diet as a staple diet for puppies (or pregnant
bitches.)
I
recommend feeding a commercial food such as Fromm kibble and/or Nature's Variety raw formulas. For more
information on puppy nutrition and suitable foods, click
here.
Pregnant
females should be fed diets with moderate levels
of calcium
since excess calcium can predispose them to uterine
inertia and eclampsia. More on that here.
The trend
these days seems to be "more is better!" there are
kibbles on the market with over 40% protein and almost 600
calories per cup. There are actually very few dogs that
require this level of energy or nutrients. Unless
you have a sled dog, lactating bitch, underweight
dog, newly weaned toy breed puppy or an
agility champion, you probably have no need for these
types of foods. Even chihuahuas with their high
metabolisms have a tendency to become obese when fed
these types of formulas. Sometimes less is more!
For adult dogs
I use and prefer Fromm and Annamaet
dry foods, with added protein in the
form of canned, homecooked or pre-made raw food.
On
home-cooking:
There are
many books on home-cooking for dogs and natural diets
for dogs. I own quite a few of them and have
looked through most of the others. The
misinformation out there is downright scary. There are
recipes that call for "kelp" yet never mention how many
mcg of iodine should be in the kelp. Different
brands of kelp may have vastly different amounts of
iodine. Iodine excess in young puppies can
permanently damage thyroid function. That is just the
beginning. Many recipes I have seen have
imbalanced calcium: phosphorus ratios, are short on
important minerals, contain near toxic amounts of
vitamin A and/or copper, etc, etc.
Even
veterinarian formulated recipes call for human
multi-vitamin/mineral tablets. There is no way to
be sure you are providing balanced nutrition with a
generic vitamin tablet! The foods you use in
your dog's diet already contain vitamins. Some,
like vitamin D or A can be toxic in excess. If you
are feeding a diet high in liver and using a Centrum
vitamin in addition, you could be providing toxic levels
of vitamin A in the diet.
*Just
because someone publishes a book or a website with dog
recipes does not mean those recipes are actually
balanced!
Click on
the link below for more feeding recommendations:
Recommended dry
and canned foods
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Starsen
Chihuahuas