Nutrition For Your Puppy

By Jim McKiel

This article focuses on some of the nutritional foundations needed to insure your puppy grows into a healthy adult.

The mothers milk provides the puppy with all the nutrients and antibodies he needs for the first four weeks of life. You can introduce moistened puppy kibble around the age of four weeks. This will be introduced to the puppy as he continues to nurse. You may feed the puppy his kibble twice a day as long as he is still getting enough of his mothers milk. Whenever he gives up his nursing, which will be around the age of seven to eight weeks, his dry food feeding will increase. It is still advisable to moisten his dry food with warm water for a few weeks until he has adjusted. Unless your breeder or vet advises, it is not necessary to add canned puppy food to your puppys dry kibble. The dry puppy kibble is sufficient as long as you use a high quality puppy food.

Giving your puppy the right nutrition will provide him a healthy beginning for a healthy life. During a puppys first six months, he will need a highly digestible diet consisting of more protein and fat. A puppy is usually fed three to four small meals a day until he is about four months old. The amount at each feeding will be determined by the brand of food and the advice of the breeder and your vet. It is very important not to over feed the puppy as this may lead to problems later in their life. Along with the vet, your breeder will be able to guide you on the proper feeding plan of your new puppy.

When the puppy is four months old, you may start feeding him three times a day. Once again, the amount of each feeding will be determined by many factors including brand of food, breeder and vet advice. Around nine months of age a puppy is fed twice a day. Some vets recommend feeding a puppy once a day when they reach a year in age. There are some who think you should continue feeding a dog twice a day; just feed them smaller amounts in the morning and evening. This will help avoid gastro-intestinal problems, especially in larger breed dogs. This varies of course and should be discussed with the vet and breeder.

There are many commercial pet foods available for puppies and the quality of these foods vary. Normally the higher quality foods cost more as they use higher quality ingredients and less fillers. This means your puppy will be able to get more nutrients while consuming less food. During a puppys growing stage is not the time to try to save money on cheaper pet food or to feed your puppy table scraps. A quality puppy food will have all the necessary vitamins, proteins and nutrients the animal needs. Also, it is not necessary to give your puppy extra vitamins or supplements if the animal is on a quality pet food unless your vet advises you to do so. Along with quality puppy food make sure your puppy has fresh water at all times.

Large breed puppies actually need less calories and calcium in their diets. A puppy who consumes too many calories and too much calcium may develop joint problems. Large breed dogs have a slower metabolic rate and actually reach their adult weight later then smaller breed dogs. It is essential that large breed puppies dont grow too fast or put on too much weight as puppies as this could cause developmental skeletal problems in later life. Large breeds are usually kept on puppy food longer then smaller breeds; sometimes from one year to eighteen months. Ask your vet or breeder when the large breed puppy should be switched to adult dog food.

As discussed before, table scraps are not recommended for dogs. Any human food that contains salt, sugar or other addictives may upset the puppies or dogs gastro system. Animals dont need salt or sugar in their diet and human food is loaded in these ingredients.

Good nutrition for your puppy is the stepping stone to a healthy, happy dog. A well cared for puppy is easier to train and will make an obedient and trusted member of the family.

Jim McKiel lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife Doris and their pet family members Buddy and Buster. They have devoted their lives to the betterment of pet ownership. For more information, visit Large Breed Family Dogs

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The Nutrition Bridge And Probiotics For Dogs And Pets

What you do not know about probiotics can deprive you, your dog and other pets of a huge health advantage. Probiotics benefit dogs, cats and people by helping prevent chronic health problems. They benefit your dog by reducing toxins, strengthening organs, removing bound, decaying matter, and fortifying your dogs system with important nutrients lost with processed foods, antibiotics, illness or stress. Probiotics should be selected based on the health and stress level of the animal, and compliment any veterinary therapy.

Nutrition is a bridge between cells of the body and the microorganisms that inhabit the healthy gastrointestinal tract (GIT), which extends from the mouth to the anus, hosting approximately 400 different species of microorganisms, called endogenous flora or microflora.

All mammals require these beneficial organisms and biologically produce substances to create a hospitable environment for them to take up residency, for necessary health and proper functioning of the GIT.

You may ask why cancer is the number one killer of all pets?

Processed foods and stressful environments deprive dogs and the rest of us of these valuable organisms and nutrients we need to metabolize.

Endogenous microflora play an intrinsic role in your dogs digestive issues: gas, bloat, bad breath, inflammatory bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, constipation, diarrhea, vomiting, stool eating, chronic skin problems and allergies. Included in the list are life-threatening vaccine reactions, parasites, worms, endurance fatigue, hypertension and joint problems, especially for elderly dogs, and immunology. The microflora and the immune system are intrinsically connected. What hurts one negatively affects the other. Few diseases are isolated in nature, and repercussions throughout the body are probable.

Stress, pH changes due to antibiotics, or cessation of nutrient flow in your dog or any mammal can kill off endogenous microflora attached to the walls of the GIT. As a result, areas within the GIT are stripped of the naturally protective microorganisms, creating an open invitation to opportunistic pathogens that can make animals sick by competing for available nutrients and starving the beneficial microorganisms or, more seriously, through the production of toxins. Food poisoning often involves bacterial toxins. The smallest amount of toxin can make an animal sick to deathly ill, and it can happen quickly.

Probiotics may assist in the dogs faster recovery.

Probiotics for our dogs and other mammals act as replacements until the endogenous microflora, decimated by antibiotics or stress, can recover.

Antibiotics may or may not kill the initial invading microorganisms, but they indiscriminately kill beneficial probiotics in dogs. Probiotics for dogs on antibiotics regimen should be given at twice the usual rate with doses staggered to maximize benefits. Antibiotics can kill probiotic microorganisms. Probiotics help control infections and prevent secondary infections, not in the GIT but by stimulating the immune system. They benefit our dogs by improving their microbial balance which includes bacteria, yeasts, and fungi that protect against pathogens and allow the endogenous microorganisms to recover.

To help your dog get the best protective coverage, rather than opportunistic pathogens, use a wide-spectrum probiotic, containing required amounts of the widest selection possible of different species. No one species is the best for every requirement or need and it can take 10 to 14 days for probiotics to fully activate in your dogs system. More concentrated forms begin working within a few hours.

An effective probiotic is Lactobacillus acidophilus, meaning "acid lover". Its a lactic acid-producing bacteria that lives in the stomach. It prefers acid and will secrete enough of its own acid to maintain a pH that is uncomfortable for many opportunistic pathogens. Other probiotics prefer the less acidic environs of the large intestine, and will successfully pass through the stomach and continue to the colon. There are always some probiotic microorganisms that succumb to the extreme conditions in the stomach, and that is why initial doses should be higher. The mechanisms are not completely understood, but probiotics act as regulators of the intestinal microflora, as a source of digestive enzymes, and as a positive stimulant to the immune system.

Giving probiotics to your pet helps produce natural antibiotics, which fight harmful bacteria. Probiotics benefit the dogs digestion of food, and aid in absorption of nutrients, antioxidants, and iron from food digested. They can help your dog with food intolerance while aiding in absorption of B vitamins, biotin and folic acid. Probiotics for dogs assist in controlling the growth of yeast, regulating hormone levels, stimulating the immune system, reducing inflammation and increasing energy levels.

Buying from a distributor or retailer, do you really know what you are getting?

Storage and handling of probiotics for your canine influences the actual quantity of viable microorganisms consumed. The package you buy may have had the CFU (colony forming units) of the various organisms listed on the label when it left the manufacturer, but are they there in the same amounts when your pet gets the product? The most effective probiotics are the freshest ones that spend the least time away from the manufacturer.

We have existed as a company since 1985, but it was a love of dogs, the dogs that have been a part of our life, and the passing of one dog in particular, Rusty, that inspired the creation of http://www.CalloftheDog.com and http://www.CalloftheDogShop.com -- created to provide the things your dogs and pets need. Visit us for great information and quality dog supplies! Be sure to see our About Us page as well.

The two sites are dedicated to the dogs we have loved so deeply, and who have given us so much love in return. Purebreds and mixed breeds, but mostly rescues in need of a home. We educated them, but each one has had something to teach us in exchange.

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