When you bring a puppy home as a pet, it definitely changes the way you live. You really need to make a lot of adjustments and changes in your life. The nurturing the puppy needs is just as you take care of a child. But what’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you bring an adorable one home? Apart from giving them a great and comfy place to sleep, you need to think about food. So, whenever you have something in mind, we right there at your rescue! Here we will tell you what the best food for puppies are and how frequent you need to give it to them.
Dogs require specific nurturing at every stage of their life, and just like that puppies need the same. Puppies need to get certain nutrients and vitamins for their good health. You need to ensure this for their productive and healthy future.
When you bring one of these cute and adorable ones home, you’ll see them grow up in a jiffy. Overall, the right nutrition is necessary for their bone density, joints, muscles, internal organs, and most importantly their immune system. You would definitely not want to visit the vet very often, would you? That’s why you must be aware of the best food for puppies and what you should look for! Scroll down, we will not disappoint you!
Best Food for Puppies
When you bring home your bundle of joy, you’ll search for options that will indulge you in buying probably the entire store. That’s because you’ll get such overwhelming options, it might puzzle you completely.
So, we’re here to guide you in the best way possible, so that you buy the best food for your puppy. We’ve first got you a list of food categories that you must know primarily before we get into the other ones.
Below are the three typical puppy food categories. Which are:
Super Premium Foods
You will find the Super Premium foods to be much higher in price in comparison to other puppy foods. In fact, they come in a very high quality too. These foods are made such that your puppy is given the adequate nutrition in the minimum amounts. You can just simply categorize these as the best food for puppies. Wellness and Orijen are brands that categorize them as Super Premium food for puppies.
Premium Name Brand Foods
You may call them super quality. Or even consider them as providing you with nutrition in high-quality but the food is still good for your puppies. All you may have to do is feed them some more in quantity.
Premium Name Brands are slightly cheaper than the Super Premium ones. Some pup food brands that consider themselves under this category are- Pedigree, Natural Balance, and Pollux.
Store Brand Generic Foods
This is quite a cheap option you may get in stores, as they produce their own products. You may find the nutrition quotient to be as Super Premium foods. But you may be thinking how can they provide it to you so cheap? (marandolas) Well, since stores have their own production these Store Brands can give it to you at a cheap price.
But if you are in doubt or have any confusion in mind. The vet is the best person you can consult. When you are buying your puppy, speak to the vet. A vet recommended puppy food is always the best food for puppies.
Puppy Food Ingredients
You must always be aware of the ingredients you buy in your puppy food. Its important your puppy gets the correct amount of minerals and vitamins. You must ensure this in order to give them a good diet and healthy growth.
So, here we’ve jotted down for you the ingredients you need to look for in the best food for puppies. Which are:
No Preservatives
When you are looking at the pack of food for your puppy, make sure you read what the label says. It should mention themselves to be free from preservatives or contain natural ones. Are you wondering what are the natural preservatives? Well, those are basically plant extracts. Such as vitamin E and C. You can accept these but nothing else.
Human Grade or Whole Meat:
You can choose the product which says human grade. It actually means it can be eaten by pups and humans can consume it as well. This kind of product is a certified product and you can be sure you’re feeding your puppy food that is fit for human consumption.
Whole grains
Whole grain puppy food is good as it contains fibers that can be easily digestible. It can also provide your puppy with carbohydrates, thus giving them immense energy. Even more, it is important as gives your bundle of joy plenty of proteins too.
Identifiable animal proteins
You must first know why we are specifying on the term ‘identifiable’. That is because you must identify and know what your puppy is consuming. The animal protein your puppy is getting must be either chicken, lamb, beef, or fish. All these proteins are good and important for the full growth of your puppies.
Known Fat Source
Good fats are very good for humans and definitely for growing puppies. But you must look for the pack that says safflower oil or chicken fat. These are natural and have a high content of omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids.
Vegetables and Fruits
The best food for puppies has to contain a high content of vegetables and fruits too. All the veggies and fruits should be high in minerals, antioxidants, and essential vitamins. That is because all these help your puppy to keep away from grave illnesses or have the ability to fight it off easily.
Amino acids and Chelates
Just protein won’t be able to give your pup the best nutrition. So, you must also go for a product that contains-valine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, histidine, arginine and isoleucine.
You simply cannot miss out on the mineral content for your puppy food. The important chelates you should look for in your puppy food are sulfur, calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium.
Puppy Food Ingredients to Avoid
Here we have got for you a list of ingredients you must immediately ditch when looking for the best food for puppies. Moreover, you must remember that these contents may cause harm to your pet and hamper the growth overall.
Whenever you choose a product to feed your puppy, check if the label doesn’t read the following ingredients.
Ingredients you must avoid while buying puppy food are:
Corn
Corn is considered as the worst puppy food ever. You need to check this out as corns are very difficult to digest. Moreover, your puppies may even come in for allergies if they have corn. It also has a low nutritional value and you can simply grade the food as low quality.
Wheat gluten
You will find many puppy food manufacturers choose wheat gluten as an alternative to meat. As you are well-aware that wheat gluten is just like any other gluten. More so, it is absolutely low quality and you can call it inferior too. Meat-based proteins are of the best quality and you must only choose those ones. Even though, gluten provides you with protein, the best food for puppies should contain meat-based ones only.
Meat meal
Most of the time people consider meat meal as ground meat that has little or no water content. But in actual when you’re looking at a label of a puppy food, it means, the food contains grounded hooves, heads, and bones. When you find the label saying by-product meal, meat bone-meal, or by-products, it’s not what you should buy. These have no nutrition and are not at all good for your puppy.
Rendered fat
You need to give your pup fat but in the correct form. Rendered fat is usually from road-killed, diseased, or dying animal fat. You definitely wouldn’t want your puppy to have this. Won’t you? So, avoid a label that reads the generic name of animal fat that is rendered fat.
Food dyes
The best food for puppies never come in a colorful form. Food dyes are given to puppy food to make it appealing but do you really think your puppy cares? It is an add-on chemical content in the pup food which is not good. Even more, the nutritional content comes down to zero. And also causes multiple health ailments in your puppy. So, no more colorful puppy food you must look for, because health is what comes first.
Corn syrup
Corn syrup is usually a sweet liquid that is added to puppy food. But it is also not apt for the health of your puppy. Moreover, high sugar content can cause obesity to your puppy and even health issues. Some of the problems a dog might develop due to obesity are hyperactivity, abnormal behavioral patterns, and most importantly diabetes.
Cellulose
Cellulose is actually a structural carb that is used in buildings. So, you would definitely not want wood shavings or wood pulp in your pet’s food. If a pack of pup food says cellulose, avoid buying them.
Butylated Hydroxyanisola (BHA) & Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT)
Both these BHT and BHA are preservatives in puppy food. These are considered extremely dangerous and must not be given to puppies at any cost. Butylated Hydroxyanisola or BHA is counted among the ones that damage the kidneys of a puppy. On the other hand, Butylated Hydroxytoluene or BHT is a cancer-causing preservative both in dogs and in humans.
Ethoxyquin
Another very harmful preservative which is basically an herbicide is very harmful for the health of a puppy. It can develop into cancer, leukemia, blindness, kidney damage, imbalance in the immune system, and liver damage.
Propylene Glycol
Oftentimes, it is seen dog food manufacturers use this to antifreeze dog food. It can curb the growth of bacteria and even makes pup wet food dry. But the ill-effect of this is, it doesn’t allow good bacteria to grow. Hence, making it difficult for food to digest. Moreover, puppies can eventually grow up to have intestinal block or lesions that can be malignant.
Puppy Feeding Schedule
You now know well what the best food for puppies is going to be like or what it should contain. But you should also get a vivid idea about their feeding schedules. You must know well, how often you need to feed your bundle of joy right through the puppyhood. If you’re thinking about how you need to go about it? Then, you need not worry at all! We’re here to help!
Below is a list of how you need to feed your puppy right through their puppyhood. That is:
6 – 12 weeks old
When your loved little puppy is just brought home, they would ideally be brought when they are within 6-12 weeks old. So, you must formulate the feeding procedure as such that they get the maximum nutrition. You must feed your puppy at least 4 times a day.
3 – 6 months old
When your puppy has aged 3 to 6 months with you, their feeding schedule should change to 3 times in one day. More so, it is time your puppy will start losing their round little belly. So, you will notice them to turn much leaner at this stage.
6 – 12 months old
You must at this stage feed your puppy twice. More so, you can even start off with the adult maintenance with your puppy now. That is because your puppy is turning to be a dog as they get closer to being a year old.
After 1 years old
Your cute little puppy after a year will turn big and you must put them on an adult dog diet. A good two portions should be good enough for your doggy.
Last Thoughts
You can bring any dog breed home but the joy cannot be measured by any weighing scale. But you must remember to take up the responsibility well enough to take care of a loved pet.
So, once you’ve made up your mind to bring home your pet. Here is a plethora of ideas to take and get the best food for puppies to keep them healthy and joyous!
