The 4 Principles of Dog Nutrition
Losing my first dog way, way too early, made me wonder if better food could have helped him. Poor Khan passed away when he was just 6 years old. When Marco (pictured here with me) came along and he too suffered health issues as a pup, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Once again my vet didn’t have the answer, so I decided to put my own theories to the test. I decided to start cooking for my dog.
At the time, my husband was reading a book by renowned nutrition experts Professors Marion Nestle and Malden C Nesheim, leading lights on the subject of human and animal nutrition in the USA. They maintained that if you are capable of cooking for yourself and your family, there’s no reason why you can’t do the same for your pet providing you follow three fundamental principles of nutrition. These principles apply to all animals, including human beings and dogs.
1. Balance
In terms of a dog’s diet, balance entails getting its protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals in the right proportions. Just bear in mind that you don’t have to balance every meal. ‘Balance over time‘ is what you’re looking to achieve.
2. Variety
Think about how you feed yourself and your family. Today you have fish and chips. Tomorrow you have a roast dinner with all the trimmings. Over the following days you have a ham salad, a chicken curry with rice, pork tenderloin and mixed veg, a pizza with baked potato and coleslaw, and end the week with lasagne, chips and salad.
Different foods contain different nutrients in different quantities. Without giving it much if any thought, you have created a balanced diet with the meals above. That’s all you need to do for your dog!
I’m not saying you can feed your dog those meals. You can’t. And I’m not saying that is the healthiest diet in the world for a human being. It isn’t. But if you adopt that as a principle for home cooking for your dog, you can’t go far wrong.
3. Moderation
The third principle is just as straightforward as the first two. Feed your dog just the right about of food to maintain a healthy weight.
Studies have proven that overweight dogs live shorter lives. Excess weight is one of your dog’s greatest enemies. So feed just enough to fuel your dog’s body every day so that calories in equal calories out and you can’t go far wrong.
In terms of feeding our dogs, I’ve added one more ‘Principle of Nutrition’ of my own. Supplementation.
You see, no matter how well we feed our dogs, there’s always a little more we can do.
While, as Professors Nestle and Nesheim noted, it is exceptionally difficult to create a nutritional imbalance in a dog’s diet if we feed according to those principles, it’s comforting to be absolutely certain that our dogs have all the nutrients they need from their diet. That’s where supplementation comes in.
Supplementation is how we fill in any tiny cracks in an otherwise perfect diet.
So here’s my very own, fourth principle of dog nutrition.
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4. Supplementation
No matter how well we feed our dogs, all dogs need calcium in their diet. If you home cook for your dog as I do, you will definitely need to supplement it with calcium, and a natural vitamin and mineral blend wouldn’t go amiss either.
Calcium is an essential mineral for a dog. It helps build and maintain strong teeth and bones. It also helps with digestion, assists in blood clotting, heart and nerve function and more besides. Whether you feed your dog 2 or 3 raw meaty bones a week or supplement with a calcium supplement, supplementing a dog’s diet with calcium is an absolute essential!
Most commercial calcium supplements are made of powdered limestone. Our dogs deserves better than ground up rock surely? So since the next best source of calcium after raw meaty bones is treated and ground eggshells, my dog nutritionist husband and I created our own Dog Chef Calcium.
I also recommend supplementing a dog’s diet with a vitamin and mineral blend. Once again, most commercial supplements for dogs are made with synthetic ingredients. They’re made in a lab with chemicals left over from the manufacture of other products. Far from natural in my view!
Dog Chef Daily on the hand is a 100% natural blend of specially chosen herbs and spices, handmade by me and my team in my own kitchens. It’s a daily superfood supplement for dogs that you could take too if you wanted. It’s entirely plant-based without any additives or preservatives whatsoever.
To summarise my 4 principles of dog nutrition: following those principles and supplementing with healthy ingredients, I found cooking for my dog a breeze.
Marco (pictured above aged 10), thrived on it. I hope your dog will too!
Nature knows best
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