Five tips for choosing the best dog food based on ingredients, calories, size, and age. The video recommends Barkan, a personalized dog food brand tailored to your dog's specific needs.
Nutrition is one of the basic pillars of our furry friends health. For this reason, knowing how to choose a good feed is essential if we want to have a healthy and long lived dog. In this video by an animal expert, we'll give you the best tips for recognizing quality feed. Pay attention and take not one look at its main ingredient. On the feed label you can see the ingredients used in order of greatest to least quantity. Good quality feed should be composed mostly of meat or fish such as chicken, beef, lamb, salmon or turkey. Specifically, it should have at least 20 to 40% meat or fish, although ideally it should be as high as possible because animal protein should be the main ingredient of the feed. Of course, it's important that the feed label specifies, e.g. chicken meat, since this is not the same as chicken meal or simply chicken. Why? Very simple, because with the word chicken without specifying what the meat is, the manufacturer may have used any part of this animal. This can be positive or negative, but we cannot know exactly what it contains. On the other hand, the term chicken meal or salmon meal is used when the ingredient has been dehydrated and ground into flour, also without knowing exactly which part of the animal has been used. In general, flowers have a very low nutritional value and indicate that the feed is not of good quality. But we should not only look at the percentage, but also at the quality. Keep in mind that chicken meat is not the same as an animal by product. If the manufacturer indicates that more than 20% of the ingredients are fresh, dehydrated or hydrolyzed meat, it is a high quality feed. If, on the contrary, the the label indicates animal byproducts as the first ingredient, keep in mind that it refers to parts of animals that are not suitable for human consumption, so you will be looking at poor quality feed. 2. Avoid feed with a high percentage of cereals. Many feed manufacturers use cereals to reduce costs and thus obtain greater profits, but the truth is that not all cereals are equally nutritious. For our dog, rice is the most recommended cereal, but always in small quantities. In any case, cereals are not an essential ingredient, so you can also opt for a grain free feed if you prefer, or if you have noticed that your dog has digestive problems when eating them. The important thing, as always, is to know the particular needs of your dog. Remember that the order of the ingredients matters, so if you see that the first ingredient that appears is a cereal, it will mean that it is the main one and therefore it will not be a feed that we consider to be of quality. 3. Check the rest of the ingredients. Although the ideal feed should be composed mainly of meat and fish, we can find other ingredients that are also positive for the dog, such as fruits, vegetables or legumes. These foods are also beneficial as long as they appear in smaller percentages. Therefore, in a quality feed, they will be present at the end of the list of ingredients, occupying a maximum of 10 to 15% of the total. In general, it it is best for the list of ingredients to be clear and as transparent as possible. If it is loaded with ingredients that you are not familiar with because their names sound strange to you, it may be a low quality feed. 4. Look at the calories it contains when choosing a good dog food, it is also good to look at the calories it contains. A good dog food always specifies its caloric value since it is very important to prevent obesity in our dog. In this way, our dog will need to consume more or fewer calories depending on its physical activity. For example, if your dog is very active, it is advisable to choose a feed that has more than 300 calories per 100 grams. In any case, we advise you to consult this information with your veterinarian. A good option to ensure that the diet is ideal for your dog is to opt for a personalized feed such as that of the Barkan brand at Barkin. They seek to know your dog well in order to offer you the best feed adapted to its needs. After that, you can choose between the three plans they offer, all made with high quality natural ingredients. Once you've chosen a plan, you'll have access to a personal veterinarian who will monitor your dog to make sure the diet meets their needs. They can also answer any questions you may have at any time. Not only that, but once you have the plan active, you'll also get access to their online store for snacks, wet food, cannabis and salmon oil supplements, and much more. Barkan is undoubtedly a good option for offering your dog a highly nutritious and balanced diet as it's completely adapted to their needs. 5. Consider the size of your dog. The size of the dog also matters. If your dog is a small breed, you should look for a food designed for dogs of this size. You can't feed them food with medium or large balls because it could cause problems such as difficulty chewing them, damage to their teeth and gums, or choking. Likewise, the giving a dog small kibble can cause other problems such as eating too quickly and not chewing properly. Therefore, you need to choose a feed with kibble that is the right size for your furry friend. 6 Choose the feed according to the age of the dog. Puppies, adults and seniors have completely different needs. Puppy feed is specially formulated for dogs under one year old. For this reason, it contains a greater amount of essential nutrients for development such as calcium. The same goes for older dogs that do not have the same lifestyle as younger dogs. For them, it is necessary to choose a feed that is specially formulated for dogs that barely burn calories in addition to other aspects. If after learning all this information, you have found the best feed for your dog, here above we give you some tips to help your dog get used to its new diet. All of this advice is focused on feeding healthy dogs. If your dog has any problems and needs to receive a specific diet, your veterinarian should tell you which is best. Tell us do you read the ingredients label before buying a feed? Until next time, experts.
