{"id":23,"date":"2008-12-30T20:03:47","date_gmt":"2008-12-30T20:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/talentedanimals.com\/blog\/?p=23"},"modified":"2008-12-30T20:03:47","modified_gmt":"2008-12-30T20:03:47","slug":"optimal-nutrition-for-your-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talentedanimals.com\/blog\/optimal-nutrition-for-your-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimal Nutrition for your Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cornerstone of good health is good nutrition. The “debate” concerning what represents optimum nutrition is passionate and ongoing.\u00a0 On the one hand are people who see huge risks to home prepared diets– primarily these risks are nutritional imbalance, and disease from uncooked meats.\u00a0 On the other hand are people who perceive a value in whole, live, raw foods, and believe these benefits are well worth the risks.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0At Talented Animals we prepare fresh food for our dogs.\u00a0\u00a0 We believe many of the big name dog food companies are making a profit at the expense of our dogs’ health. We have home cooked since 1990 and have seen wonderful health and vitality in our dogs during that time. In addition to many years and many dogs fed our diet, Lauren is currently pursuing an MS in canine immunology and physiology, so the information herein is very current.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Home preparing diets is not something we casually recommend.\u00a0 Unless you take the time to educate yourself it is very easy to overlook essential nutrients or to provide nutrients in an inappropriate ratio. We believe this diet can be far superior to a store bought feed, but it is extremely important to ensure balance.\u00a0 If you cannot do this, feed a quality dog food!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Unless you are genuinely interested in taking the time to learn about nutrition, we recommend a quality dog food with a few supplements.\u00a0 Reasonably good foods can be found such as California Natural, Pinnacle, Innova, Evo, FarMore, etc. Whole Dog Journal lists the best foods they could find each year, and generally their list is excellent.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If you are going to home prepare, please learn everything you can!\u00a0 There is lots of good information available on the subject!\u00a0 One thing to be careful of is that home preparing has recently become something of a fad and instant experts have popped up everywhere.\u00a0 Some of them have excellent information, but be sure to read a wide cross section of opinions and then REACH YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS! There is no one right diet.\u00a0 Each dog in each situation has different requirements.\u00a0 Learn to look at your dog and read the telltale signs of health. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One of the challenges in pursuing a healthy lifestyle for your dogs lies in balancing their “natural” needs with the fact that they are no longer in a pristine environment.\u00a0 So merely mimicking a natural canid diet is not going to be ideal for a dog that rides around in your car, sits in front of the TV, drinks chlorinated water, etc.\u00a0 However, looking at the natural state of our dogs progenitors certainly provides essential clues to what their bodies are designed for.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What we Feed–<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This is a question we are asked often, but are always a little nervous answering.\u00a0 What we feed may not be right for a particular dog.\u00a0 You need to read and learn and then watch your dog!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We generally feed our dogs twice a day.\u00a0 A morning meal of vegetable\/fruit mix with one of the following likely added: egg, mackeral, kefir, honey, etc. The evening meal is predominately meat or meaty bones.\u00a0 Each meal has supplements.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We fast for 24 hours once a week.\u00a0 We perform a chem. screen on each dog at least once a year and compare the results to try and identify any problems.\u00a0 This also helps to establish baselines which will be very useful if diagnosis is ever necessary.\u00a0 Commonly, dogs fed a meat based diet have a different normal baseline than the references provided by the veterinarian or the diagnostic lab. The normal reference range provided by them have been developed using dogs on a cereal\/grain based diet.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A typical diet consists of 65-80% meats, 10-15% fruits\/veggies, 5-10% organ meats and a very small percentage of grains and supplements.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Staple Foods<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n