Recommendations for Puppy and Dog Food

Proteins are the essential ingredient to look for in puppy food. Not only the quality of protein but the source and digestibility of the protein.

Why do puppies and dogs need protein?

Protein in puppy food is necessary for proper growth and development. In reality, your puppy doesn't use the protein but they need the necessary source of amino acid that makes up protein. There are 12 amino acids that the puppies and dogs can create on their own the remaining ones they must consume through their food. These are called essential amino acids. They are arginine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine,methionine, phenylalanine, threonine. tryptophan, valine.

What you need to know is that not all proteins are created equally. For example egg has the highest value of 100, fish meal and milk have a value of 92. Beed has a value of 78 and soybean meal is 67. Wheat is at 50 and corn is valued at 45. Protein requirements vary through the rapid growth spurts of your puppy. As a rule the following guidelines are used for dogs.

Dogs will require more protein in their lives depending on their health conditions. Such as pregnant and nursing dogs will require more protein and are often feed puppy food. And dogs with kidney disease will need to be on a protein restricted diet.

Read the pet food label!

Reading and interpreting the label on puppy food or dog food is very important. In quality dog foods digestibility is between 70 to 70%. In lesser quality foods digestibility could drop to 60% or less. The best way to determine this is by reading the ingredients label and noting the order that they are in. The ingredients are always listed by the weight, if the first ingredient is chicken or lamb we can assume it is a good quality protein source. Chicken by products or other meat by-products are not as good but acceptable; meat and bone meal are less protein and grains are basically contributing to carbohydrates.