Most dog owners know that getting your pup on a good food routine can be difficult. Once you have figured out one that works, it’s tempting to stick to “what you know” as long as possible. We completely understand why it’s natural to stay with status quo, but after spending several years working closely with Veterinary Nutritionists to develop healthy dog meals, we learned a thing or two…
Here are the 3 biggest pitfalls dog owners make when feeding their fur babies, and more importantly, how you can avoid them.
Only Feeding Your Dog Processed Foods
We know what’s healthy for human diets – real fruits, veggies, and a diet high in proteins. Funny enough, a healthy dog diet should consist of fresh food too!
Kibble and canned food go through a BUNCH of processing to ensure the food is shelf stable, so it loses most of its natural nutrition, meaning that minerals and synthetic vitamins need to be added back in. When we switched our dogs to real ingredients, we quickly saw an improvement in digestion and they quickly absorbed the nutrition they need to stay healthy.
Meals for Fido’s recipes are only made from locally sourced, human-grade ingredients. We aren’t ashamed to admit that our food will go bad if you leave it out for too many days – that’s what happens to real food!
Forgetting About Portion Control
Obesity rates in dogs are on the rise. One of the biggest reasons of doggy weight-gain is (no surprise) their calorie intake. We all love adorable plump pups, but studies show that using a body composition scale, if you keep your dog at a 4 or 5 (vs. a 5 or 6), you could extend their lives by as much as 20%! To find out what your fur baby’s caloric needs are, talk to your vet or check out our feeding calculator to calculate your dog’s unique caloric needs, keeping them healthy longer.
Getting Home-Cooking Wrong
Preparing your dog’s meals from scratch can be a fantastic option, but you need to be extra cautious to ensure that the meals you prepare have all the nutrition your dog needs. Dog meals should be low-carb and protein-rich. They also need a very specific blend of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids so you’ll want to keep this in mind when preparing their food. Lastly, there are some human foods that are harmful to your dog: You’ll never want to use avocado, onions or macadamia nuts in your dog’s meals.
Knowing what NOT to do is half the battle – it might be worth letting Meals for Fido do the work for you!
Meals for Fido delivers freshly made, vet-balanced dog food from real, human-grade ingredients that'll make our dogs’ taste buds dance. We gently cook our food at low temperatures to maximize nutritional value. Prepared by a Chef in a scratch kitchen, we tailor each meal to your dog’s one-of-a-kind needs and deliver directly to your doorstep.