Dogs Can Look Good An A Bad Diet

Dog Food

Dogs Can Look Good An A Bad Diet

The definition of a dog looking good is easy to agree upon. Shiny coat, clear skin, clean teeth, no tear stains unless the breed is predisposed due to the structure of the eye, and a generally happy, active dog. The definition of a good diet is debatable. Some people say that the obvious choice is a prey model diet while others claim that following the National Research Council Guidelines (NRC) works best. By the way, don't confuse NRC with the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). NRC is an independent body, not affiliated with AAFCO.

As it turns out, when whole prey was analyzed, it meets NRC numbers. Due to this it's easy to understand why a diet, be it whole prey, or analyzed to meet NRC, will work well. The trouble is that few people actually feed a whole animal. By feeding a part of this animal and a part of the other, we tend to stray quite badly from whole prey and NRC recommendations. Yet, some dogs look amazingly healthy. How can this be?

The body is nothing short of a miraculous machine and has mineral reserves. Think of these reserves as bank accounts, each with a fluctuating total as days pass by. When the body requires more of a mineral that's in reserve, it simply withdraws from the account. When an excess of this same mineral is supplied, the body makes a deposit into the account. One of the critical components to health is the balance in each account. Obviously, a dog that doesn't have much in the way of a mineral reserve has a poor account that can lead to bankruptcy. While a certain mineral account is being depleted, the dog continues to look good and may seem to be in fine health. This is especially true of dogs that have been switched from commercial diets to home-prepared diets. Kibble provides many times the mineral requirement so the reserves of this dog are great and will likely maintain him for a long time. Sadly, this is not true of other dogs that haven't had the chance to build great reserves and they are the ones most likely to develop problems later on in life.

The theory behind feeding variety of foods to provide all that a dog needs can backfire. Here is an example of a very poor (raw, prey model) diet despite that it provides a variety of foods. It's meant to feed a 50 pound dog over a one week period and provides the expected number of calories for healthy weight maintenance. In fact, it follows the common ‘rules' of feeding 2-3% of bodyweight, 10% organ meats etc. An analysis follows.

7 oz rabbit with bones
8 oz turkey neck
15 oz chicken backs
8 oz lamb rib
19 oz chicken quarters
7 oz chicken necks
7 oz mackerel, canned, with bones
6 oz beef kidney
6 oz beef heart
6 oz chicken liver
8 oz chicken hearts
8 oz chicken gizzards
10 oz ground beef, 20% fat
16 oz ground turkey
8 oz ground lamb
2 oz pork kidney
2500 mg wild salmon oil
This diet plan provides 1044 calories per day that break down as 37% from protein, 1% from carbohydrates and 62% from fat.

Vitamin A content is fine, B vitamins are well covered and vitamin C is only provide as 10 mg. Since vitamin C is not considered essential for dogs, this does not present a problem. The diet provides 80 IU of vitamin D and this dog requires 182 IU but assuming he receives direct sunlight daily, this is probably fine. Vitamin E is not being supplied. Not only is this vitamin necessary but with such a high fat diet, it's needed in a greater amount than usual.

Minerals are the biggest problem here.

The diet provides 3105 mg of calcium is much more than this dog requires and although an adult dog is able to regulate calcium well, the diet provides only 15.5 mg of zinc (this dog requires 23 mg per day). The relationship between calcium and zinc is that calcium makes zinc less available to the body so the fact that this dog is not receiving enough to begin with is a double problem.

Magnesium is being provided as 154 mg. This dog needs 2227 mg.

Phosphorus is being provided as 2340 mg, more than what this dog needs but balanced with calcium
The diet provides 1250 mg of potassium and this dog needs 1590 mg.

Sodium is being provides as 796 mg. Much more than the dog needs (147 mg) but healthy kidneys excrete excess very well.

Copper is being provided as 0.68 mg. The dog needs 2.27 mg.

Iron is being provided as 15.35 mg. The dog requires 12 mg.

Manganese, so important for the skeleton, is being provides as 0.19 mg. The dog needs 1.82 mg.

Selenium is being provided as 113 mcg. The dog needs 136 mcg.

Consider the fact that puppies need much greater amounts of minerals than adult dogs do and imagine feeding this poor diet to a puppy! Unfortunately, it happens more often than you'd imagine.

I've seen these types of diets work very well when they're thought out. Unfortunately, the foods listed above would not make an animal of any kind unless we can somehow come up with something that has the heart of a chicken and cow, kidneys of a cow and pig, ribs of a lamb, neck of a turkey etc. I have nothing against the prey animal as a role model for diets. Since most people don't feed whole animals, diets can be grossly deficient in some minerals and provide excessive amounts of others. Generic diets based on percentages commonly produce the results you see above and while the dog may look great, mineral reserves are not.

Author: Monica Segal - http://www.monicasegal.com

View(708 Time) - Print This Articles - Post Date: 2007-02-14 23:52:07