The Combo Approach to Feeding By Kelly Marshall At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Though children are told never to feed the dog from the dinner table in recent years veterinarians have begun to rethink this advice. While they still recommend that you feed your pet commercial dry and canned foods, they now believe that a healthy alternative is to use a combination feeding method. What is combination feeding? As you might expect, the method involves mixing dog food with human food.

The reason experts have begun to advocate this method is that it provides dogs with a more nutritious overall meal. Though commercial foods are good for your pet, they often lack the vitamins and nutrients of fresh human foods. But since dogs don't digest food the way that humans do, you should not overdo it. After all, your pet will be happy with just a bit of fresh human food in his bowl. You can tell by the way he scarfs it down in record time!

The combination approach is especially important for puppies and growing dogs. While commercial foods do have respectable amounts of proteins and vitamins, fresh foods have much more. For example, any kind of fresh meat or fish contains double or triple the amount of protein, vitamins, and minerals as commercial dog food.

Although dogs can remain healthy with a diet entirely comprised of commercial foods, in time they may become bored with it and eat less. I mean, think about yourself. What would you do if you had to eat the exact same food everyday of the week? Of course, you would eat it when you were hungry, but after awhile you would eat less and less of it until eventually you went looking for another food source. That is why it is always a good idea to serve your dog different foods every once and a while.

No, you don't have to cook him filet mignon, but a bit of variation will not only help his health, but also his appetite. After all, dogs, just like human beings need a balanced diet to remain at their best. If you simply go ahead and feed them exactly the same meal every night, sure, they'll eat it, but it won't improve their health. That is where combination feeding comes in.

Don't worry. You don't have to do anything special. All you have to do is take a few scraps of whatever meat you are having for dinner that night and mix it with his regular dry food. When he gets a whiff of fresh food in his bowl, he'll rush and eat faster than he has in years.

If you do decide to use combination feeding with your pet, there are a few important things you must know. To begin with, don't let him eat too much. As we mentioned, dogs do not digest human food as well as we do, and if you let them eat too much meat from the table, he will eventually gain weight. This can cause a variety of health problems for your dog and should be avoided at all costs. The best thing to do is to cut up only a few scraps of meat into small piece and mix it in his bowl. This will provide your dog with all the vitamins and nutrients to give him plenty of energy.

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