Best small breed dog food
Feeding your dog the best food you can is important to making sure that your dog has the best quality of life. Choosing the food for your small dog should take some thought and consideration. Small dogs and Toy breed dogs have quite different nutritional requirements from larger dogs. Each breed will have their own needs and within those breeds, each dog will be individual with its own preferences and possible allergies. Your dog will also need a different diet at the different stages of its life.
Smaller breed dogs generally have higher metabolisms than larger dogs, which means that they use up more energy per pound of dog. Because of this, they require a higher calorie diet than dogs who are bigger than they are. This is made difficult due to the fact that small dogs have small stomachs, so they can’t eat a whole load all at once. Small dogs will need several meals throughout the day and these meals should be high calorie foods packed with nutrients.
Choosing the right food for your dog has tremendous effects on its health . Finding best dog food for Shih Tzu and other small or toy breeds for making sure that your dog gets all the right nutrients and minerals is essential! This is also critical for making sure that your dog lives a full and happy life. Especially as small dogs tend to have longer life spans than larger dogs. The food you feed your dog when it’s young will have an effect on its health all the way through life, just like with a baby. It needs good nutrition during the growing and development periods.
With all of these things in mind, it can now seem a bit daunting trying to choose a great food for your dog. The main thing to remember is to pick a dog food that has more quality calories and nutrients per weight than other dog foods. It should also include a high quality protein source, like chicken or lamb. Look for a named meat as one of the first ingredients and avoid anything unidentifiable, like “animal meats” or “by-products”.
Fatty acids are another essential part of the diet of small dogs. There are essential nutrients that they require that are only found in fatty acids like Omega-3 and Omega-6. Fatty acids help to keep the skin and coat healthy and some vitamins are fat soluble so your dog will require some fat in its diet to help absorb them. Again, look for named fats like fish oil or chicken fat and avoid anything ambiguous.
Dog also require vegetables in their diet as they are not actually strict carnivores. For carbs and grains, it can be a little more complex. These are needed to ensure that your little god gets enough calories, but some Toy breeds have issues with allergies to some grains like corn and wheat. They are also prone to hypoglycemia, especially as puppies. Carbohydrates can cause glucose and insulin spikes and drops in the blood, but slow digesting grains like oaks will help to mediate this. High fiber vegetables are also good for balancing blood sugars between meals.
Many Toy breeds have low blood sugar issues, especially as puppies. The best thing to do is make sure they have snacks between their meals so that they are eating around 5 or 6 times a day. This will keep their blood sugar levels consistent, rather than having spikes when they eat and dips afterwards when the glucose runs out. As with the food, you want a snack that’s easy to chew and easy to digest. Regular dog snacks like dried meat can be tough for a little dog to chew properly and difficult to digest in their sensitive stomachs. You want a snack that’s quick and easy to eat. Not something that your dog will take away and spend a lot of time devouring.
Small dogs come with small mouths and this needs to be taken into account when looking for the best dog food for small dogs. Most small dog food comes in little bite-sized chunks called kibbles. These are easy for small jaws to chew on so they’ll be properly digested and not choked on. They’re also great for putting in automatic dispensers to give your dog an extra serving of food while you’re not home during the day.
The best food for small dogs is one that is high in calories and nutrients so that your dog can get everything it needs from its meals in the small amount that its stomach can handle. However, it is important that more calories does not mean you overfeed your dog. It needs calorie dense and nutrient dense meals to keep up with its active personality, not just extra food and empty calories for the sake of them. There’s a lot of life in little dogs and it needs a lot of energy to keep it going.
