Nutrition and the food you feed the dogs in your kennel are important. Understanding how much to feed a dog and whether to add supplements to the dog food are common questions often asked of veterinary nutritionists.
Purina’s board-certified veterinary nutritionist Jason Gagne, DVM, DACVIM (Nutrition), takes a moment here to answer nutrition questions that he often hears from dog breeders. Importantly, Dr. Gagne advises you to consult your veterinarian if you have a nutrition question or a nutrition concern related to an individual dog.
Q: What does it mean and why is it important to feed a complete and balanced dog food?
Dr. Gagne: A dog food that is complete contains all the necessary nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, protein and fat, required for a dog’s life stage, and balanced means the nutrients are provided in the correct proportion. Most commercial dog foods provide complete and balanced nutrition, which is essential for health and well-being. A dog’s nutritional health relates to receiving the proper proportion of required nutrients and having ready access to water, which is important in maintaining cellular function, regulating body temperature and lubricating body tissues.
Q: What does it mean that a dog food is highly digestible?
Dr. Gagne: Nutritionists define digestibility as a measure of nutrient utilization. It is the percentage of the weight of nutrients that are excreted by the dog versus the nutrients that are used for bodily functions. The important part is knowing the nutrient availability to the dog’s digestive system. Metabolizable energy represents the energy ultimately available to a dog and is measured by subtracting both fecal and urine losses from gross energy, or a food’s total energy.
Q: What is the best way to know the amount of food to feed a dog?
Dr. Gagne: The goal is to achieve energy balance or to match a dog’s energy needs with his energy intake. Variables that impact a dog’s energy requirement include age, life stage, metabolism, reproductive status, activity and environment, some of which change throughout a dog’s life. A growing puppy needs two to three times the energy of an adult dog, and a lactating female may need three times its normal energy requirement.
You should follow the feeding guidelines printed on the dog food package and then use the Purina Body Condition System to evaluate a dog’s body condition to determine if an adjustment is needed. Ideal body condition should be the goal, as it is the best way to determine a dog’s energy needs.
Energy imbalance occurs when a dog overeats or is underfed. Energy-deficit or energy-excess extremes can present health risks regardless of a dog’s age or breed. Overeating occurs more frequently than an energy deficiency, and it represents the most common form of malnutrition. Energy deficiency can compromise growth and development in puppies and young dogs and can impair lactation in a dam that has whelped a litter of puppies.
Q: If you feed a complete and balanced dog food, is it OK to give a pregnant female a prenatal supplement fortified with iron, folic acid and zinc?
Dr. Gagne: You don’t need to supplement the diet of a breeding female if you are feeding a high-quality diet such as a Purina Pro Plan SPORT Performance 30/20 All-Life Stages Formula. Pro Plan all-life stages diets meet the mineral and vitamin requirements to support normal pregnancy and puppy growth, thus there is no need to supplement. Adding vitamin and minerals to an already complete and balanced diet can create imbalances and may disrupt a dog’s nutritional health.
Q: Is it OK to supplement the diet of a picky female during the last 30 days of pregnancy with foods such as eggs, chicken and cottage cheese to get them to eat?
Dr. Gagne: Females become picky eaters as gestation progresses and they get closer to whelping. You should try feeding smaller meals more frequently. Cottage cheese, eggs and chicken are single-food items that are tasty but not balanced.
A pregnant dam’s nutrition should be balanced, as this is an important time of life for her and her puppies. If you need to jump-start her appetite, try adding a good quality canned wet food to the dry food. A lot of time, just the smell and texture of the canned food will be enough to get her to eat. You should continue to feed small amounts frequently.
The Goal: Feeding to Ideal Body Condition
The best way to determine how well a dog’s diet meets its activity level is to examine the dog’s physique. Is the dog lean, toned and conditioned or does he look somewhat obese or thin?
The Purina Body Condition System, published in 1993, helps owners and veterinarians evaluate a dog’s physique on a nine-point scale. The illustrative tool depicts three negative or energy-deficit conditions and four positive or energy-excess conditions, with ideal body condition represented in the middle.
Ideal body condition should be the goal. A dog in ideal body condition has palpable ribs without excess fat covering, and the waist is observed behind the ribs when viewed from above. The abdomen is tucked up when viewed from the side.
A body condition score provides an advantage over body weight, because body weight does not necessarily reflect body fat scores, and ideal body weight often is unknown.
Among the benefits of keeping track of a dog’s body condition is that it allows owners to recognize signs of obesity and to feed to ideal body condition. It is much simpler to keep a dog in a lean body condition than it is to lose weight. Oftentimes, it takes months for most dogs to transition from obese to lean.
The Purina Body Condition System provides a tool to help breeders evaluate a dog’s body condition. When viewing a dog from above, the waist should be observed behind the ribs, as pictured in the dog at left.
Want to know more? Purina Body Condition System
