What food shall I feed my cockapoo?
Food is the most important thing in your dog’s life. Food gives them the energy needed to doodle dash. It gives them all the nutrients they need to form every tissue and keep every cellular process going. Too little or too much of one thing can cause upsets and if something gets into your dog’s diet that shouldn’t be there, you can be sure that problems won’t be far away. From weaning right through to old age, it is diet more than any other factor that will determine the quality and the length of your dog’s life. Therefore buy the best you can afford and get recommendations from friends, vets (make sure they are not on commission) and other dog owners.
There is no one answer to the question. No food suits every dog. Different dogs do better on different diets, so choosing a food will always entail a certain amount of trial and error.
Reading the labels on pet food and knowing what to look for, can make it easier for you to choose the right one.
You need to decide which type of food best suits you and your dog. Raw, wet dry a combination of some or all.
Once you have decided which categories of food you would prefer to feed, you need to find and trial the foods to see which one suits your dog.
All you can do is make an educated guess as to what food is likely to benefit your dog most. All dogs are different and while some dogs will flourish on apparently low grade foods, others might have difficulties on even the highest quality diets. Your dog’s health should, therefore, always be the final indicator of a food’s suitability.
How much to feed
Feeding the right amount is just as important as feeding the right food. All dog foods have feeding guidelines on the packaging. You should always start by following the guidelines for your dog’s weight. Your vet will be able to tell you your dog’s weight or you can stand on the scales whilst carrying your dog to calculate it at home.
When to feed
For the majority of healthy adult dogs, the feeding schedule can be flexible. You know how much to feed him, now decide how often. Most vets will recommend at least 2 times a day. Dogs love consistency so once you have found a schedule that suits you and your dog, it’s best to stick with it.
Mixing different foods
As long as you can get the amounts right, mixing different foods can be an excellent and easy way of increasing the variety and balance of your dog’s diet.
Changing foods
Most dogs need time to adjust to a different food. If you haven’t found the right one yet remember to gradually introduce new products. A dog’s digestive system needs time to fully adjust to a new food. Mix the new food with the old food to start with gradually phasing the old out over a few days. A slow change is especially important for dogs with sensitive stomachs which may need to be changed over a longer period.
Storing your dog food
Be it meat grain or fruit and veg from the moment any ingredient is harvested, its nutritional levels drop. Storing your food in an airtight container can reduce this. raw food needs to be stared in the fridge or freezer and never re freeze defrosted food.
What ingredients to look for
Dogs are predominately meat eaters. They are capable of digesting and utilising a wide range of foods, however, the dog’s digestive system is much more geared-up for meat consumption and benefits from a meat rich diet.
Manufacturers have to list ingredients with the most first be they can be quite crafty when it comes to the order of the ingredients so some common tactics to look for include:
If they split up the different types of grain in their food the ingredients could look less as each one is lower down the list. For example they could list maize, maize gluten and maize meal separately these would all be further down the list. This could give you the impression there were less maize in the product as there actually is.
A similar thing can be done with an opposite effect with meat content. Instead of listing all the different types of meat content If an ingredient has 27% chicken content this could be made up of chicken oil and chicken digest, making you think there is more meat in a product than there really is.