Why You Could Prepare Your Pet’s Food
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Making your own pet food can be great thing to do for your cat or dog. While not as simple as prepared food, it is possible to monitor what your cat or dog is eating, and improve their nutrition.
Humans, dogs, cats,, and every other animal have specific nutritional requirements. And while store bought dog and cat food is handy, it may not be the best in all situations.
Many cat and dog foods are not made for the pet’s needs first, but expense first. This may mean often using less expensive and lower quality ingredients. For instance, many cat or dog foods include vegetable matter for filler (such as the wheat gluten involved in the pet food crisis in March 2007). While this can lower costs, it is not the familiar protein household cats and dogs are designed for – meat.
While in theory dogs can go without actual meat, cats cannot. Several specific nutrients are needed by cats, and are most easily found in meat. So, unless you are willing to do a serious research into requirements, and watch over your pet’s eating habits, you’ll want to make sure there’s plenty of meat in their meals.
While pet food you purchase will now be perfectly safe, cooking your own will end up in fresher, better, food for your pet. One disadvantage is that cooking will take more time than buying. Also, since the big companies preparing the food can save in bulk, you could spend more for the food you prepare at home. But the benefit is a healthier meal for your cat or dog.
Roughly speaking, a cat’s diet can be about 50% meat, and 50% carbohydrates (such as brown rice or vegetables). By contrast, dogs can do quite well on about one quarter meat to three quarters carbohydrates.
One specific thing to avoid is feeding your dog or cat ‘human’ food. As an example, garlic and onions are actually toxic to cats, leading to anemia. Tomatoes include a chemical that causes severe stomach upset in cats. Chocolate has been shown to be dangerous to cats and dogs both. And as well, grapes and raisins are not to be fed to dogs.
The Internet can provide research on specific pet recipes. Take care that the recipe makes sense, and the ingredients are proper for your pet. Ideally, if the Internet site shows how they themselves use the recipe, you may be able to find out how well it ‘goes over’, and if their pets enjoy it. This will keep you from working on an unused recipe, or a recipe your cat or dog won’t enjoy.
So and time, just a smidgen of care, some extra work, a small expense, you can make a meal for your pet that exceeds the usual fare available from stores. Although it is a compromise, the benefits of a much healthier diet for your pets can’t be ignored.
