Dog Nutrition: What’s the Crack?

As much as we are all about promoting environmentally friendly dog food here at The Jess Fox & Hound Dog Grocer, we also know how important it is to talk about dog nutrition.

In one of our previous posts we talked about how to try and balance environmental concerns with things like digestibility (which is the measure of how easy it is for your dog to absorb nutrition from their food). In this week’s post we are going to use principles delivered by the Nottingham Trent University Short Course on Dog Nutrition (led by Dr Jacqueline Boyd) to go further into the science behind dog nutrition and to give you as owners some basic understanding of what your dog’s basic nutritional requirements are.  

First things first, all dogs (like their humans) require a basic set of nutrients in order to be able to safely live. In total, according to the UK Pet Food Standards Association, dogs actually require 37 total nutrients in their food to achieve a healthy, balanced diet, however this is most commonly have simplified into 6 core nutrient categories.

Like humans, dogs also have their own individual dietary requirements on top of this that may be breed specific (e.g. Dalmatians require low purine diets and Huskies often struggle with zinc deficiencies), or which are driven by health considerations (e.g. overweight dogs require low fat diets).

Interestingly, dog nutrition also has a behavioural component, and some dog behaviourists (such as Jess Fox & Hound’s Vet Behaviourist Jo Hall) may also make recommendations to adjust feed in order to help modify your dog’s behaviour (hyperactive dogs, for example, often require more carbohydrates in their diet in order to help them release energy more slowly across the day).

The key thing to remember is that every dog is an individual, and whilst the components below are important for all dogs, the degree to which this should be fed may depend on your individual dog’s needs. If in doubt, it’s always worth consulting a canine nutritionist to get further advice, particularly if your dog is showing diet-related health issues are if you are doing a ‘DIY’ diet (a study published in the US indicated that up to 90% of homemade diets are normally deficient in at least one major nutrient). You can also look on the UK Pet Food Manufacturer’s website for additional helpful information about feeding your dog.  

The 6 Essential Nutrients your dog needs

1. Water

First up, water. Yes, we know it’s an obvious one, but as with humans, dogs need water in their diets in order to stay hydrated. A significant proportion of a dog’s daily water intake actually comes from their food, rather than from the water bowl, which can explain why some owners think their dogs don’t drink as much as they expect them to (unless it’s a muddy puddle of course).  

Of course different feeds have different water contents, ranging from raw food, which has a natural moisture content of 65%  through to dry food which only averages a 8-10% water content. Regardless of how water heavy your dog’s feed is, always make sure there is plenty of fresh drinking water for them available alongside this.

2. Protein

Protein is the big one that, in recent years, we’ve seen dog owners become more and more interested in. Websites like All About Dog Food tend to compare dog foods on the basis of their protein content with brands that have higher protein ratings generally being ranked highest.

As for humans, protein is important for dogs in helping them build, repair and maintain muscle and soft tissues, however different dogs all have different protein requirements, so don’t be fooled into thinking that more protein always = better for your dog. For example, working dogs, or those that are very active (e.g. dogs that compete in agility and flyball) naturally have higher protein requirements than you’re a dog that is more of a couch potato.  It’s also the case that constantly feeding your dog a high protein raw diet may not always be beneficial for them. Protein is rich in calories, and it also takes a lot of work for your dog’s kidneys to break down, so a high protein diet is generally not recommended for obese dogs or senior dogs or those with kidney disease.

However as we’ve covered in previous posts, the main thing that impacts the amount of protein your dog gets from their food is the digestibility of that food. So a high protein dry food, for example, won’t actually be as beneficial to your dog as a low protein fresh or raw food. It’s also important to look past the crude protein figures put on a packet, as this figure doesn’t actually tell you much about the quality of the protein that you dog will get from that feed (as is covered by this blog post here).  What you’re actually looking for, when you look at protein content of your dog’s feed, is a range of digestible amino acids (which are the units that make up a protein chain) to ensure variability for your dog.

UK Pet Feed provide guidelines on how much protein per 100g of food you should look for for your dog, depending on their age and activity levels and also covers important information around protein quality and amino acids.

Sources of protein for dogs can range from animal-based proteins (e.g. chicken/beef/pork/lamb), fish (a high source of protein), insect and plant (e.g. peas and quinoa).

3. Fats

Fat gets a bad rap in both human and dog diets, however it is an essential component of your dog’s food. Fat is a crucial source of long term energy storage for your dog (fat gets stored in their cells and can be burned over long periods of time when exercising), vitamin absorption (fat helps dogs absorb key vitamins from their food) and also good skin and coat health (normally delivered through fatty acids such as omega-6). Fat, as we humans know, also makes food taste good (hence why most dogs are so insistent on maintaining the ‘cheese tax’!).

Of course, as we also all know, there is a darker side to fat, which is that excess fat can lead to your dog putting on more weight than is appropriate over time. With reports of dog obesity being on the rise in the UK, being mindful of how much fat your feeding your dog (whether in their dinner bowl, or as scraps from your plate) is going to be important in ensuring a happy healthy future for you both. Dogs, on average, need around 5.5% of their diet to comprise of fat.

Seeing as a lot of fat comes from animal sources, it’s important to be aware that many animal-based high protein feeds are also likely to be relatively high in fat, so keeping an eye on your dog’s fat intake through these feeds is important.

Most dog foods will include some level of crude fat, however good sources of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids to look out for on pet food (or which you may give in addition to your dog’s diet) include fish oil, flaxseed oil, soybean oil and sunflower oil.

4. Carbohydrates

Now we know that for humans, carbs are often demonised by the diet industry, however it’s incredibly important for your dog to have a ready source of carbohydrate in their diet. Because dogs have evolved with humans (this is known as ‘convergent evolution’) many of their dietary requirements are similar, and one of the key areas where we share our dietary needs is around carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates are actually a general term used within biochemistry, and cover a wide range of dietary sources, including sugars, starch and dietary fibre. Sugars provide essential short-term energy for your dogs, whilst starches provide longer term energy release and dietary fibre helps keep your dogs poos firm, as well as actually helping with the absorption of key vitamins and minerals in your dog’s digestive tract.  A high fibre diet can be useful for dogs that need to lose weight, as a high fibre content helps you dog feel fuller for longer.

Common sources of carbohydrates for dogs include grains (e.g. rice, flour, quinoa), refined starches (potato, tapioca) or legumes (peas, lentils).

5. Minerals

Minerals . At present there are 12 essential minerals that dogs need to consume to maintain good health, which are:

• Calcium
• Phosphorus
• Magnesium
• Sodium
• Potassium
• Chlorine
• Iron
• Copper
• Zinc
• Manganese
• Selenium
• Iodine

Although often seen as a side component of dog feed, each of these minerals actually contributes a huge amount to different elements of your dog’s health. Dogs that either experience a deficiency or excess in one of these minerals can display a range of physical and behavioural symptoms from weigh gain, weight loss, irritability, lethargy, diarrhoea, enlarged thyroid glands and more. Some breeds are also predisposed to being deficient in one or more of these minerals (e.g. huskies tend to experience zinc deficiencies), which means they require extra

The best way of ensuring a diet that meets these daily requirements is to feed a commercially created, nutritionally complete food that is approved by the UK Pet Food Association. However if you choose to feed a DIY diet, or choose to use food manufactured by a company that hasn’t been approved by UK Pet Food, then we would encourage you to consult a nutritionist to get advice on how to ensure your dog’s diet is nutritionally complete. One of the most commonly missed minerals from a DIY raw diet, for example, is Manganese, which isn’t readily available in a dog appropriate supplement form and so it will be important to work with a qualified nutritionist to identify ways of getting this mineral into your dog’s diet.

DIY Raw feeders that are concerned about nutritional completeness in their dogs should check out the Raw Fed and Nerdy Facebook Group, which is an excellent source of all things nutrition and raw fed!  

6. Vitamins

Finally, as with minerals, all dogs also require 12 essential vitamins in their daily diet for good health. These are:

• Vitamin A
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin E
• Vitamin K
• Vitamin B1
• Riboflavin
• Vitamin B6
• Niacin
• Pantothenic Acid
• Vitamin B12
• Folic Acid
• Choline

Again, as with minerals, deficiency, or excess in any of these vitamins can be responsible for a range of negative impacts on your dog, from anorexia, neurological issues, lethargy, issues with vision, heart damage.

If you feed your dog a nutritionally complete commercial feed that has been approved by UK Pet Food, then you don’t need to worry about your dog getting the above vitamins, as any UK Pet Food approved feed will already contain these elements. However, as with minerals, if you feed DIY raw or fresh, or feed a non-UK Pet Food diet, then looking into different supplements, under the guidance of a nutritionist, will be essential in ensuring your canine pal gets all they need from their daily diet.

Conclusion

That’s it from us on all things nutrition! We hope this has given you some useful information to think about and will hopefully help you make those all important decisions about what to feed your dog.

And remember, if in doubt about what to feed your dog, you can consult a qualified nutritionist, and also look at the UK Pet Food Manufacturer’s Association website for more information and guidance. Do also use their handy calorie calculator if in doubt about how much you should be feeding your dog on a daily basis.