Proper dog nutrition

Also appropriate dog food important

An extremely important point for a healthy, long dog life is an appropriate dog nutrition. If one deals more closely with this topic, it seems questionable from the point of view of species that is acceptable in the field of dog food. This article highlights some background of dog food, which can also affect mechanical conditions.

Proper dog nutrition:
Dog Osteopathy: The appropriate dog nutrition
What does ordinary dog ​​food contain?
Added vitamins in dog food
Species-appropriate dog food
Effects of food on the musculoskeletal system

What does ordinary dog ​​food contain?

Basically, the dog belongs to the carnivores or carnivores and comes from the wolf. There is hardly any disagreement even among experts. If you go to the trouble and take a closer look at the composition of a dog food, you will find that 95% of the time it is corn, cereals or wheat in the first place.

According to the Animal Feed Act, the manufacturer of dog food is obliged to list the components most strongly represented in the product in the first place. If it comes from a welfare point of view very bad, are also in the first two places cereals, then happily followed by a meat meal and then often comes again a cereal or something like hydrolyzed vegetable protein, vegetable protein isolate or lignocellulose (which is nothing but wood cellulose) , The question here is what makes such a large amount of grain and plant protein in a feed for a carnivore. After all, this is not about the diet of a cow or a horse.

Another big problem is the quality of the few meat that is still processed in the feed (in some dog foods, this is still 4% of the total feed). Often, only flours and animal by-products, which are not further declared, processed. These are then according to the German feed law: Dormant dogs and cats and other deceased animals, which only have to be processed at certain temperatures and a certain cash (pressure) for a certain amount of time in order to be able to process them further. Also, claws, feathers, carcasses, intestines, greaves and other remains that are to use anything else, are ground here and further processed.

The ingredients list of the listed additives is often peppered with lots of vitamins and minerals - but here, too, the critical question is appropriate: What is really important for a dog? The proportion of raw ash should not exceed 4% - as the proportion of raw ash indicates the minerals in the feed. The minerals that are too much in an organism, accumulate in the body and on the teeth, as they are difficult to excrete via the liver and kidney again. That makes dental plaque among other things.

Added vitamins in dog food

The added vitamins are often vitamin A, vitamin C and E and vitamin D3. Since you think so first: Basically, vitamins are good. This is also true, but from a holistic view probably only on natural vitamins. Vitamin A, Vitamin C and E are called antioxidants and catch „free radicals“- In addition, they prevent the rancidity of fats, and thus act as a preservative for food.

In human medicine, studies on this topic have been made with remarkable results: In a study commonly known as the Finland study, 30,000 smokers were given either 20 mg synthetic beta-carotene or 50 mg a-tocopherol daily, a placebo or five to eight years administered both remedies, as smokers have noticed low levels of beta-carotene. Result: Vitamin E should not have affected the risk. In the study participants of the beta-carotene group, the lung cancer rate is said to have progressively increased after only 18 months. In the end, the beta-carotene group is said to have had 18 percent more lung cancers and overall mortality was up nearly 8 percent.

In another study (CARET study) with more than 18,000 smokers, which stopped prematurely, there should also be an increase in the risk of lung cancer when taking synthetic beta-carotene in smokers.
Vitamin D3 is not contained in any natural food, at most its precursors D1 and D2. In addition, it is not seen as a vitamin but as a stearate, so as a hormone and is thus as addition in a feed from naturopathic point of view just as little suitable as cortisone or estrogen. If necessary, vitamin D3 is produced by the body through sunshine of the skin itself and plays an important role in calcium metabolism. Since our dogs (as well as humans) are currently exposed to sufficient sunlight, a lack of vitamin D is not expected.

Species-appropriate dog food

The listing of the food composition could be expanded endlessly, because flavor enhancers, preservatives and dyes were not even mentioned. You too can influence the organism and, from a naturopathic point of view, have no use in dog food any more than in human food. Often as a dog owner you always get a dry diet - this does not seem appropriate from an osteopathic point of view. A dry food is only for the dog owner an advantage - for the dog it has only disadvantages. It can be contaminated with mites, takes up to twice as long in the body until it is digested, so it pollutes all the digestive organs and the dog suffers permanently from dehydration. Even soaking does not help, because you would have to replenish 90% of the feeding quantity with water again. The water requirement of a dog fed with dry food is 40-50ml / kg body weight - that would be an additional water requirement of 1l with a 20 kg dog.

Effects of food on the musculoskeletal system

In 1996, Marc Torel (veterinarian) and Klaus Dieter Kammerer (pharmaceutical manager) published a paper on the development of hip dysplasia in dogs. The breeding selection, which has been practiced for decades, has brought little success in the field of hip dysplasia. In the opinion of these two experts, there are clear links between malnutrition and skeletal disorders, as non-species-appropriate diets can result in increased production of growth hormones and thyroid hormones, and these hormones can in turn have negative effects on the skeleton of a dog. So it is understandable why when visiting a dog Osteopaths of the latter questions are asked about the diet of the dog, because this can have an influence on the musculoskeletal system from an osteopathic point of view.

Here, every dog ​​owner should feel addressed, to make their own thoughts about a species-appropriate diet of his dog. Summary is that the factors that make up our dogs are very complex, but you can minimize them and there are now some alternative treatments for all musculoskeletal disorders - a very successful one is dog osteopathy. (Friederike Franze, human physiotherapist, dog physiotherapist and dog osteopath