Before buying a puppy, be sure to read the rules and recommendations for its content. Pay special attention to the nutrition of the pet.
There are many opinions on nutrition, and a lot of myths have also been written about the dangers of industrial feeds and many articles have been written, often by lay people.
According to these myths, newly made dog breeders are divided into two camps. Those who feed with natural nutrition, enriching it with vitamins, fruits and vegetables, and those who feed with dry food, in which all nutrients are in the right ratio. In addition, feed from the pack saves time.
Bad, low-quality industrial feed does not exist, they differ only in the composition and degree of assimilation. Due to these features, they have the appropriate classification: economy, premium, super-premium and their varieties - holistic and diet food.
Comparison of dry food of different classes for dogs
Economy class
Pedigree, Darling, Chappi, Cesar, Meal, Our Brand, etc.
Food in this class has a low degree of assimilation - about 60%. This is due to the fact that meat and bone meal of unknown origin and in small quantities is used as a source of animal protein, and the overall nutritional value is supplemented by the presence of cereals (rye, wheat, corn) in the composition. Beet pulp is often used as fiber. After reviewing and analyzing the composition, we will see that all the nutrients and vitamins are in the necessary ratio, according to the needs of the animal at a certain period of its life. But due to the low digestibility, the dog will not be able to get enough vitamins and nutrients, and she will need to eat more food to get enough.
You can feed your pet with such a product, but you need to use vitamin supplements.
Often when feeding animals with economy-class feeds, the owners think that the animal is malnourished by adding products from their table, which can lead to allergies, obesity, diabetes and digestive disorders. This is how myths about the harmfulness of industrial nutrition are born.
Premium class
Royal Canin, Pro Plan, ABBA Premium, Hill »s, Brit Premium
Absorption up to 80%. Consider the composition in more detail.
The composition contains 15-30% of meat flour or fresh meat. Sometimes offal is used in the composition. Foods with meat flour in the composition have a moisture content of 10% and often meat ingredients can be indicated in the composition in second place, for example, after corn, as in Royal Canin, but this does not mean that the nutrition decreases in nutrition. The manufacturer indicates the components by volume in the composition from larger to smaller. A forage with fresh meat has a humidity of 20%, in addition, this processing technology allows you to save all the nutrients in a chelated (natural) form.
High humidity also makes the smell of the food brighter and the taste more intense.
Such feeds are suitable for pets that are picky about the taste and smell of feed. Premium feeds contain cereals, mainly corn and wheat, sometimes barley, but in smaller quantities. There are components aimed at the prevention of various diseases and focused on the breed characteristics of animals.
Affordable price offer, although prices may vary.
Super Premium
Feed of this class are divided into 3 categories.
Super premium
1st Choice, Grandin (Grandin), Trainer, Monge, Brit care, Pronature Original, Eukanuba.
The meat plays a dominant role (40–80%), also contains cereals, but in a smaller quantity, due to which assimilation up to 92% is achieved. It contains complete components of animal origin, which provide the body with all the essential amino acids. There is a wider range of ingredients that prevent the occurrence of various diseases. A wide variety of flavors.
The composition is sometimes injected with Yucca Shidiger extract. This ingredient kills bacteria that cause an unpleasant odor from feces, suitable for homebrew pets.
Holistic
Acana (Akana), ABBA Holistic, Now Fresh, Orijen, Grandorf, Pronature Holistic, Savarra.
A new generation of feed, which uses high quality ingredients suitable for human nutrition. A high percentage of fresh meat, and beans, vegetables and fruits replaced the grain composition. After studying the analytical composition of the feed, you can notice a high protein nutrition, which gives almost 40% of the total calorie content, about 30% of the calorie content is provided by vegetables and fruits, as a source of carbohydrates, and 30% fat.
Feeding with such mixtures will allow you not to resort to the use of additional vitamin-mineral supplements.
The main disadvantage is the high price.
Veterinary diet
Specific nutrition aimed at the prevention or treatment of certain diseases (digestive disorders, diabetes mellitus, liver and kidney diseases, obesity, treatment and prevention of urolithiasis, etc.). Such feed is used strictly for the purpose of the veterinarian.
How to choose?
All feeds are balanced in nutrients and have only a different degree of assimilation of the animal’s body. Based on this, it turns out that you can feed any of the listed classes, the most important thing is that the food suits the animal in taste and does not worsen its health, so that none of the food ingredients causes allergies. It should be noted that with many feeds you need to use vitamin-mineral supplements.
Mixing natural food and industrial feed is not permitted. The volume of consumption also changes: the higher the degree of assimilation, the lower the daily rate of feeding.
Price is one of the important selection criteria. The price is influenced by such indicators as: brand recognition, how many starting points from the manufacturer to the store passes feed, composition. Less well-known brands offer a lower price for a product of the same class, but if you compare the composition with a similar expensive one, you will not see the difference. Such brands get to pet stores directly from the supplier.
About 10 dry feeds that are not worth buying, see below.
