After hearing so much about the benefits and advantages of dogs feeding on a natural diet, you know it is best for your dog’s health and you have just convinced yourself to change your dog’s diet to a more natural and healthier one. Unfortunately, changing your dog’s diet is not as easy as that, there are many more things for you to consider.
For example, like how to change your dog’s diet gradually when he is so accustom to the chemical and additives in commercial non-natural products.
As domestic dogs are getting fussier over their food, changing their food type alone can be a challenge. To change your dog’s diet, you should change it gradually and not instantaneous. Mixing the new food in their diet and increasing the portion over time is recommended for your dog to slowly switch over to the new diet.
Next, we examined if you should switch over to a commercial natural diet, homemade diet or a mixture of both. Below, we list the 3 main factors you need to consider before you decide which one to choose.
Convenience
The convenience of natural commercial diet is similar to that of ordinary dog food. Coming packaged in bags and rolled loaves, they are also convenient for feeding young puppies and older dogs. The setback is that they are not widely sold at departmental stores and you might have to travel a little more to purchase them.
On the other hand, a natural homemade diet can be a real hassle for a dog owner to put together. Even with the vast amount of recipes and preparing procedures guides around both online and in books, it still takes a significant amount of time to put together the research and to put up an appropriate natural diet regime for your dog. It is also advisable to let your vet see your diet plan to make sure it provides sufficient nutrition for your dog to stay healthy. Lastly, a homemade diet can take time to prepare on a daily basis, and easily eat into your resting time.
Quality
Dog food companies claim that the ingredients use in their commercial natural foods are of the highest quality. Nevertheless, there are no existing agency or guidelines to inspect, support or certified their claims. Buyers of commercial natural dog food have no choice but to trust them and take their claims at face value.
The quality of the homemade diet is dependent on the diet planning, type of ingredients used and if the feeding regime is follow closely. Done correctly, the homemade diet is sure to provide better nutrition. But a poorly planned homemade diet with inferior ingredients can be detrimental to your dog’s health if it is being feed for a long period of time.
Variety
The market does not offer much choice if the dog is kept on one brand of commercial food. Unless you are willing to use different brands, the limited choices may prove to be difficult for your dog to switch food easily.
The sky is the limit when it comes to a homemade diet. Your dog can be given a wide variety of food as long as you can provide them with the same amount of nutrition. Switching between diet and food is not an issue at all.
