Fueling Your Puppy s Adventures Understanding the Benefits of Ava Puppy Food
How to Choose the Right Food for Your Puppy
Bringing a new puppy into your home involves more than just a warm welcome. From puppy-proofing your space to initiating crate training and potty training, theres a lot to consider.
Choosing the right puppy food is a crucial aspect of ensuring your furry friends growth and overall health. While it may seem daunting, selecting the perfect diet for your puppy isnt as difficult as you might think, provided you keep a few essential factors in mind.
This article will discuss the different types of diets you might be considering and some advice to keep in mind when choosing puppy food.
What diet should I start my puppy on?
Welcoming a new puppy into your home can be overwhelming for them. Having recently transitioned from their mothers milk to solid food, and with their digestive systems and microbiome still in the developmental stage, their little tummies are often quite sensitive.
They have also entered an entirely new home, leaving their mother and siblings behind so they are likely to be anxious. Therefore, its advisable to try to stick to one food and not switch between lots of different kinds.
Do some research before getting your puppy and select a complete and balanced diet tailored to their age and breed, providing the stability needed during this transitional period.
However, if youve tried a specific food for a month or so and its not suiting the puppy, a change can be made just do it gradually to avoid any potential upset tummy issues.
What type of diet is suitable for a puppy?
Generally, every type of diet can be suitable for puppies so long as they are formulated to be complete and balanced to meet the standards of AAFCO and have all life stages or growth nutritional profiles.
Is a raw diet food for a puppy?
Raw diets can be suitable for puppies but its best to opt for a professionally formulated food as opposed to homemade. Puppies have very specific nutritional requirements and need to meet these requirements so following the 80:10:10 method is not recommended at this stage.
You will also need to be careful of Salmonella and other bacteria with a raw diet, but also any other type of dog food as puppies are more susceptible to illness from these types of bacteria than adult dogs.
Is a kibble diet good for a puppy?
Kibble can be a great choice as its usually commercially prepared to be completed and balanced. However, depending on their age and development, you might need to soak the kibble in warm water to protect their developing teeth.
Is a fresh diet good for a puppy?
Much like the raw diet, a fresh diet is a good option as long as it meets the standards of AAFCO. Its best to get one formulated by a professional rather than making the food yourself to ensure your puppy is getting the essential nutrients.
Is a wet food diet good for a puppy?
Puppies often gobble up wet food because its easy to chew and it includes lots of moisture, so its hydrating.
The foods can be fed slightly warm as a comfort and to increase the scents and palatability.
Overall, it can come down to what suits the owners lifestyle, the puppys preferences, or any health concerns your puppy might have. If you are unsure about choosing the correct diet, your vet will be happy to discuss which is best for your new puppy.
Why puppy food?
Its essential to choose a puppy-specific food. Since your puppy is growing, they need more nutrients and calories than an adult dog. This is why puppy foods have a higher level of protein and fat to support growth, as well as nutrients like DHA, an omega fatty acid found in mothers milk.
Once your puppy reaches adulthood, they dont need as many calories. So when they are around 10-12 months for small breeds, 12-18 months for medium/large breeds, and around 18-24 months for giant breeds, its time to change over to adult food.
What to look for in puppy food
Complete and balanced
If you are buying commercially made dog food, check if the label reads: complete and balanced for Growth or All Life Stages. This means the food meets the standards of the AAFCO and is recommended for healthy puppies without existing veterinary conditions or particular nutritional needs.
Expected Adult Size
If your puppy is a large or giant breed (those expected to weigh over 50 pounds as an adult), consider using a puppy food formulated especially for large or giant-breed dogs.
Large and giant breeds also reach their adult size later than small and medium breeds.
Large breeds usually reach their adult size at 18 months and for giant breeds, at two years.
Using a large breed of puppy food for the later stages of growth rather than adult food will save your dog from receiving too much calcium which compromises skeletal development in large breeds.
You can read more about this in our article on large-breed puppies here: https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/best-dog-foods/best-large-breed-puppy-food/
Breed
Numerous dog foods are labeled as breed-specific, while they may not be essential for your growing puppy, they can offer benefits. These diets often provide kibble sizes tailored to your puppys preferences and a nutrient profile designed for your dogs breed.
While many breeds share similar nutritional needs, breed-specific foods may offer features that cater to specific breed predispositions and characteristics.
Ingredient list
There are no specific ingredients to look for when choosing the best puppy food, but pet parents must ensure the food is made by a reputable company and contains high-quality ingredients.
Does your puppy have any dietary needs?
Although only a small percentage of allergies are diet-related, if you do think your puppy is having an allergic reaction, check with your vet and they will be able to advise.
What are the best treats for my puppy?
Rewarding your puppy with a treat is a great way of rewarding good behavior and is one of the best tools you have when it comes to puppy training. If your new puppy is a food lover (and most are) you can easily show them the benefits of behaving well, both inside and outside the home.
But as is the case with mealtimes, its important to make sure youre not overfeeding them and that youre giving them treats that are nutritious and part of a balanced diet. Treat intake should not surpass 10% of your dogs daily calories.
Choosing appropriate treats can play a big part in keeping your puppy both happy and healthy. Here are some things to look out for when buying your puppy treats:
- Treats specifically for puppies
- Tiny pieces
- Healthy ingredients.
Despite the overwhelming choice in the pet store, choosing a puppy food doesnt have to be a daunting task. Whether you opt for a raw, kibble, fresh, or wet food diet, the key is to choose a complete and balanced option tailored to your puppys age and breed.
Ava Wet Food Puppy Review
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Suitable for all breeds of dogs
Private label(or
white label) pet foods are pre-formulated recipes that companies can order from certain factories, add their own label or packaging and retail to the public as their own brand. They are therefore available from numerous suppliers.
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Mixing bowl composition
This is the ingredients list as printed on the packaging or manufacturer's website.
Think of the 'mixing bowl' composition like a recipe - all the ingredients you would need to put in a 'mixing bowl' in order to make the food.
Ingredients have to be listed in descending order of their weight so the higher it appears, the more there is.
Highlighted ingredients
Ingredients that we believe to be controversial or inferior are highlighted in yellow with particularly low grade, highly contentious or excessively vague ingredients in red.
As fed composition
While the 'mixing bowl' composition is useful for knowing what went into the food, it doesn't always reflect what your dog is actually eating. This is because the processes that turn the ingredients into the finished pet food can significantly alter the relative weights of the ingredients.
For this reason we've calculated the approximate 'as fed' percentages for the main ingredient categories in the finished product.
Please note that these figures are very approximate. They are estimates based on the information provided by the manufacturer in the ingredients list so the clearer the terminology and the more percentages they provide, the more accurate our estimates will be. Wherever information is lacking, we always assume the worst.
Ingredient categories
Meat ingredients: includes all meat and fish ingredients except isolated fats/oils.
Added oils and fats: includes all isolated oil and fat ingredients.
Carb-rich ingredients: includes all ingredients derived from grains, pseudo-grains, potatoes and other starchy root vegetables, sweet potato and legumes (except whole peas which are categorised under fruit and veg) except for isolated protein and extracted oils. Also includes fibre supplements.
Fruit and veg: includes all whole vegetables and fruits.
Other: all other ingredients. Mostly made up by nutritional supplements and additives.
For more information on any ingredient, please take a look at our Dog Food Ingredient Glossary
The dry matter level of a nutrient is the percentage there would be in the food if all of the water was removed.
With water taken out of the equation, these figures allow the nutrient levels of foods of different types (like wet and dry) to be compared on an even playing field.
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The
price per dayof feeding this food based on feeding the manufacturer's recommended daily amount from 395g cans bought at their rrp to a dog of:
Note:All suggested feeding amounts and costs are only approximate and may vary considerably from dog to dog. Be sure to contact the manufacturer if in any doubt.
78 out of 100-Good
Our unique product ratings are calculated based on a number of characteristics including the quality and quantity of the stated ingredients, certain nutritional and technological additives and the processing methods used to create the food. They are designed to indicate how beneficial we think a food is likely to be for the majority of dogs when fed on a daily basis for an extended period. Click here for more information
Country of origin: United Kingdom
A technological additive is any substance added to a pet food "for a technological purpose and which favourably affects the characteristics of feed".
The most common categories of technological additives include preservatives and antioxidants, gelling agents and thickeners and probiotics.
While the primary effects of technoloical additives are certainly 'favourable' (increased shelf life in the case of preservatives & antioxidants, better food texture and consistency in the case of gelling agents and thickeners etc.) some have been linked to health problems in pets and should be treated with caution.
Unfortunately, many technological additives do not have to be declared by the manufacturer so just because they do not appear on the label does not necessarily mean they are not in the food. If in doubt, ask the manufacturer directly exactly what technological additives their foods contain.
