Last Updated on 2022-06-13 by AlexHales
A healthy, normally busy dog is well supplied with high-quality complete food.Can I put a bell collar on my puppy? it contains all the important vitamins and nutrients that your fur nose needs. Sometimes, however, it also has to be a bit more – in case of deficiency symptoms, increased stress, great physical stress, raw feeding, or after surgery, for example. Then complementary food can be useful for your dog. The best way to advise you about the necessity, type, and dosage of the dietary supplements is by your veterinarian.
Common complementary foods for dogs
Complementary feeds for dogs are added to the food to strengthen and support the body and its organs, as well as to prevent and relieve discomfort. In addition to vitamins, the known ingredients also include brewer’s yeast, valuable amino acids (building blocks for proteins), essential fatty acids, minerals, herbal extracts, and fish oil. There are preparations in the form of tablets, drops, flakes, pastes, powders, or even a gel, which are added to the dog food. Complementary feed thus enriches the feed with the necessary vitamins, ballast, or nutrients. For example, there are supplements with calcium or magnesium, or B vitamins for dogs.
Less is sometimes more: Use complementary food for dogs sensibly
If your dog is healthy and fit, at the best age, and provided with a portion of high-quality complete food, he does not need any feed additives. But: For extremely active dogs, very old four-legged friends, pregnant, or even dogs with chronic diseases, complementary food can be an effective and healthy food additive.
However, not much always helps. On the contrary – an overdose, for example of minerals or other additives, can cause lasting damage to your four-legged friend. Too many fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A and E) burden the liver, among other things, as they cannot simply be excreted. The wrong ratio of the ingredients to each other can also have adverse effects, which is particularly common for calcium and phosphorus.
Food supplements may therefore only be given if necessary and strictly according to dosage instructions! In case of doubt, you should consult with your veterinarian about which remedy makes sense in individual cases. Complementary feed for dogs is then usually only administered for a limited period of time until the deficiency symptoms have subsided or until the stressful situation has passed. In the case of raw feeding or chronic diseases (heart disease, kidney disease, allergies, arthrosis, or the like), however, a permanent administration may also be necessary and useful.
Dog nutrition in winter
Even in winter, a dog has special needs. In the cold, the animal’s body needs to expend more energy to keep warm. This also essentially depends on what the dog’s coat texture is, how much exercise it gets and whether it’s kept indoors or outdoors. You can now give a little more food if necessary. If the walks are shorter due to the cold weather, please adjust the amount of food to the reduced movement. In this way, you prevent being underweight as well as overweight and can measure the dog food accordingly.
Administering supplements strengthen your dog’s defenses in the winter and can help if he
- Often has rough and cracked paw balls,
- Increasingly suffers from joint problems or
- Prone to diarrhea.
- But please always talk to your veterinarian about it!
Dog complementary feed in coat change
Through targeted nutrition with suitable dog food, you can also support your dog in changing coats. He now needs:
- high-quality protein sources for the production of keratin, a component of hair
- B vitamins
- Zinc
- Biotin
- highly unsaturated fatty acids (for example, salmon oil)
Dogs with osteoarthritis: a complementary food
Many dog owners report the positive effect of complementary food for dogs with joint problems, which specifically supports the musculoskeletal system. They are intended to protect or regenerate the articular cartilage, promote the formation of synovial fluid, and mitigate inflammation. In addition to the rather famous green-lipped mussel extract, there are also various medicinal herbs that have long been used for joint complaints. Complementary feed for muscle building in dogs additionally supports sick joints or counteracts a reduction in muscle mass.
A Kong is a plastic cone with treats
A Kong is a round cone of rubber into which man can fill treats. Why all this? Because it is a lot of fun for the dog to work out the food himself, and the four-legged friend is meaningfully busy for a long time. Kongs are great for boredom. We’ll tell you what you can fill into the toy.
Kong instead of the food bowl
In principle, the Kong can do what the dog otherwise gets into the bowl: So dry or wet food, whereby wet food provides longer occupation because the dog needs a while to lick out the food. So the meal can simply be served from the Kong instead of in the food bowl.
Delicious variants for the Kong
But there are other delicious variants. Do you have little time to fill the Kong deliciously? Then there are special treats that can be put into the Kong and that the dog can then “frivol out”. A ready-made paste also ensures fun.
Homemade fillings
You can also prepare the fillings yourself. For example, you can pour boiled noodles or rice. Or quark or cottage cheese, which most dogs find delicious. You can also mix the whole thing with dry food or treats. To the noodles you can add boiled chicken meat. Or you fix a piece of beef scalp, chicken neck, chicken stomach or a similar chew in Kong, and the four-legged friend has to make an effort to get to the fine bites.
There are hardly any limits to the imagination here – what is allowed is what tastes good to the dog and gets him. Great are treats that kept him busy for a while.
Freeze the Kong sometimes
By the way, to increase the difficulty, german shepherd games you can also freeze the Kong and its fullness. Frozen yogurt, for example, is a true delicacy for most dogs, often interspersed with food crumbs. Here the dog is busy longer – and especially in summer the contents are a delicious cooling. By the way, many Kong fans use the toy just when the dog has to stay alone to sweeten the waiting time. So he is busy, and to get such a Kong under normal circumstances not even in the absence of man.
