Real dog food provides your pet with healthy ingredients like lean meats and whole foods that eliminate the need for extra vitamins and minerals found in many processed kibble diets.
Select a food with real meat, poultry or fish as the primary ingredient and stay away from fillers like corn (not the delectable kind you and your pup enjoy!) as filler; rather opt for feed made up of corn remnants or dust instead.
Contents
Protein
Protein is an essential macronutrient for dogs that contributes to overall body functions, physical development and health. Protein helps the body break down fat stores for energy storage purposes as well as provide energy. Since dogs do not produce amino acids naturally themselves, they need to get it from food sources such as proteins.
Protein from meat is the ideal source of essential amino acids that dogs require, so look for it as the first ingredient on a label. But too much protein can be detrimental, with excess being broken down by digestion into by-products excreted as urine. Very yellow urine could indicate excessive protein consumption and weight gain may also indicate too much is being consumed.
Real food brands such as Jinx are committed to offering balanced nutrition by including multiple sources of animal proteins in their recipes – such as guinea fowl, turkey and chicken meat – for maximum protein density in their foods. Furthermore, they omit lower quality sources like rendered slaughterhouse waste or organ meat such as livers or lungs from rendering processes which contain lower-grade sources such as meat by-products (meat meal).
Carbohydrates
Carbs provide dogs with energy in the form of three to four calories per gram, making them easily accessible, cost-effective energy source with fiber benefits and antioxidant protection. Complex carbohydrates also provide important nutritional support such as essential fatty acids and vitamins that benefit their wellbeing.
Dogs, like their wolf ancestors, need between 7-14% carbohydrates in their diet in order to thrive, be active, and maintain proper energy levels while protein can still be utilized for other functions like growth and repair.
Carbs can be divided into two broad categories, simple or complex carbohydrates, depending on their structure and digestion rate. Simple carbohydrates (sugars) are quickly absorbed, while complex carb foods like sweet potatoes, corn, barley, wheat and oats provide sustained release energy sources over time. Meat, poultry and fish meals also offer great sources of complex carbohydrates.
Fats
Fats are an energy source with incredible nutritional benefits for our pets, providing 9 calories of metabolicizable energy per gram of fat consumed – twice that of protein or carbohydrates. Furthermore, essential fatty acids (EFAs), also referred to as essentials due to being produced naturally within their bodies but must still be provided through food sources such as fat.
EFAs can be found both animal and plant sources of fats; however, most commercially available foods contain mostly animal fats like poultry tallow or beef lard derived from lean meat animals like chicken and turkey carcasses.
Ancestral diets consisted of wild prey animals with lower fat and higher protein than modern domesticated feed animals, so look for food made up of lean meats (such as chicken necks, backs and thighs) along with fish oils and flaxseed oil to provide an optimum omega-6 to omega-3 balance for your pet.
Vitamins & Minerals
Dogs need several essential vitamins and minerals in order to live, grow and be healthy. Vitamins are organic compounds essential for cell function and the formation of new cells; vitamin A in particular is required for bone and tissue development, vision reproduction and immune system health; while antioxidant vitamin E helps fight oxidative damage and supports heart health as well as cell function; finally fat-soluble Vitamin K stimulates clotting mechanisms within the blood vessels and activates them as necessary.
Minerals are essential to proper body function and can be found in meat, fish, poultry, vegetables and seeds. Common examples include iron, zinc, copper, iodine selenium and magnesium.
Artificial flavors and colors are unnecessary and potentially harmful, adding no nutritional benefit to your dog’s food. When purchasing treats for your canine companion, look for products with “no added colours or flavours” displayed prominently on their label.
