Feeding your pet is a topic that is regularly raised both at thematic forums and at consultations with a veterinarian. Briefly summarizing all the above, the food for the dog can be ready or natural. Each of these types of feeding has its own advantages and disadvantages. However, most owners are inclined to believe that natural meat and cereals are much healthier than canned food. Moreover, this rule works even if the finished feed is of good quality.
Choose a natural diet
In this case, you need to immediately determine for yourself what time you will go shopping and prepare food for your pet. The basis can be meat broth, boiled meat and various cereals for dogs. Additionally, you can boil vegetables. All preparations after cooking are stored separately and mixed immediately before meals.
Meat component
Be sure to purchase quality meat on the market. It can be a good meat trimmings, liver, lung, spleen and cartilage. There should be less by-products, but they are also very important. You can boil them in advance and portionwise freeze, then cooking will not take much time. For daily feeding you will need 40% (of the total daily diet) of meat, and 30% of cereals and vegetables.
From vegetables it is best to take carrots and beets, you can add potatoes and zucchini, onions. It is best to stew vegetables in meat broth until completely softened. An important role in the diet is played by cereals for dogs, so we’ll talk a little more about the grain component.
How to cook
The body of your four-legged friend is a fragile system that very much depends on good nutrition. In nature, predators do not eat porridge, but they constantly get complex carbohydrates from the stomachs of their herbivorous prey. At home, they need to supplement the meat diet with cereals.
Porridge for dogs must be prepared every day so that they are certainly fresh. If the meat and broth were cooked and frozen in advance, then you can only warm it up and fill up the cereal. There are certain rules to follow. Dog cereals must be cooked in a clean saucepan, without adding salt and spices. After cooking, food must be cooled, transferred to an airtight container and put in the refrigerator.
What cereals should be avoided
It is important to remember that each pet is unique, and it is very difficult to say that it will suit everyone without exception. Each breed has its own characteristics, but it is best to ask your veterinarian about this. A number of chronic diseases also change the dog's diet beyond recognition. However, while we are talking about healthy animals.
Speaking about whether it is possible to give porridge to a dog, barley should be immediately mentioned. This coarse grits are practically not digested, even if cooked very well. Therefore, barley is the worst option for feeding carnivorous predators.
It is not recommended to feed your pet with millet, corn and semolina. They not only will not bring benefits, but also can provoke an inversion of the intestine or a violation of metabolic processes.
Buckwheat - the main source of protein
Speaking about what kind of porridge to cook for a dog, first of all it is necessary to mention about this queen of the cereal kingdom. It contains the optimal amount of protein, a set of essential amino acids, is easily digested and does not put too much strain on the digestive organs.
Before cooking, it is recommended to soak buckwheat in cool water. After about 20 minutes, the water can be drained along with the husk. Now the cereal is ready for cooking. Pour it into the pan and pour it in water in a ratio of 1: 2. Cook until the liquid evaporates, and then cover and leave to brew. By the way, our favorite butter will not be out of place if the cereal is cooked on water. If you use meat broth, then do not abuse extra fats.
The second basis of nutrition - rice
Speaking about which cereals to give the dog, one should not forget about this valuable product. It is the basis of diet food and is included in all ready-made premium foods. Therefore, do not forget about it if your dog eats natural products.
It is no secret that the nutritional properties depend on the variety of rice and the method of processing cereals. It is best to choose unpolished cereals, brown or brown rice. It retains healthy fiber, while ground grits are a source of starch. So what are the best cereals? Dogs need to be fed buckwheat and rice. They can be combined with each other. You can boil cereals separately, and then mix with meat and broth already in a cup.
If you take unpolished rice, then it must be washed well. It boils for about 35 minutes, after which it is necessary to let the porridge brew, otherwise mucus will appear in it. If your dog is picky and eats porridge poorly, then it is better to cook rice in salted water. Proper dog porridge can also be prepared from polished cereals. In this case, a spoonful of olive oil is added to it during cooking. So it turns out more delicious and does not stick together.
Oatmeal or oatmeal
Is it possible to feed a dog porridges that are considered beneficial for humans? In fact, hercules is not suitable as the basis of nutrition. It serves as a scrub for the intestines, as well as a source of beneficial trace elements. Therefore, oatmeal porridge is, rather, a mineral top dressing. Cooking these flakes is not recommended, it is much better to steam them with hot broth and carefully wrap. So the dish retains all the beneficial and cleansing properties. To prepare such porridge for a dog should not be more than once a week.
Box or Wheat
These are the cheapest cereals that are often chosen for feeding pets based on their price. Barley porridge sticks together strongly after cooking, therefore it is recommended to cook it only once. Wheat porridge also sins with the same , although its composition is more interesting. It is advisable to flavor it after cooking with oil so that it does not stick too much. By the content of protein and amino acids, as well as by the level of nutrition, these cereals are much inferior to those described above, therefore it is recommended to use them as an additional, rather than the main feed.
Orientation to individual characteristics of the pet
When choosing a pet for yourself, be sure to consult the breeder or veterinarian about his proper feeding. A healthy, adult dog without burdened heredity can eat almost any cereal without compromising health. An example is a German shepherd, which can adapt to almost any diet.
Much more thoroughly, the correct dog porridge should be chosen if we are talking about small puppies or a breed with problem digestion. This is the majority of decorative breeds with a long path of genetic mutations. Animals with congenital abnormalities, metabolic disorders or severe illnesses are no exception. In any of these cases, the choice is limited to buckwheat and rice. If there is an allergic reaction (redness of the ears, skin itching), then the cereal component is limited to brown or brown rice.
Cooking porridge
Having decided on the choice of cereals, you need to start cooking porridge. To diversify the diet, you can take several types of cereals and cook together. For example, a third of buckwheat, a third of rice, and a third of millet in half with a cell or hercules. This mixture is usually normally accepted by all pets. Now fill it with boiling broth or water and cook until cooked. In order for the cereals to be normally absorbed by the dog’s body, they need to be cooked twice as long as when we cook porridge for ourselves. Accordingly, it is necessary to calculate the amount of fluid to have enough. The above mixture is placed in a ratio of 1: 5 in a boiling liquid.
At the end of cooking, you can add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil or a slice of butter. Checking the readiness is very easy: scoop up the porridge with a spoon, if it falls off in a lump, you can turn it off, and if it drains, then cook for a while.
Porridge Supplements
In small quantities, you can add flaxseed to the porridge. It contains a large number of trace elements useful for the dog's body. For a large animal, it is undesirable to use more than 1/3 teaspoon per day. You can also use bran. No more than a pinch of diet bran is added to the porridge. But bread and pasta should not be used, as they are too high in calories. An exception may be crackers made of dark bread in limited quantities. Baking is completely prohibited.