How to choose a feed for overweight dogs?

Bad habits such as lack of exercise or a little food adequate have caused about half of the dogs registered in Europe to be overweight.Excess fat can be highly harmful to the health of our dog, so we want to show you how to choose a feed for overweight dogs That really works.

From ExpertAnimal we will give you the keys to make it right with the choice of food for your overweight dog and, thus, help you improve your quality of life and health.

Avoid false advertising: light feed is not always light

Oddly enough, most commercial dog food brands use the word "light" in ranges that simply contain a little less fat than usual or even less protein, without give too much importance to the rest of the ingredients.Dogs are mainly carnivorous animals and, as such, they must have a diet that is based mainly on meat, so we should never make the mistake of thinking that a feed with a low level of protein is It is better for our dog, whether or not he is overweight.

A strategy widely used by companies to confuse consumers is to reduce the percentage of protein and fat in certain dog foods, then adding the category of " light ".However, it is not the proteins that cause our dog to be overweight, but the excess of carbohydrates in combination with the lack of exercise.It is actually a very simple mathematical sum illa, if a dog eats more calories than it spends, it will transform them into fat.

Carbohydrates are an almost instantaneous energy source for both dogs and humans, the problem is that if you don't they spend, the body transforms them into fat and stores them, so use a good quality feed for our furry friend, which contains a low amount of calories, fats and hydrates and a greater contribution of fiber , is the most advisable to start helping our dog to lose weight.A good example could be Beef and Vegetables from NFNatcane.

Fiber favors the intestinal transit and, therefore, helps the overweight dog to lose those extra kilos more quickly.On the other hand, L-carnitine is a substance that also promotes fat burning, so that when choosing The best food is interesting, too, to see if the supplement is found in its composition.

Debemo s avoid focusing on the false publicity they offer us through television, magazines or radio and inform ourselves about the food we are giving our friend to choose a good feed for overweight dogs, because maybe we are to blame for your obesity without even knowing it.

Focus on ingredient labeling

We have the advantage that the law requires manufacturers to include the ingredients in their products ordered from higher to lower quantity.A dog food containing wheat, corn or any other cereal as the first ingredient It is indicating that the most abundant ingredient in its formulation is cereal.In this way, we should focus on looking for food for our dog whose first ingredients are always meat, such as chicken meat, veal or lamb meat., we must avoid at all costs those that contain animal by-products, animal derivatives or animal flours, since they are of very low quality.

Avoid being cheated with cereal derivatives, there are many brands of dog food that does not divide a cereal as the first ingredient, divide it into derivatives so that they go unnoticed.For example:

• "Chicken meat 30%, corn 20%, peas 15%, corn gluten 14%, eggs 12%, 10% corn protein, fruits...".Did you think this feed mainly contains meat? If we add the corn and its derivatives (corn, corn gluten and corn protein) it gives us 44%, that is, we will be feeding our dog practically with corn.

Dogs they use carbohydrates for energy, but if we administer them in excess Then they start to get fat, so many times and without knowing it, we are the ones to blame for our dog getting fat and becoming obese.

Feed without cereals, and without carbohydrates?

There is a tendency in the world of dog food to offer cereal-free feed, making us believe that our dogs will eat higher quality products, but what they don't tell us is that yes They do not use cereals, they will use tubercles or legumes , which also contain high amounts of carbohydrates.By this, we do not mean that cereal-free feed is harmful, far from it, but perhaps they are not the most suitable for dogs with obesity, and then we will see why.

We must begin by accepting that an adequate level of carbohydrates in the feeding of our dog is not something negative, but healthy.The negative is to abuse carbohydrates or use ingredients of poor quality.If you look at the ingredient label of cereal-free feed, you will see that they are either using tubers such as potatoes or sweet potatoes, or they are using legumes such as lentils, chickpeas or beans.so that they are not eliminating carbohydrates, but they are simply changing the source of carbohydrates for less striking ones.

Rice is the best cereal that a feed can contain, followed by potatoes as a tuber or legumes, however, we should not feed our dog overweight with a feed that contains more rice, potatoes or any type of legumes than meat.Meat should always be the main ingredient of their diet.

Put a little of your part and help your dog lose weight

Dogs love to eat, it is one of their passions along with sleeping and playing, so we must help them a little in the task of losing the excess fat they have.The first step is Feed them strictly with the amount recommended by the manufacturer.In this sense, the use of a kitchen scale can help us calculate exactly the ration of feed that our dog should eat every day.

The second step is not to give him any of our food that can aggravate the situation even more.They look at us with little eyes so that we can give them a little..., but if we give them, we will be helping them gain even more weight.I think for overweight dogs with food from our diet, we will opt for the aforementioned cooked meats or vegetables suitable for them, also boiled.Likewise, we will never mix the feed with homemade food, since it could cause the animal digestive problems.

The third pa So it is to exercise them , going out with them to run or ride a bicycle is an excellent option for them to exercise and thus lose weight easily.Except for puppies and older dogs, which we should not force to exercise , they will simply need long walks to burn fat.

Learning to correctly choose a good diet for our dog and doing some exercise with it, we will help you lose that excess weight that can harm your health so much.

If you want to read more articles similar to How to choose a feed for overweight dogs? , we recommend that you enter our section of Diets to lose weight.