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Click on the Treats Below for more info'
The Chow on Treats’
Dog food is plant or animal material intended for consumption by dogs or other canines. Special dog foods such as dog treats given as a reward, and not as a staple, are known as dog treats. Some people make their own dog food or feed their dogs meals made from ingredients purchased in grocery or health-food stores many others rely on commercially manufactured dog food. There are many different recommendations on what diet is best for dogs. Some people argue that dogs have thrived off of leftovers and scraps from their human owners for thousands of years and that commercial dog foods (which have only been available for the past century) contain poor-quality meats, additives, and other ingredients dogs should not ingest, or that commercial dog food is not nutritionally sufficient for their dogs. Homemade diets Different homemade diets are recommended by various experts, from "natural" diets consisting primarily of raw meat, to vegetarian diets consisting only of nutritionally balanced vegetarian ingredients, to mixtures consisting of ingredients such as brown rice, brown pasta, meats, eggs, and vegetables. A problem with homemade diets, frequently articulated by veterinarians, is the difficulty to consistently provide the dog with a complete and balanced diet. This "technique-sensitivity" will be a challenging part of providing a truly superior diet to the higher quality brands readily available by retail in most urban and suburban areas. Most dogs willingly eat vegetables, particularly if they are cooked, and many kinds of fruit, although chocolate,[1] coffee,[2] onions,[3] macadamia nuts,[4] and bread dough[5] can be poisonous in dogs. Grapes and raisins are also toxic to dogs.[6] Avocados have in two cases been associated with heart failure in dogs.[7] Commercial dog food There are many varieties of commercial dog food to choose from. Enlarge There are many varieties of commercial dog food to choose from. By its water content, commercial dog food can be categorized into following types: dry, semi-moist, and moist. Making dry dog food Dry pellet dog food, called kibble, is made in two different ways: extruding and baking. During extruding, a mixture of raw materials is fed into an expander while pressurized steam or hot water is added. When removed from the pressure, the pellets puff like popcorn. The pellets are allowed to dry, then sprayed with vitamins, grease, or any other ingredients that are not heat-tolerant. The down side of extruding is that the fats added after cooking often turn rancid, and the vitamins may be destroyed by heat during storage or shipping. |
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