Guest Post

A new puppy is a joy to have around, but your little one will not grow up to be strong and healthy without the correct nutrition. While there are countless brands and varieties of the best puppy food out there, a nutritious and easily digestable puppy food can be hard to find.

All pet owners want the absolute best of everything for their companions, and this includes the best puppy food. However, you should be wary of feeding your puppy conventional puppy kibbles. Dogs are carnivores and tend to have trouble effectively digesting carbohydrates, plant proteins and fiber. Their digestive systems are simply not designed to handle these materials.

The vast majority of puppy foods are made with corn, wheat, soy or rice as their main ingredients. Often times, the grains used in pet food have been deemed unfit for human consumption. This means that they could be contaminated with any number of mold, bacteria or other pathogens that could make your pet sick. The most prevalent example of this is the tainted dog food epidemic of 2007 that caused kidney failure in pets across North America, Europe and South Africa. If it’s not okay for you to eat, why would you want to feed it to your pet?

Besides being of questionable safety and quality, most dry food is not biologically appropriate for puppies. As a result of this type of diet, many puppies and dogs develop health problems like skin infections, ear infections, kidney problems, obesity, arthritis, periodontal disease and behavioral and digestive disorders. It has also been shown that feeding grain-based foods to meat-eating animals can lead to cancer and organ failure. Here are some of the problems that can result from feeding conventional puppy foods and what you can do about it.

Yeast Infections

Most ear infections in puppies are a result of candida yeast overgrowth, which is ultimately caused by consumption of carbohydrate-rich foods. Dogs, being carnivorous, lack the enzymes and digestive tract structure to sufficiently digest carbohydrates. The resulting high blood sugar results in widespread candida overgrowth.

Obesity and Diabetes

Due to the carbohydrate load of conventional pet kibbles, many puppies end up suffering from high blood sugar. Much the way it happens in people, this excess slows their metabolism and causes their bodies to shift into fat storage mode. With prolonged feeding of these foods, canine diabetes often develops.

Food Allergies and Intolerances

Just as humans can become allergic or intolerant to certain foods, so can puppies. Wheat, corn, soy and rice are the most common among canine food allergens. Because they’re not natural substances for dogs to consume, the animals’ immune systems come to recognize them as threats and react accordingly. This can show up as behavioral problems, digestive issues, sores around the mouth and joint problems.

What to Do?

The best thing you can do for your puppy from the start of their life is feed them a biologically appropriate food. This means that you should avoid all foods containing grains or other plant materials as ingredients. In response to the growing body of evidence showing that conventional foods are bad for pets, many varieties of grain-free and easily digestable puppy food have popped up in pet stores.

Consideration was given for the editing, approving, and posting of this
article by Amanda Green