Buyers Guide – Healthy Dog Treats
As dog parents, we are all aware of the fact that occasional treats and snacks go a long way in keeping your pet happy and content.
While we are not suggesting constant vigilance as far as treats are concerned, we would still recommend offering healthy dog treats to inculcate healthy habits as early as possible.
As we had mentioned earlier that we intend to hold your hand through the entire process of finalizing your healthy dog treats, given below is a Buyers Guide that will assist you in the process.
In this guide, we will talk about the dangers of unhealthy dog treats, the importance of natural dog treats, and how to choose them.
Dangers Of Unhealthy Treats
If you thought that simply walking your canine companion twice a day or letting him run around in the evenings in your backyard would help prevent obesity, think again.
It has a lot to do with the kind of food you offer and most of it is caused by the amount of sugar and preservatives present in dog treats.
Not only do overweight dogs face the risk of various types of cancers but are also more prone to developing heart diseases. Obesity-related disorders and diseases are hard to heal, expensive, and involve painful procedures as much in pooches as in humans.
The only way to avoid these problems is to prevent causing them in the first place and getting rid of the factors that might be causing obesity.
Given below are some of the risks that obesity could expose your pet too.
- Difficulty In Breathing: Excessive fat restricts the lungs from functioning properly.
- Intolerant To Heat: Unwanted fat cells disrupt the body's heat regulation system.
- Compromised Liver Function: The liver tends to store excess fats and this could lead to conditions like hepatic lipidosis.
- Fertility Issues: Obese dogs have reproductive problems and need veterinarian help to give birth.
- Compromised Immunity: Fat stores impede the natural immune system to cause more bacterial and viral infections.
- Skin Problems: Skin tends to fold and collect fungus and bacteria in between the folds. This leads to the shedding of hair and skin infections.
What Is the Importance Of Healthy Treats?
This makes the treats even more tempting because we are all drawn towards more sugar that tends to give us instant sugar spikes.
To understand the importance of healthy dog treats, it is essential to know that different breeds of dogs have different calorific needs. When you offer an unhealthy snack, you might as well be covering more than a quarter of his/her calorific requirements with empty calories and food with low nutritional value. It makes matter worse when you offer too many treats at the same time that tends to happen with all of us.
While speaking to veterinarians, we came to know that dog snacks and dog treats should not contribute to more than 10% of your pet's total diet. This is on similar lines as humans who should not obtain more than 10% of calories from crisps and chocolates.
The primary motive is to avoid as much fat content as possible. For example, dried chicken strips are way healthier than cheesy chews because the latter is not only high in saturated fats but is also heavily processed.
Always Make Sure – All Natural Ingredients
The best kind of dog treats and dog food includes natural ingredients that enhance the health and well-being of your pets. Most dog owners prefer snacks like celery, yams, green beans because these are a few of the best that you could offer to your furry friend.
The trick is to understand the changes in your pet's health and behavior after experimenting with dog treats.
However, you would be better off if you can avoid the following ingredients:
- Grapes
- Garlic
- Onions
- Raisins
These tend to have toxic effects on your pet. Dogs can consistently refuse to have vegetables because they were essentially designed to have meat but if this is inculcated as a habit early in life, you can expect your meat-lover to thrive on vegetable snacks.
Avoid Cooked Bones & Scraps As Treats
It is a common practice to throw bones and scraps at your pet before or after meals but this is not healthy at all for it in the longer run. This is because it can have a behavioral impact on your pet who will gradually feel conditioned to ask for it often during the day.
If it is impossible for you to keep your dog away during family mealtimes, try opting for healthier treats instead of throwing greasy chicken wings at him.
It is popularly believed that a dog should chew on cooked scrap bones but that is not such a good idea. This myth has been debunked lately when veterinarians discovered the link between dog bones and dental decay. Your dog might easily break one of his molars or even worse, swallow bone splinters that can cause gastrointestinal problems.
Instead, try healthier options like chicken liver and chicken chews instead.
Dogs cannot make intelligent decisions about their diet. It is the pet parent's responsibility to ensure that the food offered is healthy, nutritious, and delicious at the same time. Habits need to be formed early so that nothing has to be forced.
Dogs will want to eat whatever they are naturally attracted to but it is our discretion to offer balanced meals that have a little bit of everything.
