Right nutrition for your canine

The food requirement changes with age in dogs… here are a few tips to choose the right food for your pet

The nutritional requirements of a dog vary throughout its life and are governed by factors such as age, reproductive status, level of activity, state of health and environmental conditions. Since animals eat to satisfy their requirement for energy, all essential nutrients must be present in the correct amounts relative to the energy content of the diet.

General recommendations may be given for feeding dogs at various life stages, but these are usually aimed at the average healthy dog that is kept indoors in a temperate environment. These recommendations, which are reflected by the feeding guides found on the packaging of commercially available pet foods, are intended only as a guide to obtain an approximate estimate of a pet's needs.

The energy requirements of pets have been established for the various life stages from early life through gestation and lactation to senior years, as well as for the level of physical activity. Because dogs are extremely diverse in terms of their body size and shape, the relationship between energy requirement and body weight is not linear.

Puppies
The amount of time taken for a growing puppy to achieve adult body weight varies considerably, with larger breeds having a longer growth period than smaller breeds. Toy, small and medium breeds reached 99 per cent of their adult weight at around 9-10 months, whilst large and giant breeds reached this point at approximately 12-24 months.

Puppies nutritional requirements are almost twice that of an adult dog and are different to human. For example, puppies not only need significantly more protein than adult dogs and babies but also requires highly digestible proteins and energy dense food for optimum growth. For example, adult dogs should be fed a diet containing at least 25 g protein per 1000 kcal. This requirement increases to 50 g/1000 kcal in bitches during pregnancy and lactation, 56g/1000 kcal in puppies. Puppies grow almost 12 times faster than babies. Lastly puppies are fed 2-4 small meals per day to accommodate in their tiny stomachs.

Adults
Nutritionally speaking, the stage of adult maintenance is considered to be the period of basal requirements in which the animal is not subjected to additional physiological stresses of growth, pregnancy or lactation, regular work, or high levels of activity, or extremes environmental temperature. During this period, the dietary aim is to maintain optimal health and activity and promote peak condition in the animal. The amount of food needs to meet these may then be calculated from a knowledge of the energy values of food.

Feeding recommendations are only ever given as guidelines and are subject to individual variability between dogs and to the difference in activity level and environmental conditions. If extra snacks, treats or table scraps are added to the diet, their energy content must be taken into account when calculating the daily food allowance, In addition, spaying may reduce the resting energy requirement to bitches. Regular weighing of the animal allows the owner to monitor the adequacy of the feeding regimen on a quantitative basis.

Senior:
As a rough guide, a dog can be considered senior when it enters the last third of its predicted lifespan. The energy requirement of senior dogs is approximately 20 per cent less than that of young adults. The decrease in energy requirement is linked to declines in activity and changes in body composition.

Pregnancy and Lactation:
Most adult dogs in maintenance are able to eat all they require in a single meal and it is perfectly acceptable to adopt a once-a-day feeding. The average duration of pregnancy in the bitch is 63 days, but her energy requirements do not increase appreciably until the last third of gestation when most fetal weight gain occurs. It is important, therefore, to avoid overfeeding in early pregnancy, since this will lead to the deposition of unwanted fat and may predispose the bitch to problems at whelping.

A gradual increase in food allowance over the second half of gestation is all that is required and a satisfactory regimen would be to increase the amount of food by 15 per cent of the bitch's maintenance ration each week from the fifth week onwards. At the of whelping, the bitch then will be eating 60 per cent more than when she was mated. During the first four weeks post whelping, she must eat enough to support both herself and her rapidly growing puppies. The extra energy and nutrients needed over above her normal intake depend on the size and age of the litter but at peak lactation (three to four weeks after whelping), she may need to eat anything up to four times normal maintenance allowance.

By: Dr KG Umesh
The writer is Waltham Scientific Communication Manager, Mars India.