Best cereals for dogs: advice from veterinarians

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Feeding your pet is a topic that is regularly raised both on thematic forums and at consultations with a veterinarian. To briefly summarize all that has been said, then dog food can be ready-made or natural. Each of these types of feeding has its advantages and disadvantages. However, most owners are inclined to believe that natural meat and cereals are much he althier than canned food. Moreover, this rule works even if the finished food is of good quality.

Choose a natural diet

In this case, you need to immediately determine for yourself what time you will go shopping and cook food for your pet. The basis can be meat broth, boiled meat and various cereals for dogs. Additionally, you can boil vegetables. All blanks after cooking are stored separately and mixed immediately before eating.

Meat component

Be sure to buy quality meat on the market. It can be good trimmings, liver, lung, spleen and cartilage. Offal should be less, but they toovery important. You can boil them in advance and freeze in portions, then cooking will not take much time. For daily feeding, you will need 40% (of the total daily diet) of meat, and 30% of cereals and vegetables.

From vegetables it is best to take carrots and beets, you can add potatoes and zucchini, onions. Vegetables are best stewed in meat broth until completely softened. Porridge for dogs also plays an important role in nutrition, so we’ll talk a little more about the grain component now.

How to cook right

The body of your four-legged friend is a fragile system that is very dependent on quality nutrition. In nature, predators do not eat porridge, but they constantly obtain complex carbohydrates from the stomachs of their herbivorous prey. At home, they need to supplement their meat diet with cereals.

Porridge for dogs must be prepared every day so that they are certainly fresh. If the meat and broth were cooked and frozen in advance, then you can only reheat it and add the cereal. There are certain rules to follow. Porridge for dogs must be cooked in a clean saucepan, without adding s alt and spices. After cooking, the food must be cooled, transferred to an airtight container and put in the refrigerator.

Which grains to avoid

It is important to remember that every pet is unique, and it is very difficult to say what will suit everyone without exception. Each breed has its ownspecifics, but it is best to ask your veterinarian about this. A number of chronic diseases also change the dog's diet beyond recognition. However, while we are talking about he althy animals.

Speaking of whether it is possible to give porridge to a dog, one should immediately mention barley. This coarse cereal is practically not digestible, even if cooked very well. Therefore, pearl barley is the worst option for feeding carnivorous predators.

It is not recommended to feed your pet with millet, corn and semolina. Not only will they not be beneficial, but they can also provoke intestinal volvulus or metabolic disorders.

Buckwheat is the main source of protein

Speaking about what kind of porridge to cook for a dog, first of all, we need to mention this queen of the cereal kingdom. It contains the optimal amount of protein, a set of essential amino acids, is easy to digest and does not put too much stress on the digestive organs.

Before cooking, it is recommended to soak buckwheat in cool water. After about 20 minutes, the water can be drained along with the husk. Now the cereal is ready for cooking. Pour it into a saucepan and fill it with water in a ratio of 1: 2. Cook until the liquid evaporates, then cover and leave to brew. By the way, butter, beloved by all of us, will not be superfluous at all if the cereal is boiled in water. If you are using meat broth, then do not abuse the additional fats.

The second basis of nutrition is rice

Speaking about what kind of porridge to give a dog, we must not forget about thisvaluable product. It is the basis of dietary nutrition and is included in all premium-class ready-made feeds. Therefore, do not forget about it if your dog eats natural products.

It's no secret that nutritional properties depend on the variety of rice and the way the cereal is processed. It is best to choose unpolished cereals, brown or brown rice. It retains useful fiber, while polished cereals are a source of starch. So what are the best cereals? Dogs need to be fed buckwheat and rice. They can be combined with each other. You can boil cereals separately, and then mix with meat and broth already in a cup.

If you take unpolished rice, then it must be washed well. It is cooked for about 35 minutes, after which you need to let the porridge brew, otherwise mucus will appear in it. If your dog is picky and does not eat porridge well, then it is better to boil rice in s alted water. Proper dog porridge can also be prepared from polished cereals. In this case, a spoonful of olive oil is added to it during cooking. So it turns out tastier and does not stick together.

Oatmeal or Hercules

Is it possible to feed a dog with cereals that are considered he althy for humans? In fact, oatmeal is not suitable as the basis of nutrition. It serves as a scrub for the intestines, as well as a source of beneficial trace elements. Therefore, oatmeal porridge is, rather, a mineral supplement. Cooking these flakes is not recommended, it is much better to steam them with hot broth and wrap them carefully. So the dish retains all the useful and cleansing properties. Cook this porridgefor a dog should be no more than once a week.

Yachka or wheat

These are the cheapest cereals and are often chosen for pet food based on their price. Barley porridge sticks together strongly after cooking, so it is recommended to cook it only once. Wheat porridge also sins with this, although its composition is more interesting. It is advisable to flavor it after cooking with oil so that it does not stick together too much. In terms of protein and amino acid content, as well as in terms of nutritional value, these cereals are much inferior to those described above, so they are recommended to be used as an additional, rather than the main food.

Orientation to the individual characteristics of the pet

When choosing a pet for yourself, be sure to consult a breeder or veterinarian about its proper feeding. A he althy, adult dog without a burdened heredity can eat almost any cereal without compromising he alth. An example is the German Shepherd, which can adapt to almost any diet.

The right porridge for a dog should be chosen much more carefully if we are talking about small puppies or a breed with digestive problems. These are the majority of decorative breeds that have a long path of genetic mutations behind them. Animals with congenital pathologies, metabolic disorders or severe illnesses are no exception. In any of these cases, the choice is limited to buckwheat and rice. If observedallergic reaction (reddened ears, itchy skin), then the cereal component is limited to brown or brown rice.

Cooking porridge

Having decided on the choice of cereals, you need to start cooking porridge. To diversify the diet, you can take several types of cereals and cook together. For example, a third of buckwheat, a third of rice, and a third of millet in half with a cell or oatmeal. Such a mixture is usually normally perceived by all pets. Now fill it with boiling broth or water and cook until tender. In order for cereals to be normally absorbed by the dog's body, they need to be cooked twice as long as when we cook porridge for ourselves. Accordingly, you need to calculate the amount of liquid so that it is enough. The mixture presented above is placed in a ratio of 1: 5 in a boiling liquid.

At the end of cooking, you can add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil or a piece of butter. It is very easy to check the readiness: scoop the porridge with a spoon, if it falls into a lump, then you can turn it off, and if it drains, then cook for some more time.

Additions to porridge

In small quantities, you can add flaxseed to porridge. It contains a large number of trace elements that are beneficial for the dog's body. For a large animal, it is undesirable to use more than 1/3 teaspoon per day. In addition, you can use bran. No more than a pinch of dietary bran is added to the porridge. But bread and pasta should not be used, as they are too high in calories. An exception may be croutons from dark bread.in limited quantities. Baking is completely banned.