Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Basic Canine Nutrition Guidelines

I always advise learning basic dog nutrition requirements, especially when you are home cooking your dog's diets. A really basic primer on dog nutrient requirements is available here, from the National Resource Council (PDF file). It uses info taken from the NRC's Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, which is now available as a comprehensive book- for $265.00! (Personally, I'll stick with the free info!)

A few of the books listed in my last post give some basic nutrition info, either for dogs in general, or geared towards veggie dogs in particular. There is also a lot of information available online, but always consider the source, and remember anyone can toss some words on a webpage and call them "facts". You can check out the links I have posted on the side of this blog, many of the sites discuss veg dog nutrition.

The Vegan Dog Nutrition Association will have an online "Vegan Dog Nutrition Course" in the future, for a "suggested donation" of $25 or more.

I personally have taken a pet nutrition course sponsored by a pet food company. (It was made available for vet techs and others who work with animals.) I had to wade though a lot of promotional info, but I was able to learn about the digestive system, energy requirements, and nutrient requirements for different lifestyles and lifestages. I have 2 notebooks filled with notes, which I refer back to often. It really is worth it to learn this stuff.

Lastly, nutritiondata.com will give you the nutrient profiles of individual foods. You can also have recipes analyzed to find their nutritional data.

Happy learning!