Dog Health Can Be Improved With a Natural Diet
It goes without saying that your dog needs suitable nutrition to remain healthy. Vets and pet food manufacturers often have differing views on appropriate nutrition for your dog. Although commercial pet food manufacturers are motivated in large part by profits, commercially prepared foods are routinely recommended as part of an adequate, or good, diet for your dog. Sometimes your vet or dog breeder may approve of commercially prepared foods as your dog's sole diet. Many experts, however, tend to prefer a largely natural diet which for dogs is invariably comprised of meat and bones.
Raw is preferable to cooked, as some of the minerals are definitely lost in the cooking process.The reason why the commercially prepared pet food is so often fed to our dogs, is because, apart from the convenience, it can (depending upon the quality) actually contain many of the nutrients which are essential to your dog's wellbeing. The key word here is quality. There are in fact very, very few commercial manufacturers which produce nutrient-rich food. And they're not the brands you find in your supermarket, or even in most pet stores or vetinarians.Raw bones with a little dry food as well as occasional rice or pasta, and perhaps the odd quality food scrap from your table, will generally contain most of the nutrients which your dog needs.All dogs must obtain reasonable nutrition from their food to maintain excellent health and performance. The main nutrients required by your dog are water, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins.
Vitamin or mineral deficiency in dogs fed a commercially manufactured diet today is not widely publicised. But then again, the slosh and dried formulae which are readily available from your vet or the local supermarket are not your dog's natural diet. If your dog was left to fend for itself in the wild (assuming it could manage to adapt, that is), would choose raw meat. And one of the reasons why meat, and especially bones, are so good, is the chewing action and the teeth cleaning function which the bones perform. Of course, there are also commercially prepared substitutes which can also effectively clean your dog?s teeth and satisfy his/her need to chew.A lesser known fact is that to feed your dog only meat (with no bones and no cereals or other carbohydrate source) can cause severe deficiencies: your dog is likely to become lethargic, sick, and even death has been known to occur from an all meat diet.
But what about dogs in the wild, I hear you ask? Isn't meat a dog's natural diet? Isn't that what you just said, Brigitte? Well, yes and no: in the wild dogs eat the whole of their prey, not simply muscle meat - they thus obtain vegetable matter from the digestive tract of their prey, and calcium from the bones. As well, wild dogs occasionally, but routinely, add to their diet with plants, fruit and berries.Most dogs relish some raw fruit and vegetables in their diet, so long as that's what they're used to. A dog who has been fed commercially prepared dog food all of its life won't be used to the taste of fresh food, so may well turn up his/her nose if you introduce such healthy food later in life. But persevere - try hand feeding pieces of carrot or apple to begin with. And if your dog is still very young, all the better.
Start as you mean to go on and feed him/her some raw fruit and vegetables from time to time. Your dog's health will benefit!(c) 2005, Brigitte Smith, Healthy Happy Dogs.
Brigitte Smith is a dog lover with a special interest in natural health for dogs. For your free special report, as well as weekly tips, information, strategies and resources for a healthier happier dog, click here for your dog health report: http://www.HealthyHappyDogs.com.Your Body?s Secret Wisdom-- Eating from the Tree of Life
Your body's secret wisdom is as ancient as humankind and encoded in every cell. It knows the perfect food for you to eat at any point in time. Yet we have lost touch with that perfect knowledge in this industrial society. We have lost touch with our birthright of absolute health.
It doesn't matter how old or how young you are.
Your body can heal and rejuvenate itself from the inside out, and does so throughout your lifetime. If that is true, why is there such an epidemic of obesity and chronic illness plaguing the wealthiest society in the world?
We wear our suffering and lost connection to that secret wisdom in the form of excess fat, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. We no longer appreciate the sacred quality of every food we eat, or the myriad life forms that compose our physical nature, our cells.
This Do in Remembrance of Me
One way to reconnect is to take a little time to reflect on the food you are...
Fruit baskets > Your Body?s Secret Wisdom-- Eating from the Tree of Life
A Guide to Decorative Picnic Baskets
Decorative picnic baskets come in many sizes, styles, and artistic flares. They can be packed with some basic cheeses and cracker varieties with a couple of napkins, or they can be full-on feasts for four to eight people, stocked richly with salmon, caviar, fruit, vegetables, sweets, wine, water jugs, dinnerware, silverware, glassware, corkscrews, and cutting boards.
Decorative picnic baskets tend to display their contents openly, with no lid. Sometimes, they are so full that they pop out of the basket for display purposes. For this reason, they make perfect gifts.
Everybody recognizes the classic rattan-woven picnic basket with the wooden handle and two flaps. You can almost smell the fresh bread wrapped in kitchen cloth, the cheeses and crackers, the freshly opened bottle of wine emanating from under the lids.
These are often called vintage picnic baskets.
Another style of picnic basket has a body that almost resembles a wooden fence...
Fruit baskets > A Guide to Decorative Picnic Baskets
The Origins Of Basketball
Do you know the origin of basketball?The origins of the game of basketball can be traced back to a gentleman by the name of Dr. James Naismith. In 1861, Naismith was born in Almonte, Ontario, Canada. During his early school days, Naismith would play a game called duck on a rock whereby the child would endeavor to knock the duck off the top of the rock with a toss of another rock.Later on, Naismith would go on to McGill University in Montreal and would later become McGill University's Athletic Director. He would subsequently move on to YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts and in 1891, the game of basketball began.
Given the cold Massachusetts winters, Naismith needed to find a recreational activity that could be played indoors and he preferred a sport that would develop skill and one that was not exclusively relying on strength. The first game was played with two peach baskets for goals and a soccer ball.Further to his credit, Naismith became a medical doctor specializing...
The Origins Of Basketball
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Short Story: The Benefits of Shopping Online
Maria's new lifestyle: Short story about the benefits shopping on the Net has given to a dedicated artist.I've got this strange friend; her name is Maria. Maria's always been a little weird but now things have gotten unworldly altogether. You see, Maria's an artist; she's into sculpture in particular, of which she specializes in the manipulation of Perspex with a blowtorch. Lately I haven't seen too much of her as she's hooked up the Internet. Actually not many people at all have seen her recently; she says she's working on a big project.Now that she's got the Internet she reckons she can focus a lot more on her work without distractions.
She doesn't ?waste' time doing grocery shopping anymore. Now she orders all her food and household items. She says if she's extremely busy, her weekly list is saved into the computer, and she just clicks on ?order' and the usual stuff is delivered to her door every week. No more driving, parking, searching for stuff, standing in line, dealing...
Short Story: The Benefits of Shopping Online
Fruit baskets > Short Story: The Benefits of Shopping Online