How to Choose Healthy and Nutritious Pet Food

Picking out the right food for your pet can come with a learning curve. Just like humans, pets have different dietary needs depending on their age, health condition, allergies and even personal preferences. Your pet can find some food less appetizing than others. Each meal must thus be delicious, healthy and have a certain nutritional value so your pet has plenty of energy to run around.

As a responsible and loving pet owner, you want to keep your pet friend happy and healthy. To learn how to choose well-balanced food, look at the following tips for guidance.

Establish Your Pet’s Nutritional Profile

Age, health state, allergies, vitamin and nutrient deficiencies are a few of the most important criteria that demand attention when it comes to choosing healthy food for your pet. Before looking at ingredients, labels and the food offered in pet stores, you need to have a good idea what your pet needs.
 

1. Age 

Your dog or cat has specific nutritional needs at each life stage. Food formulated for puppies and kitties in the growing phase should contain different nutrients than food for older pets. If young pets need a lot of protein, an older cat or dog with low mobility will not need as much, for example.
  

2. Health  

If your pet has a health condition, your veterinarian might have already given you a list of approved foods. In this case, the diet will play a crucial role in keeping your pet’s health stable, so you should stick to what the medical specialist recommends.

3. Weight

Your pet’s weight is a crucial aspect when determining the appropriate food plan for its needs.  Overfeeding or underfeeding your pet can lead to serious health problems that can be easily avoided just by monitoring its food intake. However, optimum food intake varies since each type of food has a different number of calories.

4. Mobility

A dog is much more physically active than a cat. But the differences don’t stop here. Even two different dogs can have different habits regarding physical activity. Some dogs like to jog, others barely move from one corner of the house to another. A physically active pet needs food rich in calories to maintain optimal weight. A sedentary pet, however, can easily become overweight if you don’t monitor its calorie intake.

5. Food Sensitivities and Allergies

Food sensitivities and allergies are minor conditions that deserve the utmost attention, however. If your pet has an allergy to an ingredient that it’s prevalent in common pet food recipes, you might have to seek alternative options rather than your typical supermarket. It would be good to look for a hypoallergenic diet with a single protein for those pups with protein intolerances. However, make sure that the food contains the right amount of prebiotics and probiotics to keep your’s pet’s tummy healthy. 

Research the Pet Food Market

After having a clear idea about your pet’s nutritional needs according to age, weight, food intolerances and health condition, it’s time to look at the pet food market and see which companies provide recipes that take into account all these aspects.

Consider also that popular pet food may contain ingredients that are not healthy for your pet. Make it your task to find healthy and delicious pet food, like Pure, with no harmful ingredients or additives that vets and nutritionists will gladly approve off. Thankfully, there are online and offline pet stores able to provide a specially tailored pet food recipe.
  

Read the Labels

Nutrition and health go hand in hand. If your pet is healthy and full of energy now, regardless of what you feed it, remember that a pet’s life expectancy and health in the long-term depend, to a large degree, on proper nutrition. It’s crucial thus that you read the labels and know what each food contains.
 

What are the essential nutrients that pets need? For great health and energy, these are the most important nutrients that you should find on the label of healthy pet food: proteins, fats, vitamins A, D, E and K and minerals. The quantities can vary from recipe to recipe. Don’t forget that your pet’s diet should include fibre for good digestion and water.
 

Key Tips to Remember

Since finding balanced pet food can be a daunting task with all the different aspects you have to consider, you can purchase custom pet food recipes, which save you from a long process of trial-and-error with efficient and fast results. Using scientific and medical information, reputable custom pet food stores can create healthy and nutritious recipes without compromising on tastiness.
 

There is a lot of information that you have to absorb before being confident about your pet food purchases. However, you don’t have to feel overwhelmed since trustworthy pet food producers already do a lot of the work for you. Find stores that offer special recipes tailored to your pet’s needs and you have solved the puzzle to keeping your pet healthy and happy.