Natural Dog Food

Natural Dog Food: Avocados

Your dog might be facing severe nutritional problems if your pet is fed with a diet that consists of only lean meat. Your dog's diet must be balance with other foods the same as your diet must be balanced.

Although your dog comes under the category of a carnivore i.e. meat eater it is not possible for him to survive only on protein. The dog has to be provided with a diet consisting of fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals in addition to proteins just like human beings.

Most of us cannot afford to feed the dog with a diet predominately consisting of steak; you can ensure that your dog is healthier by providing it with cheaper cut of meat even if you can afford costly steak diet. Since meats that are inexpensive contain lesser amount of fat content such meats are better for your dogs.

Your dog gets its energy as well as heat from the fats in its diet; this also keeps his skin healthy. If he does not have sufficient fat in his diet it might result in a scaly and dry skin. Lack of fat in the diet also will make its coat lifeless and coarse. Further the dog eating a low fat diet might become highly nervous and is prone to many different illnesses.

All the three fatty acids – linoleic, linolenic and arachidonic – contained in fats are required by the dog for remaining healthy. These acids are contained in various food products such as meat products, butter, suet and corn oil. You will find that the avocado fruit also contains these acids.

The Avocado

Most dogs love to eat the Avocado fruit. This is mainly due to the reason that they add texture and palatability to the dog’s dry meal. Avocado acts as a nutritious supplement giving fats to the diet of the canine. This fruit is pear-shaped and contains 16% of rare oil not found normally in fruits; further it contains high amount of proteins as compared to other fruits.

A medium sized avocado contains thirty five grams of fats – monounsaturated mostly. More quantity of potassium is found in this fruit as compared to bananas. They also contain vitamins E, K and B in large quantities.

If you compare the nutritional diet requirements of adult dogs with the constituents of avocado you will find that this fruit – especially California avocados – contains a lot of vitamins and minerals. One medium sized avocado fruit can supply the daily requirements of potassium, magnesium and niacin of two mature dogs. This fruit also meets 50% of the daily requirements for manganese, thiamin and Vitamin A.

You must compare the nutritional content that is offered by avocado with other foods that are added to the diet of the dog to improve the coat and skin tone of the dog. You can get 13 GMS of fat from a medium sized avocado. Half an avocado fruit also contains one gram of linoleic acid.

An egg contains half the quantity of fat in grams and only traces of linoleic acid as compared to avocado. Similarly ½ cup of cottage cheese has 5 GMS of fat with a trace of linoleic acid whereas 1 tbsp of corn oil contains 14 GMS of fat and 7 GMS of linoleic acid; however they do not give any of the vitamins offered by avocado.

Your dog can not survive on a meat diet alone. It must have other natural dog foods to maintain it's health and appearance.