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Choosing The Right Food For Your Dog
Choosing a dog food in today's extensive pet food market can prove challenging. With the vast array of choices that are available, how can you tell which food is best?
There are several factors that need to be addressed before selecting a dog food:
- Your dog's age/life stage - make sure you choose a food that's nutritionally geared to your dog's age (i.e. puppy, adult, or senior).
- Your dog's body condition - dogs who are overweight or underweight need different nutrition than those who are not. Dogs who get lots of exercise also have different nutritional requirements. Choose a food that fits your dog's needs, whether it's weight control, performance, maintenance, or another formula.
- Your dog's health history - if your dog has medical conditions such as diabetes, allergies, cancer, or digestive difficulties, you'll need to choose a food that is appropriate for that condition.
- Your budget - simply put, feed your dog the best food you can afford. Generally, the more you spend, the better quality, healthier food you'll be feeding your doggies.
Consider Your Dog's Preferences
Keep in mind that no one food is best for every dog. Dogs are individuals, just like people. Some dogs prefer dry food, some canned. Some dogs prefer chicken, some prefer lamb. You could feed a brand of very well-formulated food to a group of dogs and find that most of them do great on it, some do marginally well, and a few actually get sick from it. Luckily, today's market offers many well-formulated dog foods for dogs at all life stages, and it's fine to try several to determine which one works best for your dog.
Look Closely At Ingredients
When you're shopping for a healthy food for your dog, the ingredient list on the back of the bag is a good place to start. By law, pet food labels must list their ingredients in order by weight. Look for dog foods with meat, fish, or eggs listed as the first ingredient. These are very digestible, and if they are listed as the first ingredient, you can assume the food offers a good-quality protein source, and includes several valuable, usable amino acids. If you are switching to a new food, be sure to allow ample time for your dog to adjust to it.
Categories Of Pet Foods
When searching for your dog's next food, keep in mind that pet food is now available in three major categories: "grocery store" foods, premium foods, and healthy foods.
- "Grocery store" foods - those found in grocery stores and mass-market retailers - are typically made with lower-quality, less-digestible, inexpensive ingredients and are therefore a cheaper alternative. While easy on the pocketbook, "grocery store" foods normally do not provide your dog with the healthiest, most nutrient-dense ingredients.
- Premium foods - often found in grocery stores, pet stores, and veterinarian offices - contain higher-grade ingredients, but may still include some elements of "grocery store" food, such as artificial colors, artificial flavors, chemical preservatives, and "filler" ingredients. Premium foods are usually more expensive than "grocery store" foods because their ingredients are of a higher quality, and are therefore somewhat more beneficial and digestible.
- Healthy foods - the newest addition to the pet food market - provide pets with the highest quality, healthiest, and most nutritious ingredients. They are typically available for purchase online or direct from the manufacturer. Foods in the Healthy class - including the Drs. Foster & Smith line of foods, and others - contain nutrient-rich ingredients.
Formulated to provide optimum health benefits for pets, these foods often use whole, fresh fruits and vegetables, real meat as the primary protein source, and carbohydrate-rich whole grains like brown rice and barley. They should not contain artificial preservatives, flavors, or colors. They will almost always be fortified with additional vitamins and minerals, and will use the best natural sources for fatty acids to help build healthy skin and a beautiful coat. Because healthy foods use high quality ingredients, you should expect to pay a little more than you would for other types of pet food. Remember, though, with healthy foods, you can generally feed less since healthy foods are more nutrient-dense than other types of food.
Check Your Dog's Health After A Month
After you've done all you can to make sure a food is healthy and beneficial, take a look at your dog after feeding hime the food for at least a month. Bright eyes, a shiny coat, and a healthy energy level will let you know you've chosen a good source for your dog's nutrition. If you need assistance selecting a food for your dog, seek veterinary/professional advice.
This article has been re-published from the Drs. Foster & Smith website.
Buy Parvaid, Vibactra Plus, Life Cell Support & Pet's Pain Formula Now
Our Gold Value Packs are now the standard treatment protocol if your dog has Parvo or has been recently exposed to Parvo. This group of products will fight the Parvovirus on many fronts.
While Parvaid is excellent at helping the body to repair the damage caused by the Parvovirus, it works best when used with Vibactra Plus, which actually kills the virus as well as getting rid of any secondary infections caused by the Parvo, Life Cell Support, which gives your dog's immune system a much-needed boost, and Pet's Pain Formula, which will reduce both fever and pain.
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Note: We no longer sell single bottles of Parvaid.
This is because the Parvo virus is evolving and becoming ever more aggressive. Most vaccines are no longer strong enough to fight off this virus, with the result that increasing numbers of fully-vaccinated dogs (both puppies and adults) are being infected by and dying from Parvo.
It is true that Parvaid, by itself, used to be enough to treat dogs that have Parvo, but this is no longer the case - you will need to administer Vibactra Plus, Life Cell Support and Pet's Pain Formula too in order for your dog to have the best chance of recovery.
That is why we created our unique Product Selector, which will tell you exactly which products you need in your own particular situation.
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Our Gold Value Pack contains:
- Life Cell Support will cleanse and detoxify your pet's blood, liver and lymphatic system, stimulate cell regeneration and give your dog's immune system a much-needed boost.
- Parvaid, which is our flagship product, is highly effective both when used to treat Parvo and when used as a preventative. Parvaid repairs all of the damaged areas caused by the Parvovirus.
- Pet's Pain Formula (aka Pet's Pain Formula) will help to reduce any fever (which speeds up the healing process), but note that this product should not be taken if you or your pet have a sensitivity to aspirin; you must not give this product to cats either, because they cannot tolerate products containing too much aspirin as they can cause kidney failure.
- Vibactra Plus is a powerful antibiotic with a built-in anti-parasitic, that kills the Parvovirus and prevents it from generating more new virus cells as well as getting rid of any secondary infections caused by the Parvo.
Please note, we need to receive your order by 3:00pm MST (GMT - 7) today in order to ensure same day shipping.
(MST)
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If any of your dogs are already sick with Parvo, or are showing any of the typical symptoms (e.g. yellow vomit, foul-smelling diarrhea), then you need to use a FedEx Overnight service to guarantee your doggie the best possible chance of surviving this dreadful virus. Please do not select USPS Express Mail expecting it to be an overnight service, because in our experience, it rarely has been.
We really do not want to see any more of our customers' dogs dying because they tried to save money by selecting a slower shipping service!
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Action Plan
- Completely fill out the Product Selector with the details for ALL dogs on your property. This is crucial.
- Order your products using FedEx Overnight, as Parvo will not wait for USPS Priority Mail packages (2 - 6 days). If you place your order after 3:00pm MST (GMT - 7) on Thursday and before 3:00pm MST (GMT - 7) on Fridays, then select FedEx Overnight with Saturday Delivery. This is only $12.50 extra (i.e. in addition to their normal FedEx Priority Overnight service) and is available to most US locations (if it is not, we will ship the package to your nearest FedEx depot so you can collect it in person), and even a single day could make the difference between life and death for your dog.
- Start your dog on the Parvo Emergency Tea straight away. This is an excellent stopgap measure until your package arrives. Your dog will be hydrated, receive some nutrients, and this tea will help to settle your dog’s stomach. The ingredients are readily available at your local supermarket or Wal-Mart.
- Also after you place your order, you will receive some additional emergency measures via email. These are additional recipes that you can make for your dog and will give him even more nutrients and keep his blood sugar levels up (when these are low, your dog may appear to have wobbly legs and be very lethargic).
- As soon as the package arrives start administering the products immediately. In your email, you’ll find the complete dosage instructions for all of your dogs.
Use our Product Selector Tool to help you get the right products at the right price for your specific situation. It is fast and easy. It will take less then 5 minutes - just long enough for you to tell us about your doggie family. Just fill in the form and click the calculate button. Then you'll receive your customized report instantly on your screen!
Gold Value Pack
This Value Pack offers our maximum level of protection and contains a combination of four products that has proven especially helpful in combating the latest strain of the Parvo virus:
Availability: In Stock
Price: $202.80 $194.95 for four 1oz. bottles
Price: $545.00 $515.00 for four 4oz. bottles
Note that these prices include the cost of FedEx Priority Overnight (although there would be an additional $15.00 for Saturday Delivery).
How To Buy
To ensure that you buy exactly the right number of the right products for your particular situation, please use our unique Product Selector Tool: all you have to do is to tell us the number of dogs you have, and their current state of health, and our advanced calculator will instantly tell you which products we recommend. Regardless of how many products you need, buying is easy as you will be able to purchase everything with one single click, and you will be guaranteed to get the best possible price that we can offer.
Simply click either the icon or Product Selector link, below, and you'll have your personalised quotation in a few seconds!
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