Commercial, Natural, or Home-Prepared?
Ask five dachshund owners or breeders what the best food for a dachshund is, and you're likely to get five different answers. Some will swear that a premium, commercial diet is best for a dog. Others will insist that an all-natural or organic pet food is the only way to go. Still others prepare all-raw or partially cooked holistic diets for their wieners and wouldn't have it any other way.
Who is right? Commercial diets are right for many dachshunds and their owners, just as natural, organic, and holistic are more in line with what other dachshund owners want for their dogs. Basically, if your dachshund is getting all the nutrition she needs in a quality food that she can assimilate or digest well, that diet is a good choice for your particular dog. The following guide to the benefits and disadvantages of each type of food will help you decide what is right for you and your dachsie.
The food you ultimately choose to feed your dachshund also needs to be one that your dachsie finds palatable. It doesn't matter how healthy the food is if your dog won't eat it!
Commercial Diets
Commercial foods come in three textures: dry, semi-moist, and canned. Dry foods are convenient to store and feed. They don't spoil quickly, aren't messy for long-eared dachshunds, and help promote healthy, white teeth. Semi-moist foods contain more additives and preservatives. They have a high sugar content and tend to cost more per serving than dry foods. Canned foods taste great to dogs and have few preservatives, but are the most expensive to feed, spoil quickly when out of the can, and tend to be messy when your dachsie's ears dip into her food.
What is probably most important when choosing a commercial diet is that you pick a premium food. These foods have undergone feeding trials, including tests for their palatability (whether dogs like the taste), nutritional content, digestibility, and ease of assimilation of ingredients. In addition, the dogs in the study are observed to see if they maintain weight or actually thrive on the food. Premium foods use the best ingredients and sources of protein for their foods. They also use natural preservatives, such as vitamins C and E.
Excess calcium in a puppy's diet may exacerbate or even contribute to the development of hip and elbow dysplasia, osteochondrosis dissecans, and other serious and painful musculoskeletal disorders. If you are feeding your dog a “complete and balanced” premium commercial dry diet, do not supplement with bone meal or multivitamins containing calcium.
The problem with premium commercial diets can be simply that it's easy to feed too much of a good thing. The foods are so good-tasting to dogs and so packed with nutrients (and calories) that it is easy to overfeed. Sometimes, too, these diets are so low in fiber that your dachsie may become constipated.
Two other levels of commercial diets are brand-name and generic pet foods. Brand-name foods are commonly found in supermarkets. They cost less than premium foods, but there's a reason. These foods use poorer quality, less-digestible sources of protein, such as meat meal, or meat and poultry by-products. Generic pet foods — those you find in discount stores — have even poorer sources of protein, such as offal. In the case of chicken offal, that includes intestines, feet, and feathers.
Brand-name and generic foods may or may not have undergone feeding trials. If the food hasn't undergone feeding trials, it may still technically meet the minimal nutrition levels recommended by the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), but it doesn't necessarily mean that the dog can use or assimilate these nutrients efficiently.
Natural and Organic Foods
Natural foods are commercially prepared, generally by smaller manufacturers that specialize in natural pet foods. Several of the largest pet food manufacturers are also producing all-natural lines of pet foods. Natural foods do not contain any artificial or chemical preservatives, colorings, dyes, or flavorings. This is one reason some pet owners prefer such diets, as some artificial ingredients are suspected of being carcinogenic or possibly having a detrimental impact on your dog's health over time.
When you adopt your dog, find out what the breeder or rescue organization has been feeding. Start out with this food, to begin with anyway, in order to avoid dietary upsets. Sometimes the best advice is simple: If it isn't broken, don't try to fix it. In other words, if your puppy or adult is thriving on the food he is currently eating, keep feeding him this food.
Organic foods are not only free of chemical preservatives, colorings, dyes, and flavorings, they also contain the purest of protein sources, such as beef, poultry, or fish raised without antibiotics or hormones as well as vegetables and grains grown without insecticides and fertilizers. Organic foods are generally more expensive and have a shorter shelf life.
However, if the food is fresh and the manufacturer is reputable — that is, you are really getting what you are paying for and the foods have undergone feeding trials — these foods are a great alternative for the owner concerned with chemical residues and/or additives that may be found in commercial pet foods.
Homemade or Holistic Diets
In a holistic diet, each of the dog's meals is prepared with fresh raw meat, grains, vegetables, and various vitamins, minerals, and nutritional supplements. The meat can be cooked if the owner prefers; however, most holistic veterinarians say this is not necessary. The owner can also make homemade diets in bulk, then freeze them in individual portions that can be thawed for daily meals.
If you choose a homemade raw diet, your dog will be at increased risk of infection from E. coli and salmonella bacteria. Preparers of raw diets also are at greater risk of coming in contact with these infections if they do not practice safe handling of raw meats, poultry, and fish. Hard freezing of raw meat, poultry, and fish may be helpful in lessening these risks; however, cooking meats completely is the only confirmed method of eliminating bacterial risks.
This diet is not for the owner who has time constraints and rarely cooks a meal for herself. A homemade diet requires substantial preparation time and forethought. It requires precise and exact measurements of various supplements, vitamins, and minerals that have to be added to the meat, grain, and vegetables, which are also typically weighed. For a homemade diet to be healthful and nutritious, it must be complete and balanced in absolutely correct proportions.
The safest method of obtaining a homemade diet that is appropriate for your dog is by contacting a veterinary nutritionist or by asking your veterinarian for a diet that has been produced by a veterinary nutritionist. Follow the diet to the letter.
Holistic veterinarians believe that by feeding a dog a raw diet and treating all its diseases holistically, the dog's immune system will naturally overcome any risks of E. coli and salmonella. Conventional veterinarians argue that the risk remains, particularly with puppies, geriatrics, and immuno-suppressed adults.
