Just like other dogs, dachshunds need a special diet for a healthy weight. Whenever you plan to buy a dachshund, your first job should be visiting a vet to discuss the healthy food for your new pet. Feeding dachshunds can be a job with high responsibility; and you will have to learn many new things to keep your canine friend happy. Diet of dachshund will heavily impact its overall health and behaviour. So, here’s my piece of advice on which dog food is best for dachshunds.
Before we go further, let’s come across the nutritional requirements of dachshunds. Six nutrients including water, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals should be there in the diet of your dachshund. While selecting dog food for your dachshund, you have to make sure that your dog is getting enough of these nutrients from the diet. If you are thinking of feeding commercial food to your dog, you may become confused as commercial dog food market is flooded with brands that claim to be the best. So, how to choose?
First of all, make sure that whenever you are buying commercial dog food, it is manufactured in accordance with AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) standards. The food that follows the guidelines by AAFCO can be considered as complete and balanced food with right amount of all nutrients.
Next come ingredients. As a general rule of thumb, a healthy and balanced dog food should contain 50 % vegetables and 50 % meat. However, sometimes whole meat meal is given preference due to the high amount of protein in meat. While selecting commercial meat meal, you should carefully read which meat among poultry meat, beef and lamb meat has been used in it. Soy, wheat and corns are major vegetable ingredients which you should look for while selecting food for dachshund. However, vegetable meals are not considered as whole meals for dachshunds. If possible, look for the dog foods which are formulated especially for dachshunds. Royal Canin Dachshund 28 and Eukanuba Dachshund Adult Dog Food are food specifically for dachshunds, for instance.
Types of food ideal for dachshund:
Dry Dog food: Dry dog food has a very small amount of moisture, and can be preserved for a long time without refrigeration.
Canned Dog Food: Dachshunds love wet food. When you think of keeping your dog on canned dog food, make sure it is labeled as “100 percent complete food.”
Semi-moist Dog Food: These don’t fulfill the nutritional requirement of dachshund. Semi-moist food comes in the shape of pork chop, hamburger, jerky etc. These are not complete foods.
Treats: Healthy treats should be fed often unless these are containing preservatives. Dachshunds love to be rewarded with bananas, broccoli, watermelon, green beans, cheese, pumpkin etc.
Organic Food: Organic foods are those which are free of any kind of pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics or other chemicals. Such foods are totally acceptable for dachshunds.
Raw diet: Generally raw diet is healthy and is recommended by veterinarians. Major issue with raw meat is that there may be bacteria found in raw meat that may make your dachshund sick as these dogs have weaker immunity.
Home cooked food: It is good food option for your dachshund if cooked with proper research. It is time consuming and expensive.
- Cereals, legumes, corn, wheat, rice, barley, oats, and millet are good source of carbohydrate for your dachshund.
- Pumpkin seed, soybean oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, safflower oil, arachidonic, aamma-linolenic, and dihomo-gamma-linolenic should be fed to dachshund for supplying essential and non-essential fatty acids to the dog.
- Chicken, beef, lamb, fish are a good source of protein; and should be in the diet of your dachshund.
Summation:
Since Dachshunds are small breed, they don’t require high calorie diet; plus they are food lover, so it is very important to ensure that you are not over-feeding your dog. They can become obese soon as they are not that much active. Since adult dachshunds are lazier than puppies, their diet should be adjusted accordingly for maintaining a healthy weight.