Discover Essential Nutrients For Your Pooch

Nutrients act as fuel for body. Living creatures have their nutritional demands and it should be fulfilled for their overall health including pets too. Lack of nutritive food makes them nutrient deficient and unhealthy.

Dog’s body just needs basic four nutrients to keep their body in a good state. Let’s get acquainted with all those nutrients, which should be a part of your dog’s daily diet.

Nutrients Your Dog Requires

• Water
• Proteins
• Carbohydrates
• Vitamins & Minerals 

Water 

You need to always ensure that your dog takes in sufficient quantity of water. It is the most vital nutrient that every dog requires. Lack of water can lead to dehydration condition, urinary tract diseases like kidney stones, urinary tract infection and even organ failure. Water essentially helps to move nutrients into and out of the cells of the body. Therefore, water is the most important nutrient that your dog should be supplied with. 

Proteins

Some of the superior protein sources for your dog are eggs, meat, meat by-products, corn and wheat. Dogs require proper amount of protein to maintain the optimal functioning of vital organs. Proteins helps in creating essential enzymes and hormones that are required for normal function. Proper supply of proteins provides energy and keeps the immune system strong.

Thus, we see that proteins are important for production of hormones and enzymes, renewal of cell and repairing of dead cells are important functions of proteins. Try to keep meat as the major part of their diet. 

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates acts as source of energy and is quite important for your pet’s agility. Dogs are too fond of meat, but meat only provides proteins to the pet’s body. Carbohydrates not only provide bulk in dog diet but are also good source of metabolizable energy for dogs. Many commercial foods contains rich amount of carbohydrates.

Vitamins and Minerals

Vitamins and minerals are essentially required for the proper functioning of all the organs. These nutrients keep your dog healthy and improve the quality of your pet’s life. They help maintain body processes, improve immunity and protect the body from environmental toxins, and break down the essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats such that the body can utilize them for overall wellbeing. Some of the essential vitamins and minerals required for a healthy dog are Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Thiamine (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Pantothenic Acid (B5), Pyroxidine (B6), Cyanocobalmin (B12), folic Acid, iron, zinc, copper, chromium, iodine, selenium, manganese and fluorine.

Apart from these nutrients, dogs also require proper amount of fats that supply energy to them. Moreover, fats also provide protection for internal organs and safeguard them. A deficiency of essential fatty acids (such as linoleic acid) can lead to skin conditions or restrict proper growth and development of a dog.

In a nutshell, all these nutrients are highly essential for the optimal health of your dog. Provide a balanced diet, rich in required vital nutrients to your dog and keep them happy and active.