5 Common Natural Food Sources For Dogs
Eggs: Eggs for feeding dogs can be bought by the dozen in the grocery store, by the hundreds from hatcheries or by the thousands from egg ranches.
Regardless of how many or where they are obtained, an egg should never be fed to a dog raw. Raw egg whites react with the vitamin, biotin, and prevent a dog from using it.
In fact, feeding raw egg whites is the exact way scientists produce experimental biotin deficiency in a laboratory.
Milk: Much controversy has raged over feeding milk to dogs.
Milk has been accessed of causing diarrhea and other digestive upsets. While it may produce these problems in large amounts, if milk is kept to about two ounces of fluid milk or two tablespoons of dry milk per pound of food, few problems will be encountered.
The value of the milk, when fed in proper amounts, exceeds the risk of upset. Milk supplies calcium and phosphorus in the proper ratio and amounts, a host of vitamins, and also a protein which approaches the value of whole egg.
Cottage cheese: Cottage cheese is little more than the major protein fraction of milk casein.
It does not have the same value as the protein of whole milk because the lactoalbumin, normally present in whole milk, has been washed away in the whey. The value of the protein in cottage cheese compares favorably with that of horse meat.
Cottage cheese offers the dog feeder an inexpensive, readily available source of quality protein for his dog.
Cheese: Another dairy product made from casein is cheese.
Cheese, unlike cottage cheese, also contains a considerable amount of fat. The fat makes cheese a valuable source of energy as well as of protein. Because they are made as human foods, and are sold in competition with other human foods, cheeses are among the more expensive protein sources for feeding dogs. For dog feeders who wish to spend the extra money, cheese is a worthwhile consideration.
Fish: Fish is not commonly used in dietary formulations for dogs, but there is no logical reason to eliminate it from consideration as a protein source for a dog. Indeed, fish protein is one of the better proteins, for the money, that a dog feeder can use. Fish, too, should always be cooked before being fed. In this case the heat destroys a chemical found in many fish that will destroy vitamin B1 (thiamine) if left unchanged.