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DeutschWHAT FOOD SHOULD I CHOOSE FOR MY DOG OR CAT?
Everyone understands that there is a direct relationship between what we eat and our health. Eating a healthy diet contributes to good health and can help reduce the risk of certain diseases. For our pets, too, a good quality healthy diet can help prevent many problems and affect the animal's overall health.
Dogs and cats are by nature real carnivores. Healthy dog food should therefore have a high meat content, and should be low in grains or rather completely grain-free. Besides meat, dogs also need vegetable ingredients. In the wild, wolves hunt animals that eat (graze) plants. Once they get hold of their prey, the whole animal (including the gastrointestinal tract) is eaten, so that they also get a lot of plant nutrients. The digestive system of the dog can handle this perfectly, because they have relatively long intestines for a carnivore.
Cats have a greater need for high-quality animal proteins. They mainly get these proteins from muscle meat. Organ meats are not part of a cat's natural diet. Both a cat's teeth and digestive system are fully adapted to your cat's carnivorous lifestyle. A dog can theoretically survive on cat food, but a cat cannot survive on dog food alone. Unlike a cat, a dog's body can produce taurine itself. To be able to produce this substance, a dog needs high-quality proteins (meat). Since a cat's body cannot produce taurine on its own, it is necessary to add taurine to our cat food. In general, no taurine is added to dog food (because the body can produce this itself with methionine and cystine). If you would give a cat only dog food, the cat will have a taurine deficit which can result in physical symptoms.
In a healthy diet for both cats and dogs, artificial fragrances, colors or flavors do not belong in our opinion. The same applies to artificial preservatives, which also do not belong in high-quality food for dogs or cats.
Compare dry dog food
There are those who choose to make their own dog or cat food. If you choose to do this, it is important to ensure that all important nutrients are added to the diet in the correct amounts and proportions. In other words, you need to know what you are doing to prevent your dog or cat from missing important nutrients in their daily meals. It is much easier for most owners to choose our ready-made Riverwood products. All our recipes are complete and balanced and contain all the necessary nutrients your pet needs for a healthy life. In this way you can be sure that your dog will not lack anything.
There are many brands of animal nutrition on the market today, and the quality differences between these brands are very large. The first thing that strikes you are the price differences, and high quality food may initially seem more expensive than a lower quality food. By using cheap raw materials such as grains or a low meat content, a food can be produced more cheaply, and therefore sold more cheaply. The disadvantage of cheap dog food is the lower nutritional value. In practice, this means that with a cheap diet you need a lot more kibble to get the required daily nutritional value. High-quality food such as Riverwood may have a higher price, but does not necessarily have to be more expensive than a cheap product in daily use. By using high-quality raw materials, the digestibility of Riverwood is a lot higher, so that many more nutrients are absorbed by the body and therefore less undigested food is excreted by the body. As a result, significantly less stool is produced. In comparison, you also have to give your dog less food on a daily basis to still provide all the necessary nutrients. This means you can take longer with a package, and a price comparison based on the required daily portion suddenly looks very different.
Of course, the nutritional needs of our pets are very different. The daily amount is very dependent on the breed, the age, the living conditions and the level of activity. For example, an active adult Irish Wolfhound has very different nutritional needs than a cozy house cat that prefers to sleep all day. On the back of our packaging (and on the product pages in our shop) you will find the nutritional tables containing the recommended daily amounts of our food for your pet. These recommendations are based on averages and depend on, for example, the level of activity.
The taste is of course also important. Tastes differ, just like with humans. Sometimes it is a matter of trying to find out which food is best for your dog or cat.
If you want to switch to a new diet, it is important not to do this all at once, but gradually. Changing food too quickly can lead to digestive complaints. We recommend switching to the new food in about ten days in the following way. On the first day you give your animal 90% of the 'old' brand, and 10% Riverwood. On the second day, the ratio becomes 80% old brand and 20% Riverwood, then 70 - 30, 60 - 40 and so on until your dog's daily menu is 100% Riverwood.
We advise not to change food too often. Variation is not nearly as important to animals as it is to humans. A pet can eat our products very well for a long time, so variation is not necessary.
Dry food or wet food: which is better?
Giving wet food (also called canned food) or dry food depends on your personal preference. Both variants have their own advantages. Of course you do not have to make a specific choice between dry food or wet food, you can also combine the two types very well.
Dry food is kibble in which almost all the water has been removed during preparation. The moisture percentage in dry food is below 10%. The big advantage of this is that the products have a much longer shelf life than wet food, once you have opened the packaging.
A big advantage of wet food, for both dogs and cats, is the fact that there is much water in wet food. This is especially useful when the moisture absorption needs to be stimulated, for example in dogs and cats with bladder problems or kidney problems. Without having to drink much extra, they are still hydrated.
