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Canine Nutrition and Diet Information 3
The Proper Care and Feeding
Of Your Dog
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By Joe Bodewes, DVM
Understanding your dog's energy needs
The first step in understanding your dog's canine diet requirements is realizing that there is no set formula for determining your dog's individual needs. For people, it is fairly simple to calculate your recommended daily caloric requirements based upon your weight because, as people, we are all relatively similar compared to dogs. As a person, if you want to know how many daily calories you should consume all you have to do is look on a chart and there it is, give or take a few percentages for activity level and age. But with dogs, there are huge differences between breeds, size, growth rates in puppies, activity levels, skin and coat thicknesses, and living conditions. For example, compare the canine diet needs of a young Malamute living outdoors and learning to pull a dog sled to that of an adult Pomeranian living in a heated apartment, and the pound for pound difference in caloric needs could be over tenfold. Those kind of differences rarely happen in humans and these differences are why it is so difficult to have a set answer for how much a dog should be fed. Continued on Page Four Planet Pets is not responsible for content or opinions of contributing writers
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