Content by Mike Davies

You may have noticed that when you buy your pet food it is based on your dog’s age. So this National Puppy Day we wanted to celebrate your 4-legged bundle of joy by giving some insight about why puppy food is different to what they’ll be eating when they are all grown up.

Puppies have significantly higher nutritional requirements than adults. This isn’t surprising when you think how much new tissue they have to make in such a short space of time…cartilage and bones, muscles and organ soft tissues – heart, liver, kidneys, bladder, brain and nervous system, intestinal tract and skin - the list goes on and on.

Puppies reach their maximum height by about 9 months of age, although they continue to gain weight for some time after that. Therefore, their food needs to support them throughout this stage of life.

The most important difference between puppies and adult dogs are due to increased requirements for…

Energy

All body activities are upregulated during growth and all cells require energy to grow and divide by replication. Basically, more growth = more energy.

Not only that but puppies also tend to be much more active through play and exploration than adults so they are burning off more calories all the time. These calories need to be replaced and the puppy range of OMNI plant-based dog food does just that. Check out all the other plant-powered pups and their happy owners over on our Instagram @omnipetfood.

Protein and amino acids

Protein is a major component of the structure of cells, tissues and organs and is being used at a very rapid rate during growth. Proteins are also enzymes and hormones, which are all upregulated during growth. Let's also not forget that red blood cells are essential for carrying oxygen around the body and these contain protein too! White cells and antibodies are also both important in immune defences and are all growing in number and consist of proteins.

This is why protein is super important in puppy food. As one of the healthy puppy food brands, OMNI is here to save the day. Our plant-based dog food contains 30% protein… pssstt that’s a lot more than most traditional meat puppy food.

Not only that but the OMNI plant-based dog food recipe is packed with all 10 essential amino acids that your pup needs, while using 90% fewer resources than meat-based dog food. We call that a win-win!

Fatty acids

Fatty acids are components of cell walls, and neurological tissues including the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves - all of which are developing rapidly during growth. They are also important to facilitate absorption of some vitamins from the intestinal tract, which is a main supplier of energy. So your puppy food needs fatty acids to fuel the zoomies…

Minerals

Different minerals are a major component of tissues. For example calcium, phosphorous and magnesium are important for bone and cartilage development so higher amounts are needed during the growth of the skeleton. Minerals are also involved in a lot of biochemical and physiological activity such as acid-base balance.

….woweee minerals are important. But don’t worry because OMNI puppy food has all the vital minerals to give you a healthy puppy.

Vitamins

Vitamins are components of enzymes and coenzymes, and so are required for many biochemical processes in the body. These are all very active during tissue growth and development so OMNI puppy food has all the vital vitamins your pup needs.

Your pup is in safe hands with OMNI

With all this in mind, puppy diets have to be carefully formulated to make sure that they provide sufficient energy and essential nutrients particularly when they are very young. If puppies are not fed a properly formulated food they are likely to develop skeletal disease and other illnesses during development, which is unfortunately very common.

An OMNI subscription is a great plan for affordable healthy puppy food that will provide your pup with all the necessary nutrients they need. Your hands may be a little full while raising your little terror… errr, we mean angel, so that’s why you can get OMNI delivered straight to your door every month. No hassle, no fuss, just healthy puppy food.

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FAQs

But aren’t dog’s carnivores?

Dogs are in fact nutritional omnivores as demonstrated by a robust scientific study published in the reputable journal Nature (1,2) in which it was shown that they have 30 copies of the AMY2B gene responsible for digesting plant-based foods.

They have also evolved relatively long intestines (21) (almost as long as humans) and relatively flat surfaces on their molars (31, 22) which they use for digesting and chewing a whole range of foods.

The common misconception that dogs are carnivores probably arises from the fact that they are classified in the order Carnivora but so are plenty of other species like bears, skunks, racoons who are omnivores and even the giant panda who thrives on a plant-based diet (20).

Is plant protein digestible to dogs?

Absolutely yes, studies which have looked at how much protein dogs can absorb from plant-based and fungi-based foods like soya and yeast demonstrated over 75% digestibility which is on par with meat-based foods (23, 24, 34, 35 & 25).

Both these protein sources also contain all 10 essential amino acids (36, 37) that dogs need to thrive.

Isn't there too much fibre in plant-based food?

The average amount of fibre in a commercial dog food diet is between 2-4%. omni’s plant-powered recipe has a fibre content of 3% which is on par with meat- based diets.

In our survey with over 200 dog owners, 100% reported that their dog’s stool consistency was either ‘normal’ or ‘perfect’ and there were no reports of any digestive upsets (data on file).

Can I mix omni with other meat-based diets?

We are proud that our recipes are nutritionally complete and so include everything your dog needs to thrive. This means omni can be fed as a sole ration. We also fully support a 'flexitarian approach' like meat free lunches or using omni as a mixer.

Every little helps to bring some of the health and environmental benefits of plant-power to meal times. Mixing omni with meat/fish will help to add variety into your dog’s diet whilst adding in healthy ingredients with a relatively low carbon footprint.

Can plant-based food provide the essential fatty acids dogs need?

All the essential fats and oils that dogs need, including omegas 3 and 6 are found in a variety of both meat and plant-based foods (31, 28).

omni’s recipe is rich in plant-based sources of these nutrients so your dog will get all the essentials they need.

I hear a lot about feeding raw meat, isn’t that better?

Feeding raw meat to dogs has become a very popular trend in recent years, but most vets will warn against this practise. This is because the cooking process is vital to help kill off dangerous bacteria like E coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter (9) that have necessitated several food recalls from the market and caused serious illness and even death in both dogs and their owners (40, 41, & 42).

There are also several worms and parasites that are only killed off when raw meat is cooked. Dogs are dogs, not wolves and thanks to their domestication over thousands of years, thankfully don’t need to hunt to get their grub nor do they need to eat raw meat, it's just not worth the risk.

References

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