Dog Nutrition Terminology: If you're new to dog nutrition, it's important to understand some definitions. This is the only way to ensure you're feeding your dog well and avoiding mistakes. Here, you'll learn what single feeds, compound feeds, and complete feeds mean, as well as the different feeding methods available.
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About the author: Lea Reich
Lea is the founder of Alpenwuff and an expert in dog nutrition. Drawing on her extensive scientific training, the development of several Alpenwuff food varieties, and years of experience working with dogs, she summarizes current topics and shares her knowledge in our Alpenwuff blog.
Basics of dog nutrition: single feed and compound feed
Dog food must serve a purpose: It must provide the dog with its individual, necessary level of energy and nutrients . This can be achieved by feeding individual, individually mixed feeds or by feeding compound feeds. Feed materials such as potatoes and corn, or meat in its various forms, are referred to as single feeds . The term single feed therefore refers to the individual ingredients .
Compound feed, on the other hand, refers to ready-mixed feeds consisting of various individual feed ingredients. Compound feeds are available as complete feeds, supplementary feeds, or dietetic feeds. Commercially available wet and dry food are considered compound feeds. To ensure optimal energy and nutrient intake, it is necessary to carefully examine the individual feed ingredients or the ingredients of a compound feed.
3 forms of compound feed for dog nutrition
To shed light on compound feed, it's helpful to look at the feed declaration . According to EU regulations, all compound feed must disclose in the feed declaration what form of compound feed it is, the composition of the analytical constituents, which ingredients are processed, and which additives have been used. In addition to snacks and treats, there are three types of compound feed.
Complete food
If a food is labeled as a complete food, it covers all of the dog's nutritional needs. Feeding only a complete food ensures that the dog is adequately supplied with all its nutrients and will not suffer from excesses or deficiencies in essential nutrients. Complete foods are available as dry dog food, wet food, or semi-moist food.
Supplementary feed
Supplemental feeds are nutritional supplements for dogs. These foods do not cover the dog's nutritional needs. Therefore, it is not possible to use a supplement as your dog's sole source of nutrition. He would suffer from deficiencies in the long term. Supplemental feeds supplement the main diet with specific nutrients, such as additional carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, or vitamins.
Dietary feed
If there are specific medical diagnoses such as obesity, digestive disorders, or metabolic problems, there are special diet foods labeled as dietary foods. These foods address the specific problem and are intended to help alleviate the diagnosis through nutrition.
3 feeding methods
The three most popular feeding methods are BARF or cooking, dry food and wet food.
BARFing or cooking
BARFing describes the exclusive feeding of raw meat to provide the dog with a diet that closely mimics its natural eating habits in the wild. When BARFing, it is important to accurately calculate the dog's nutritional needs and, if necessary, supplement any missing nutrients with supplemental feed. If carbohydrate sources are added to the raw meat, these must be broken down and cooked beforehand. Vitamin losses of 15–30% are to be expected during cooking, which must be taken into account when calculating nutrient intake. Regular veterinary checkups for oversupply or undersupply are recommended. Raw meat should also always be chopped, as large pieces increase the risk of gastric torsion if the dog swallows air while swallowing the large pieces.
dry food
Dry food is produced using various manufacturing processes and refers to feeding the dog with dry food pellets. The majority of dog foods on the market are extruded dog foods . The individual feed ingredients are pressed through a press under pressure, heat, and moisture at temperatures of up to 200°C and then coated with heat-killed vitamins and artificial preservatives.
A healthy, alternative form of dry food is cold-pressed dog food . Due to the gentle treatment of the individual ingredients, Alpenwuff food is also cold-pressed.
When feeding dry food, make sure that you are feeding a complete feed , because only complete feed meets your dog's needs.
wet food
Wet food is the alternative, with a high moisture and liquid content of over 50%. The food is preserved and sterilized in cans or similar containers and fed as a moist ingredient. With its high moisture content, dogs often find wet food more palatable than dry food.
Feed your dog properly
There's no single answer to the question of how to properly feed your dog. However, we'd like to recommend three rules:
- To find the right option for your individual needs, it's important to consider each dog as an individual and consider their history, breed, socialization, allergies, and other factors. Every dog is different!
- No matter which feeding method you choose, you should pay attention to high-quality individual ingredients . Always ask yourself: Where do the ingredients come from and what exactly is used in the ingredients? The feed label helps you evaluate.
- High temperatures during the manufacturing process reduce the amount of natural vitamins. Therefore, take a close look at how the ingredients have been treated and incorporate your findings into your decision.
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