Do Dogs Need Food Variety?

Imagine you would get porridge – for breakfast and dinner, every day. Or a soup, or roast chicken – doesn’t matter what, but the same thing every day. It would get pretty boring, wouldn’t it? So it’s not surprising that many of us find the idea of feeding ‘Fido’ the same meal out of the same food bag day in day out a little uncomfortable.

But do dogs need food variety? Dog they grow bored of the same stale predictable diet as we do?

Before we look for the answer, let’s clarify the question. Do dogs want variety or do dogs need variety?

If it’s a matter of need, the answer is definitely No. A dog will grow and develop well eating the same diet every day, as long as the diet is healthy and contains the range of minerals and nutrients that the dog needs.

This leaves us with would dogs prefer variety?

The answer is, probably Yes, but not necessarily for health reasons. A dog will choose a variety of foods from day to day when given a choice. Then again, a dog will choose foods highly unhealthy and in unsuitable quantities if given a choice, too. So the argument that dogs ‘Just know’ what’s good for them is simple nonsense. In fact, unless you – the owner intervene, a dog is likely to eat himself if not to death, then definitely to a state of very poor health.

So the answer seems to be simple – offer balanced diet in healthy quantities. If you don’t want your dog do demand extravagant dishes, don’t get her used to having her own way – with food or otherwise. That’s a good dog obedience advice all round.

The next question you might be asking – I don’t eat stuff out of a can all day long, will doing that harm my dog. Good question, I say. And here I will earn the wrath of food companies around the world, but here it goes anyway: personally, as a Veterinarian and a dog owner, I just don’t see how eating cooked kibble all their life can be the ideal diet for anyone. Just don’t tell the food companies that I wrote that.

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