What to feed a dog: the basics, without brand marketing

Let us agree upfront: there will be no brand names here. The right food is the one that suits your particular dog by age, size, activity and health, and only your vet can judge that. The general principles, though, are the same for everyone.

Dry food or home-prepared

Both approaches work. The choice mostly depends on your lifestyle, not on which is "correct".

• Commercial food: balanced by the manufacturer, easy to portion, easy to travel with, keeps well. The downside is that you do not control the composition directly.
• Home-prepared food: you see exactly what the dog eats. The downside is that balancing a diet yourself is hard, and this is where most mistakes happen. A calcium deficit or a protein excess is invisible by eye, and the consequences show up months later.

If you choose a home-prepared diet, the plan should come from a veterinary nutritionist. That is not a formality: balancing a diet by eye is impossible even with good ingredients.

How many times a day

• Puppies under 4 months — 4 times a day.
• 4–6 months — 3 times.
• 6 months to a year — 2–3 times.
• An adult dog — twice a day, morning and evening.
• Senior dogs — often more comfortable with 2–3 smaller portions.

Feeding an adult dog once a day is common but not ideal: a large volume at once raises the risk of stomach problems, especially in large deep-chested breeds.

Foods that must never be given

This list is worth knowing by heart — it saves lives.

• Chocolate and cocoa — toxic; the darker, the more dangerous.
• Xylitol (a sweetener in gum, sweets, some peanut butters) — extremely toxic even in tiny doses.
• Grapes and raisins — can cause acute kidney failure.
• Onion, garlic, leek — destroy red blood cells, with a cumulative effect.
• Alcohol, coffee, energy drinks.
• Tubular bones, especially cooked — they splinter and injure the gut.
• Salty, smoked, spicy, fried food and pastries.
• Apricot, peach and cherry stones; raw mushrooms; avocado.

Why feeding from the table is a bad idea

It is not only about harmful ingredients. A dog fed from the table learns that something interesting happens near the table — and starts begging, barking, jumping on guests. That behaviour forms in a week and takes months to undo. It also makes portion control impossible, and excess weight in dogs is now far more common than underfeeding.

How to tell the weight is right

Not by a number on the scales but by touch and sight:

• Ribs can be felt under your fingers without pressing, but do not stick out visibly.
• From above there is a waist — a narrowing behind the ribs.
• From the side the belly tucks up rather than running in a straight line.

If there is no waist, the portion needs reducing — not "leaving it, she is not suffering". Excess weight shortens life and loads the joints.

How to change food

Only gradually, over 7–10 days: first 25% new, then half, then 75%, then all. A sudden switch almost guarantees diarrhoea — and for an animal that has just arrived from a shelter and is already stressed, that is a double load. Keep the shelter's food for the first two weeks.

Water

Fresh water must be available around the clock, and it matters no less than food. A sudden change in how much a dog drinks is one of the earliest signals of a health problem, so it is worth having a rough sense of your dog's normal.