Have you considered that feeding your dog kibble every meal is the equivalent to us eating greasy fast food?

In Corey’s recent interview with self-proclaimed pet nutrition junkie, Carly Paryluk, she shared the benefits of leveling up your dog’s food bowl to improve their overall health and even save you some money!

Here are 5 ways to level up your dog’s bowl:

1. Start with a Premium Kibble
The first thing is to start with a really healthy base – a premium kibble. Premium kibble is going to give your dog the nutrition it needs without the extra fillers (carbs) found in traditional kibble. Since your dog passes these fillers through its digestive system they just end up in your backyard!

The benefits of feeding a premium kibble are; a reduction in carbs, less backyard waste, and ultimately saving you money. There is a common misconception that premium foods or really good quality foods cost more. That is a myth, as due to the high quality of the food you can reduce the physical amount you feed your dog each day, so it ends up costing a little bit less.

2. Add Moisture – Ideally Bone Broth
All kibble regardless of whether it’s premium, or traditional kibble only has 10% moisture. Our dogs and cats need about 70% moisture. So the best thing that we can do if we’re feeding a dry diet is to include some sort of hydration.

Bone broth is recommended for all of the amazing health benefits that it provides our animals and bone broth is super easy. You can buy it at an independent pet store, you can make it yourself. (Note: Ensure your bone broth does not have onions!)

Pour bone broth on the premium kibble to rehydrate it. Strive for about 2 tablespoons for every 10 pounds of dog weight, but you cannot overdose them on bone broth! It’s a fantastic addition.

You can also increase hydration with goat’s milk or even water. Having a dish of drinking water beside the food is fantastic – but adding hydration to the bowl is key.

3. Add Fresh Food to the Bowl
Add to your dog’s bowl some fresh food from your kitchen – stay away from anything in the onion family or grapes – but almost everything else goes. If you’ve got strawberries on your cereal in the morning, throw some in your dog’s food. When you’re making a salad or a meal for yourself and cutting off the ends of the veggies that you’re not going to use, put that in your dog’s dish.

Mushrooms are an amazing immune booster for dogs. Some other fresh, whole food ideas are green, orange, and yellow vegetables, fruits like blueberries, bananas, strawberries, and pineapple. These and more are all fantastic additions to any dog’s bowl!

You can make up to 20% of your dog’s meal fresh, whole foods. Remember to remove from your overall amount of kibble whatever percentage you are adding with fresh whole foods. This is another way to cut down on that premium kibble cost!

4. Include Less-Processed Foods
Sometimes we don’t have time to be cutting fresh fruits and vegetables for ourselves – never mind our dogs – but we want to make sure that they are eating properly and healthily. So, you can also include less-processed food that you may buy at the independent pet store like freeze-dried, air-baked, gently cooked, or dehydrated options.

5. Add Some Raw Food.
There’s an old wive’s tale that you cannot mix raw pet food with dry pet food. – it is a myth. A little raw is better than no raw – this is whole, fresh food too!

Leveling up your dog’s bowl means feeding less processed food and more whole,fresh food. Anytime you can incorporate a type of whole, fresh food into the dish, it’s beneficial.

If you are feeling like you don’t have time or the money to do this, consider that you don’t have to do it every day. If you level up your dog’s bowl even only two or three times a week you are improving your animal’s health. And remember it’s going to be a lot cheaper in the long run when you find you are reducing your vet bills by feeding a healthy diet!

To hear more great tips on your dog’s nutrition – including how to grade your kibble – listen to   Carly’s recent interview on our Podcast Episode 16: Uncovering What’s in Your Dog’s Bowl with Carly Paryluk.

At Muttz with Mannerz™ we are committed to providing you with the help and resources that you need for you and your pup so that you can live a happy, healthy life. To contact us visit our website at www.muttzwithmannerz.com