Pre-Mix: How It Can Change The Way You Feed Your Dog

For those looking for alternative ways to feed a pup, pre-mixes can open a whole new realm of possibility. If you are new to the word "pre-mix" in a dog-diet context, it is essentially a vegetable, fruit, and vitamin mixture that acts as a base for your dog's food. You need to add protein sources such as meat, eggs, soy, nuts, etc. to make the diet nutritionally complete.

This allows you to create customized diets that can be used in a variety of ways such as daily feeding, supplemental raw feeding, or even feeding your special needs pup.

Daily Feeding

Using a pre-mix in your pup's daily regime is a great way to give them a variety of proteins. Although you only need to add meat, it allows you to customize their meal by adding extra vegetables, fruits, and different textures. This can be especially useful for pet parents that have fussy pets or those who want to incorporate a rotational diet.

Raw Feeding

People who want to start feeding their pets an ancestral raw diet have a lot of work ahead of them if they are planning on only feeding raw meat. To make a fully balanced meal for your dog, one needs to have plenty of experience so that your dog is getting the correct ratio of nutrients they need. A pre-mix allows you to supplement a raw diet with the vitamins and vegetables that help your dog thrive. Utilizing a pre-mix with raw feeding also cuts down the costs on all the different supplements and vegetables people add to their dog's raw diet. In essence, a pre-mix helps make raw feeding more accessible to people by diluting the scientific aspects of making your own home-prepared raw dog food and making it more cost effective.

Special Needs

Dogs with special dietary needs can also benefit from a pre-mix. Starting with a base and adding in your own protein allows you to control the amount of protein that goes into your dog's food. Take for example, if your pup with pancreatitis needs a low fat and low protein diet, utilizing a pre-mix can help you meet the ranges your vet is asking for by adding less protein than asked. Working alongside your vet, you can match up nutritional percentages to the veterinary diets that are offered. A quality food such as a pre-mix can be easily modified to meet the exact guidelines that are found in some medical diets, which can often contain lower grade ingredients to meet low nutrient profiles.

Pups with food allergies and sensitivities also benefit from a pre-mix because you can add in unique proteins they are able to have and easily rotate between proteins so that you can keep new sensitivities from developing from prolonged exposure.

Additionally, dogs with allergies can also benefit from utilizing a pre-mix to get to the root of their food sensitivity. If you start out with the base mix (if they are not sensitive to the ingredients in the mix), you can then slowly introduce new proteins to narrow down which ingredients agree with your pup's digestive system.

Pre-mixes are a great tool to have in your pantry and can have a variety of uses. Their ability to be a canvas for you to try new and exciting things for your pup truly  makes them unique! 

It is recommended that you consult your pet's veterinarian before making any dietary changes if your pet suffers from any conditions. These tips are meant to be insightful and do not substitute professional medical suggestions.