Any supporter of natural nutrition asked the question: “Can dogs have oatmeal (rolled oatmeal) and how to cook it?” In general, canines are carnivores, but it is impossible to completely remove food of plant origin from their diet. This is due to the fact that cereals, herbs and vegetables contain useful minerals and vitamins that are not found in meat and fish.
Because of this, oatmeal is becoming one of the most popular cereals when cooking for pets. Firstly, it is quite cheap. Secondly, it is in every home and is present even in the human diet. But you need to understand how to properly give oatmeal to a dog so that he does not develop an allergy and does not have indigestion. First things first.
Is it possible to give oatmeal to dogs?
Dogs can have rolled oats and oatmeal without sugar. This is due to the fact that both types of cereals contain a lot of fiber, fats, and healthy minerals. Oatmeal has a high calorie content, which allows you to satiate your pet faster than the same meat by-products.
Benefits of porridge
Oatmeal contains many microelements and chemicals that are beneficial for your pet, stimulating the functioning of various organ systems. This is the main benefit of oatmeal for dogs. The list of the most concentrated beneficial substances in rolled oats includes:
- Potassium and calcium. They strengthen the animal’s skeleton and promote rapid muscle gain.
- Plant proteins. They give the pet enough energy.
- Vitamins E, PP, K, B, A. They cleanse the dog’s blood, stabilize the functioning of the nervous system, and improve vision.
- Amino acids. They help maintain nitrogen balance in the dog’s body.
Oatmeal also contains sulfur, phosphorus, manganese, iodine, fluorine, nickel and iron. These substances strengthen the immune system, promote proper blood flow, stabilize blood pressure, and maintain the overall level of health of the individual, regardless of its age. All the properties of the porridge together make it optimal for feeding individuals suffering from heartburn, digestive disorders, and gastritis. Veterinarians believe that boiled oatmeal can also be given to pregnant or lactating pets, since they especially need energy and easily digestible microelements.
Does it harm the pet's health?
Despite all the advantages of oatmeal, inexperienced breeders are inclined to believe that the benefits of oatmeal for dogs are less harmful. They explain this by the fact that in nature, dogs and their closest relatives eat mainly meat. However, pets should have a balanced diet, especially if they are purebred and have congenital digestive problems. Another argument against oatmeal is that it is high in calories. This is true, so do not give oatmeal or any products containing it to inactive pets.
There is also a widespread belief among breeders that flakes and cereals are added to dog food to create the illusion of satiety. This is explained by the fact that cereals are supposedly slowly digested and simply accumulate in the stomach and intestines. But this is not true: cereals are important because they are the main source of fiber and calories.
Meat component
It is imperative to purchase quality meat from the market. This can be good meat trimmings, liver, lung, spleen and cartilage. There should be fewer by-products, but they are also very important. You can boil them in advance and freeze them in portions, then cooking will not take much time. For daily feeding you will need 40% (of the total daily diet) meat, and 30% each of cereals and vegetables.
The best vegetables to take are carrots and beets; you can add potatoes, zucchini, and onions. It is best to simmer vegetables in meat broth until completely softened. Porridge for dogs also plays an important role in nutrition, so we will now talk about the grain component in a little more detail.
Can an animal be allergic to this cereal?
Dogs can develop food allergies at any age. So you need to give oatmeal to your dog carefully, unless special tests have been done before. You should not feed rolled oats to a dog that has tested positive. Otherwise, symptomatic therapy will have to be carried out, as the animal will develop a severe rash and itching. An advanced allergy can become chronic. To prevent this, do not choose an allergy medicine on your own, contact your veterinarian and follow his recommendations. Typically, specialists prescribe:
- Tavegil.
- Cetrin.
- Claritin.
- Suprastin.
- Loratadine.
If the allergy to rolled oats was particularly acute, you will have to change your diet after the final cure. Make sure that the basis of the new diet is vegetables and meat. Add fruit occasionally, but don't experiment with it - problems with allergic reactions are likely to continue.
Supplements
Vegetables . It will be healthy and tasty for your pet to add vegetables to ready-made porridge. If vegetables are subjected to heat treatment, they will lose all their vitamin content. Ready-made porridge with the addition of carrots, beets, pumpkin, cabbage, cucumber and tomatoes will diversify the taste of the porridge and give your pet a portion of vitamins. It is optimal to add 1/3 of the vegetables from the entire serving.
Meat . It should be added to porridge in the same quantity as vegetables. It is better to cut into small pieces or pass through a meat grinder. Meat is added to the porridge during cooking, raw or cooked. Your pet will like the minced meat, both raw and processed.
Which dogs are contraindicated for oatmeal?
Before answering more detailed questions like “How long to cook rolled oats in water for dogs?”, you need to understand whether a puppy of a particular breed can eat this cereal. A number of breeds: pugs, bulldogs and the like do not tolerate excess grains in the diet, they are prone to rapid weight gain, and spend few calories due to passivity. But for large pets intended for work or protection (shepherd dogs, Alabais, St. Bernards), oatmeal is a must. Such breeds eat a lot, so completely limiting their diet to meat and by-products of its processing will be too expensive.
conclusions
With a natural type of feeding, porridges occupy an important place in the diet - 25-40%. There is a large selection from their variety. NOT all cereals are equally healthy, and some can be harmful. How to prepare porridge for dogs depends on the grain chosen. A multicooker will significantly save your labor costs. Adding salt is not recommended, and sugar, spices, seasonings and flavor enhancers are completely prohibited. Vegetables are a good addition to the diet, but not all are beneficial to the animal. Porridge should be prepared for 1-2 meals, milk porridge only for 1 meal. Dogs that eat porridge are energetic, look healthy, and grow and develop well.
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Nikitin Sergey
I write about dogs based on the experience and knowledge gained during my studies as a veterinarian, work in my specialty, and simply from observing my pets.
How to properly prepare oatmeal for your pet?
1. Put water on fire.
2. Boil water. 3. Pour the cereal into boiling water. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring while doing so. 4. Cover with a lid and let it brew. Dogs simply won’t eat oatmeal in its pure form, so you’ll have to cook it. You can feed your dog oatmeal soaked in kefir and seasoned with sunflower oil. But usually they simply make porridge with water from cereals. It’s easy to cook rolled oats for your pet: just pour the cereal into boiling water and bring it to the desired consistency.
The oatmeal you cook for your dog must be mixed with meat. There are several approaches to adding meat: either it is simply added to the cereal and cooked all together, or it is cooked separately and the dish is mixed in a bowl. To increase the caloric intake of meat, add vegetables (carrots, pumpkin, beets) and herbs (parsley, dill). This way, the dog looking for the tastiest morsels will still get enough plant proteins for the day. But veterinarians do not recommend preparing oatmeal or oat-vegetable porridge more than once a week.
Content
1. Why can a dog have rolled oats? 2. Medicinal and preventive properties 3. How to cook?
Every dog owner, of course, to one degree or another thinks about the issues of providing complete and balanced nutrition for his four-legged friend. However, not everyone knows how to properly organize a diet so that the dog receives everything it needs for a full, high-quality life. From this perspective, a reasonable question arises: can a dog eat rolled oats? After all, oatmeal porridge is recommended for people to take almost daily. Let's try to figure it out.
How to give oatmeal to dogs?
Oatmeal is given to your pet in the morning or at lunch. This cereal is quite high in calories, so it will only be possible to prevent weight gain if the animal uses it all up in a day. Shift the schedule if your pet receives serious physical activity every day. But you need to take into account the dog’s health, otherwise a diet based on cereals will be harmful. For example, rolled oats for gastritis in dogs should appear on the menu no more than once every two weeks. And after surgical intervention in the digestive system, it is better to completely exclude oatmeal from the diet.
For adults
Adult dogs are given porridge or other types of food that can be cooked from oatmeal once a week. If the animal is large, the frequency increases to two or three times in seven days. There are separate rules for pregnant and lactating animals. If your dog previously ate oatmeal without problems, it is not necessary to remove it from the weekly menu. But such a dog spends a lot of energy. It will be compensated not only with cereals, but also with meat, vegetables, and special vitamins. Puppies will not be born purely on oatmeal and will not grow up healthy.
For puppies
Dog breeders often feed their babies oatmeal with milk or water. It allows you to quickly gain weight and healthy muscle mass. But veterinarians argue whether rolled oats are beneficial or not for dogs under one year of age. Most of the medical community is inclined to believe that puppies should not be given porridge until they are eight months old. It has little effect on the formation of the skeleton and can provoke loose stools. If after the first feeding of the puppy an allergy appears, you should definitely stop using rolled oats in the diet for the near future.
If all is well, create a menu for your small pet for six small meals a day. You need to make oatmeal with water three times. A little skinned and boned meat is added to it. Three times - with milk, and the finished dish must be mixed with a dairy product (kefir, fermented baked milk, low-fat cottage cheese).
After the puppy is six months old, give boiled oatmeal in larger portions. This will allow him to quickly gain weight. There is no need to fear that your pet will become obese: young dogs burn a lot of calories, so additional sources will not hurt. As soon as the dog turns one and a half years old, begin to reduce the amount of food consumed per day. By the time your dog fully matures or reaches adult body weight, you should reduce your intake of oatmeal per day to once a week.
Is it possible to add sugar to dog dishes? Do I need to add salt?
Sugar is a valuable product; the body can release a large amount of energy from it. But it is strictly contraindicated for dogs. Their liver and pancreas are capable of processing glucose, but in extremely small quantities. Excess will cause problems. Dandruff will appear and your eyes will start to run. Very often otitis of unknown etiology and redness of the ears appear. With constant use of sugar, it will begin to act as an allergen. But everything is individual.
The dog receives salt in sufficient quantities from food, provided that the owner provides it with a high-quality diet, whether it be a natural type of feeding or industrial food.
Salt plays an important role in the body's metabolism. The functioning of the heart, the secretion of gastric juice and the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and nervous system depend on it.
If you add this product to your diet on your own, an overdose with negative consequences is likely. Chronic salt poisoning will lead to death. The lethal dose is 3 g per kilogram of body weight.
A constant excess of salt will lead to urolithiasis, gastrointestinal upset, and metabolic disorders.
With proper nutrition, the dog will receive the required amount of salt, which is contained in the foods it eats: Is porridge given to dogs extra salt? No.
What to do if your dog has indigestion from porridge?
Oatmeal poisoning is impossible. Hercules cereal is easily absorbed by the body. Serious problems can arise only because the dog ate sour porridge. It is important for the owner to ensure that the pet consumes only fresh food. To do this, you must not give porridge from the human table, but prepare it separately for the animal as needed.
Dealing with oatmeal allergies in dogs is more difficult than dealing with diarrhea. In general, diarrhea from rolled oats can appear either immediately after eating food, or over time while it is being digested. If your dog has diarrhea from oatmeal, you need to provide it with constant access to clean drinking water. Do not feed your pet temporarily, give him more time to rest and do not disturb him again. And when his condition returns to normal, completely eliminate cereals, and most importantly oatmeal, from the diet. If first aid measures do not help, contact your veterinarian.
Yachka or wheat
These are the cheapest cereals, which are often chosen for feeding pets based on their price. Barley porridge sticks a lot after cooking, so it is recommended to cook it only for one time. Wheat porridge also suffers from this, although its composition is more interesting. It is advisable to season it with oil after cooking so that it does not stick together too much. In terms of protein and amino acid content, as well as in terms of nutritional value, these cereals are much inferior to those described above, so they are recommended to be used as an additional rather than a main feed.
How much to give?
Now that we have decided on the cereals, let’s calculate how much cereal to give the dog at one feeding? The main dish is porridge with meat products and vegetables, given to pets at the rate of 60-70 grams. feed per 1 kilogram of weight per day . This norm is divided into 2 or 3 doses.
A book about dogs (Roucerol Georges V.)
The proportions of the products are as follows: 50% stringy meat and offal; 30% porridge; 20% vegetables and fruits. Thus, per kilogram of dog weight, you need 30-35 grams of meat, 20-25 grams of porridge, and 5-10 grams of vegetables and herbs per day. A dog that weighs 15 kg should eat 150-190 grams with two meals a day. porridge for one feeding or 300-375 gr. in a day.
Nutrition rules
- Feeding should not extend throughout the day. It is necessary to put the plate of food in the refrigerator 15-20 minutes from the moment you offer your pet a meal.
- It is enough to feed the dog twice a day and in equal portions.
- You should purchase a plate stand for your pet. With its help, you can adjust the plates and place them opposite the dog’s chest.
- Don't overdo it with salt. It is present in every product in sufficient quantity for the dog. You can add a little if you are sure that the product is completely fresh.
- The dog should always have fresh water and in sufficient quantity.
- If one feeding was missed, no matter what the reasons, then the portion of food for the dog cannot be increased at the next meal. Feed the same amount as you usually give.
- If the dog carefully licks the plate, then most likely it is not full, and you should slightly increase the dose of food at the next feeding. You should not give a double portion, otherwise you will have to lose extra pounds.
- A dog's diet should be varied in order for the pet to be healthy and cheerful.
- You cannot feed your pet two hours before active exercise, and an hour before a regular walk. You should also not feed the animal an hour after physical activity.
- If dogs growl while eating, this is directly related to the wrong diet. It is necessary to set the exact time and amount of food and then the dog will stop growling, because it will intuitively know when it will be fed.
In order for your pet to be cheerful and healthy, feed him a balanced diet, walk him and pamper him with your attention, and he will not remain indifferent to you. Share your experience, how you feed your pet, how often you walk, and what your pet likes most.
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