Do you give your dog fruits? Not everyone does, but a fruit like honeydew can actually provide some much needed water especially if your dog lacks water!
Honeydew is considered safe for dogs and it contains a wealth of nutrients, such as vitamin B6, niacin, folate, vitamin A, vitamin C, and potassium. (Vit A and C are antioxidants that capture free radicals and slowing the ageing process, while also a good form of prevention against cancer).
And like how honeydew helps hoomans with constipation issues, its fibre contents also help improve your dog's digestion and digestive tract healthy and functioning. Besides hydrating and improving digestion, cantaloupe can be cooling too. A slice of honeydew fresh out from the fridge can also help cool down your furkid especially in a hot day.
However, be careful of the seeds, and be sure to remove them before feeding.
- Vitamin A helps maintain immune system and vision.
- Vitamin B6 helps promote healthy brain and heart, synthesises protein which helps growth and regulates water circulation.
- Vitamin C is a protects cells from being destroyed or altered by oxidation and helps in destroying of free radicals.
- Niacin (Vitamin B3) can help treat inflammatory skin conditions.
- Folate improves amino acid metabolism and proper cell membrane functioning.
- Potassium aids muscle growth and strength, bone health and maintains organ function
Turmeric is an Indian spice and a very good special food because it essentially contains an active ingredient called curcumin. And this curcumin can do quite a lot of things, without having side-effects unlike many other medications.
The active ingredient - curcumin has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, wound healing and anti-cancer properties. It can help fight against many diseases like arthritis, diabetes, cancer, liver disease, gastrointestinal issues and more.
Here's the top functions of turmeric:
Besides being able to control inflammation, turmeric can also prevent them, especially the bad ones like chronic inflammation.
Turmeric is proven in studies to be able to prevent cancer, as it can kill cancer cells and prevent them from growing. Currently, around half of adult dogs will get cancer at some point in their lives. By feeding turmeric, you are actually reducing the chances of your dog getting cancer. How good is that?
A group of Thai researchers have found turmeric to be a better reliever of joint stiffness and pain than the other common arthritis medication - ibuprofen. Ibuprofen also has side effects on gastrointestinal systems, something which turmeric does not have a side effect on!
Japanese researchers have studied and found that turmeric's main ingredient - curcumin, is helpful in treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) as well as other gastrointestinal disorders.
Many dogs are on steroids as a treatment to withstand joint pain and allergies. The problem is steroids have side effects on dogs. Turmeric, on the other hand, perform just as well as steroids, but without any side effects. This becomes a great remedy to fight arthritis and allergies. A study published in Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology explains the effectiveness of curcumin in replacing steroids but without the side effects.
Turmeric should be given in small amounts, and mix them well with food. A lot of dogs may not like it if you just feed turmeric alone or in big amounts with food. But if you stir and mix well, it should be fine.
Here's a general guide on including turmeric-
Small dogs: about 1/4 teaspoon per day
Medium dogs: around 1/2 teaspoon per day
Large dogs: around 3/4 teaspoon per day
Giant dogs: around 1 teaspoon per day
When this COVID-19 began back in Dec 2019 in Wuhan (people were just referring to it as the "Wuhan Coronavirus"), some pawrents in mainland China were abandoning their dogs out of fear. These pawrents were doing so because they were afraid that the Wuhan Coronavirus may infect their pets, who may in turn pass the virus to them! (Because people were believing that this novel virus originated from live animals).
The abandonment of pets led to a major stress in the local animal welfare groups in mainland China. Thankfully, in Singapore, our local pawrents are quite a mature bunch of peeps! What is more concerning to some of our local pawrents is whether their pets will 'kena' the virus. Let's take a look at the major pet-related COVID-19 events that has happened so far, in chronological order:
On 28 Feb 2020, the first ever dog (a 17-year-old elderly pomeranian) was tested 'weak positive' with COVID-19. Its owner was a 60-year-old woman who was also tested positive on 25 Feb. Thus this very likely would make it the world's first human-to-animal transmission. But results were not conclusive as yet - whether it is possible for dogs to contract this virus, or it just happened that the dog's owner sneezed or cough on its face around the time that the samples were taken.
The senior pomeranian went on quanrantine from 28 Feb till 14 Mar 2020. During this period, the Hong Kong dog repeatedly tested negative for the coronavirus after the initial 'weak positive' test. Thus, it finally went home on 14 Mar 2020.
Shortly after the pomeranian returned home from quarantine, it passed away on 16 Mar 2020. 😥 According to the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), the pomeranian's final test upon its death displayed similarities in the virus genetic make up as infected humans. This strongly suggested that the infected humans likely infected the pomeranian (in this case, its owner). The cause of death was also likely not due to the virus alone, as the dog was aged and already had underlying illnesses.
On 19 Mar 2020, newspapers published that a second dog, a 2-year-old German Shepherd was infected as well. Its owner is also an infected patient. Together with another dog (the infected patient has 2 dogs), they are placed on quarantine. Professor Malik Peiris, a leading public health virologist at the University of Hong Kong also said that it is very likely that both cases happened due to human-to-animal transmission.
Then on 27 and 31 Mar 2020, a cat in Belgium and a cat in Hong Kong became the first two cats that test positive for COVID-19.
Veterinary Associations across the world have so far said that there is currently no evidence that pet-to-human transmission is possible. And all the 4 cases so far (2 dogs, 2 cats) are very likely to be human-to-animal cases, as the 4 pets' owners are all COVID-19 patients.
1. Please keep calm, treat your animal like how you will treat yourself and your family. Keep them safe.
2. If unwell, avoid kissing them or sneezing / coughing into their faces. (We know it may sound like a joke but we are quite serious)
3. If you are not feeling well, perhaps consider practising 'furkid distancing' too.
4. And never, ever consider abandoning them. Some pet owners actually went to abandon their pet out of fear. Thankfully, our SG pawrents are a mature bunch and will never contemplate abandoning their pets.
We should keep our furry animals safe at this crucial time.
Welcome to our new blog page for Pawmeal!
We decided to create this website to provide a platform for pawrents to share about pet health, food and nutrition topics. We want to increase awareness on caring for our pets, and have a common platform to consolidate our experiences and learnings so that new and existing pet owners can discover more.
For a start, there will be 3 broad categories in our website: Food, Wellness and Community. As fresh dog food providers, we would like to emphasise alittle more on food and nutrition, and for the overall holistic well-being of your furry animal. Plus we are also looking to keep abreast of what is happening in the local pet communities, and share more in our blog here.
We were thinking of using the very safe name of "Pawmeal Blog" initially, but felt that will only draw us towards Pawmeal-related topics. In order to allow us room to explore more pet-related topics in the future, we embarked on a long brain search. Multiple rejected names later, and after racking our brains for around 2 months, our "aha!" moment popped up! It happened while we were browsing some magazines!
Welcome to © Pawgazine, Everything About Dogs and Cats! 😆😊
When you are shopping for pet food (especially kibbles) for your furkid, do you also study the ingredients listed on the packaging labels? It is important to know what ingredients go to the food that you buy, because what your furkid eats will determine his long term good health! Do note that generally, cheaper prices means higher chances of finding cheaper ingredients in the labels, such as "meals", "flavourings" and "corn". So it is very important to be able to understand the pet food label so you know which brand uses better quality ingredients, and which doesn't. 😊
Here's 4 quick tips on reading pet food labels, to make sure all of us see beyond fancy packaging and attractive names (Remember, all businesses will want to attract and say they are the best!):
1. Look at the ingredient labels carefully. Good meat meals come from good animal parts, such as the lean meat portions like breasts. If the first few ingredients contain words like “by-products”, “meals”, or “lungs” and “hearts”, please avoid them!
2. If you feed bone meal or meat meals, you will need to feed supplements or with real meat occasionally to complement your pup’s diet. This is because of the obvious lack of authentic nutrients and vitamins in the meat meals due to the long cooking process.
3. Be more wary about generic, vague terms and descriptions. Like “animals” and “parts”.
4. Be more wary about those who rely on impressive-sounding terms and descriptions. Real quality does not require flashy words!
With these 4 tips in mind, you can start to become a more discerning pawrent when it comes to evaluating right foods for your dog or cat. It's really quite as important as taking care of a hooman baby's diet.
So next time if you are shopping for food for your dog or cat, don't just look at the price or how nice the packaging are. Remember to look at the labels too!
If you want to have a more in-depth understanding of how pet food manufacturers actually write their food labels, you can find out more here.
TL;DR - Our answer is OK to the quality ones, and a NO if the ingredient sources are not exactly transparent. We feel that meat meals that consist of natural, real meat are good for your dog. Do note that these meat powders usually require topping up of artificial nutrients as the high heat process will have eliminate most of the natural nutrients. Meat meals that use real proteins are so rare, as almost every dog food maker save on ingredient costs. (To give you an idea: 1kg of raw animal protein will end up only 200g or less worth of meat meal!)
Not all meat meals are bad. But some are so mysterious that we have no idea that are the ingredients that make up the meat meal. In this article, you will learn how to recognise lower quality ingredients in your dog’s food, especially when it contains "Meat Meal". 😅
They look like protein powder for dogs and often promote themselves as rich in proteins. Sounds good, eh? Meat meals are highly concentrated meat protein powder that is an end product after cooking the meat with water over long periods. This process is also known as ‘rendering’ the meat. During the cooking process, the heat will cook away the water and continues to bake the remaining meat. Eventually, the meat will break down and turn into powder. This becomes meat meals! (Or what some people call ‘rendered meat’).
Of course there are reputable, better quality meat meals in the market. But there are also inferior ones. We want to highlight 2 things for your consideration before you decide to feed meat meals to your pup.
To make meat meals, pet food manufacturers purposely overcook the meat to cook the water away. It’s like making stewed meat. This leaves the residue behind and eventually dries up. You will get a highly concentrated meat protein powder that contains next to zero moisture.
What you need to find out is how the factory renders the meat, and at what temperatures. Anything above 80-100℃ is high heat. Cooking in this high heat will most likely kill away much of the natural nutrients and vitamins in the meat. Some meat meals manufacturers then add back synthetic or artificial nutrients and vitamins to the meat meals to re-balance them. And they often keep quiet about it. Does not sound too healthy, right?
When meat breaks down and becomes powder, no one can tell what are the original raw materials. Some food manufacturers choose not to clarify too much about the origins of the meat meal. This should be a red flag.
1. Names that include the words “by-products”. “By-products” means all other parts of the animal except for the meat. (Bones, lungs, heart, blood, liver, fat tissues, tongues, etc)
2. Names that are vague and generic. We are referring to those names that do not even bother to specify the exact animal source. Examples include “meat meals” (from which animal?), “animal meals”, “quality bone meals” (which animal’s bone, and which bone?) etc.
3. Names that overuse flashy words like “high quality”, “best dog food”, and “wholesome”. We feel that if a food uses these words excessively as their main message, it is just marketing at its best. A good, real food does not need flashy words so much to convince others.
So next time when you shop for dog food, remember to look at the ingredient labels carefully!
Meat meals are most commonly found in dry pet food, dehydrated food and some freeze dried food as well. Try grabbing your pet food label and see if the first 3 to 5 ingredients contain any “meals” in their names.
There is a long deliberate cooking process to cook away the water from the animal meats (or parts). All that is left is just the “essence”, ie the meat powder, minus the moisture.
In comparison, a normal chicken or lamb meat contains more water than proteins. So meal powder often contain more proteins than the usual cooked meats, if you compare gram to gram. 50g of meal powder may contain the same amount of proteins as a 200g home cooked minced meat. You do not need to feed 200g of meat powders (that will be an overkill). You just need to add water to 50g of powder so it becomes 200g worth of food.
So besides having comparable amounts of proteins, meat meals are lighter, more portable and has a longer shelf life than home cooked meat.
We feel that meat powders that consist of pure, real meat can be good (provided feeding in moderation) for your dog because they are high in proteins, minus the moisture. But good quality meat meals are so rare, as almost every dog food maker save on ingredient costs. So our answer is OK to the quality ones, and a NO if the ingredient sources are not exactly transparent and vague.
We also have to note that as making meat meals require a prolonged period of extreme high heat to cook away the moisture, the result may be a loss of natural, pure nutrients - which means pet food manufacturers may end up topping up with synthetic nutrients to balance the powders. Too much synthetic is always not so good, right?
Food aggression is a form of resource guarding. Some dogs have a stronger desire to protect their food as they regard it as key to their survival. Hence when a hooman sticks out a hand or approaches them, or a friendly dog walks towards them, the self protective furkid may get the impression that their food may be at risk. Thus these dogs may react angrily and bark (or worse, tries to bite!) to defend their bowl. It can be a headache for some pet owners, if their dog snaps at people when eating. 😣 Imagine not being able to clean the bowl surroundings when your dog is eating, or unable to add new food when it is in the midst of eating. 😥
The good thing is you can try to train your dog to manage this behaviour better. There may not ever be a complete solution to this, but you can certainly try to tone it down.
However this takes quite a bit of time and patience. And it requires discipline from you, the owner.
Here's some tips to try to manage your dog (if you already have a furkid with food aggression):
1) Use reward-based training.
Try tossing a treat into your dog's bowl when it is eating, as you are approaching. This is to associate people getting near as a positive.
2) Don't give your dog a reason to resource guard!
If your dog does not even have a reason to guard its food, why will it be aggressive? This means, keep feeding to a strict location, only make the food bowl accessible during meal times, and don't feed freely! No food, no angry! 😡🙅♀️
3) If there are more than 1 dog, don't share bowls, and keep each bowl exclusive.
This means keep feeding to a strict location, only make the food bowl accessible during meal times, and no disturbance during mealtime! This way, your dog will have no reason to get wary. And this may slowly become a way of life for your furkid.
4) Feed chews and treats safely and carefully.
Make sure treats and chews are given in a safe, gradual condition and don't let your dog feel threatened and must finish the food fast. Slow and steady. 🙌
We all have very busy schedules. Some of us pet owners are alittle more fortunate to have other members in the family to help walk our dogs. Others may be the sole caregiver for their dog, and the furkid may have to be by itself at home the whole day.
One of the main purposes of walking dogs is to let the dog poop. It is one of the most common routines we all have as pet parents 🙂 However, due to work / studies / other commitments, we usually head back home right after our dogs have pooped and peed. Imagine how sad the dogs will be!
Most dogs love outdoors and look forward to exploring the outside world. After all, dogs are animals that used to belong in the wild. To sustain their sharpness, sensitivity to surroundings and energy levels, we do need to take our dogs out sometimes. No, not the 5-min poo time type, but longer, like at least 20-30 minutes.
A simple walk around the neigbourhood will perk up your dog's energy levels, and it's also a good bonding time between hooman and dog. Our Rara used to be an exceptional dog that is so fearful of the surroundings. We had to bring her out often to encourage her to explore more often. Today, Rara (Our black mongrel!) is slightly braver, and more curious. We (Rara included) also always look forward to such little bonding sessions too. 😊
So bring your dog out for a little longer sometimes. Anywhere will do, because your dog will not complain, she will only love you for it. ❤
Pumpkins are an excellent food choice for your dog with almost no side effects. So much so that it is a 'go-to' food for most pawrents whenever their dogs fall sick and require bland, comfort food that does not stir up anymore reaction in their furkids' tummies. What makes it so good for your dog? 🎃
1. High nutrient content, which helps to facilitate healthy functioning of your dog's body systems. (See end of this article for the key nutrients and their main function).
2. Pumpkin helps in relieving diarrhea (lao sai) situations by solidifying the stool due to its soluble fibre content.
3. It is great for easing constipation issues too. (as fibre creates more stool bulk, promotes contraction of the muscles to move stools through the digestive tract)
4. Pumpkins can prove effective in fighting weight loss! (as fibre makes your dog feel 'fuller', and therefore consume less calories)
5. They contain A LOT of moisture (in fact, 90% of pumpkin is water).
6. Pumpkins also promote urinary health as they are high in anti-oxidants.
Additionally, pumpkin seeds are also just as healthy for dogs. However, we must serve cooked pumpkin seeds (raw is a big NO NO). (We will have a separate article on pumpkin seeds 🙂).
For pumpkin meat, however, raw or cooked is fine for your dog. Although for raw pumpkins, it is very difficult to break and chop them into bits. It can also be difficult for your dog to chew on raw pumpkin as they are quite hard. So steaming the pumpkin first is recommended to soften the meats, making it easier for you to cut and also better for your furkid to munch on it.
In our Pawmeal menu, we have 5 recipes that contain the right amount of pumpkin composition. Full recipe ingredients can be found here. 🎃
- Vitamin A helps maintain immune system and vision.
- Vitamin C is a cofactor for enzymatic reactions and collagen synthesis.
- Vitamin E is a fat soluble antioxidant and enzymatic activity regulator.
- Alpha carotene is an antioxidant that prevents damage to cells.
- Calcium supports cytoplasmic functions and mineralizes bone and teeth.
- Iron contributes to cellular respiration, oxidation, and hemoglobin production.
- Lutein supports the health of the eyes, skin, and coat.
Broccoli has a lot of nutrients that makes it one of the top vegetables! It is high in fibre with lots of Vitamin A, C and K, and with moderate amounts of B Vitamins and the mineral manganese. Low in fat and calories as well. Plus high level of anti-cancer oxidants, anti-allergy and anti-inflammatory agents. Broccoli can even help to clean your dog's teeth! You can also feed it raw or cooked to your dog, but remember to chop it into smaller pieces, as the stalk may be hard to crunch especially for senior dogs.
Just note 1 tiny tweeny potential risk of broccoli - if you feed your dog too much of this vegetable, it MAY pose a gastric irritant for your dog. This is because of an ingredient called Isothiocyanate found in broccoli!
Broccoli ideally should be around 5-10% of your dog's diet. 😉 But the actual amount will differ depending on the size of your dog. And every dog is different in terms of how well their tummies take to broccoli, so it is best to monitor their response if they are new to this vegetable!
- Fibre helps in digestion and makes poop firmer and more solid.
- Vitamin A helps maintain immune system and vision.
- Vitamin C is a cofactor for enzymatic reactions and collagen synthesis.
- Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin that is important in activating your dog's blood's ability to clot.
- The B group of vitamins play an important role in maintaining energy levels, enzyme functioning, glucose generation, red blood cell and nervous system function, hormone regulation, immune response, niacin synthesis, and gene activation.