Should your dog’s diet during the winter months differ from that during the summer months? Yes, but not dramatically. I want to tell you what you can pay attention to when preparing a daily menu for your pet on cold winter days.
Your dog’s daily diet should be rich in fat and protein in winter. It is also worth slightly increasing the caloric content of meals served to your pet compared to summer. Your pooch will be happy if he gets a warm, pre-heated meal on a cold winter day.
What you will learn from this article:
- A dog’s winter diet is different from his summer diet
- In winter, the dog’s meal caloric content should be slightly higher
- Make sure your dog’s food is warm
Dog food in winter
Do your culinary preferences change with the passing of different seasons? I’m sure it is. It’s precisely the same for me. In summer, I crave entirely different flavours than in autumn or winter. I focus on seasonality in my diet, which I follow during my daily shopping.
I pay a lot of attention to what my four-legged friend eats. Therefore, his diet also undergoes slight modifications with the change of seasons. Moreover, both your body and your dog’s have slightly different needs in summer and winter. For this reason, your dog’s diet should by no means be accidental.
So my task is to explain to you what precisely the differences in diet in summer and winter result from. I will also tell you what you should include in your four-legged friend’s daily menu at any time of the year to take care of his health and well-being fully.
Why is a dog’s diet important?
The basis of the body’s health is a proper diet. We will not be at full strength if we do not provide enough vitamins and microelements, even if we lead a sports lifestyle or care for our sleep. The same applies to your four-legged friend. Diet is the absolute foundation of his health and well-being.
A dog’s diet affects his strength, vitality, and bone and teeth condition. It is responsible for the proper functioning of the senses and the attitude to life. A lack of specific vitamins in your dog’s diet can make your pet lethargic and sad.
Often when we see weakness in our four-legged friend, we find the cause of it in various diseases. This state of affairs is usually due to dog diet deficiencies. Therefore, before seriously worrying about your dog’s health, analyze his diet and consider whether anything is missing.
What should be in a dog’s diet in winter?
It’s also not that your dog’s diet in winter should be radically different from what your dog has in summer. I also don’t completely change my diet with the change of season. I enrich my daily menu with a few items, and some of them, such as seasonal fruits or vegetables, leave my diet. I don’t know about you, but their off-season taste is unacceptable for me, as is the case with strawberries or tomatoes, for example.
Fats in a dog’s diet
In winter, your dog’s body needs more energy to stay warm during walks in cold weather. That happens, among other things, by burning fats in the body of your four-legged friend. That’s why I try to include more of them in his diet in winter.
My dog is not a typical winter dog breed. Therefore, the low temperature outside the window is not pleasant for him. For this reason, I put clothes on him when we go for a winter walk, but I also support his tolerance to cold by enriching his diet with extra fats.
Of course, you should also remember that too much fat in a dog’s diet can lead to being overweight, which is a severe problem. If you want to learn more about obesity in dogs and how to deal with it effectively, I refer you to my other post. You will find it HERE.
That is why I care very much about what fats are in the diet of my four-legged friend. I try to make them mainly of plant origin because my pet’s menu is already rich in meat.
Vitamins on the dog’s daily menu
As you probably know, winter is when we get sick very often. I try to keep my immune system up but occasionally catch a cold. However, it happens less often since I support my body during this period.
Many dog owners are unaware that our dogs can also have a cold. Very often it is not as easy to notice as in the case of humans. However, your pet may also be sick.
That is why I ensure my dog’s diet is rich in vitamins to support his immune system during the winter. First, I focus on vitamins C, D, and E. They have a direct impact on supporting the body’s immunity.
That is one of the critical issues I pay attention to when preparing my dog’s daily menu during the winter. I want my dog to have immunity and not catch a cold.
Dog bowl |DELI jasmine
Animal protein in a dog’s diet
Another ingredient we pay special attention to in my dog’s winter diet is protein, especially that of animal origin. That is an essential element in your pet’s diet.
However, it is worth remembering that combining protein with other diet components, e.g., carbohydrates, is good. Then the dog’s meal is more valuable and nutritious.
What to pay attention to when preparing a meal for a dog in winter
However, the content of the dog’s daily menu is not everything. There are a few other essential issues that you should pay attention to. I believe they are no less important than what should be included in your four-legged friend’s diet in winter.
Increase the caloric value of your dog’s meals in winter
As I mentioned before, in the winter, your four-legged friend’s body needs more energy to warm himself. Therefore, his meals in winter should be more caloric than those you give your dog in the warm months.
Surely you know the feeling when on hot, hot days you don’t feel like eating at all. Then I eat a lot of fruit, including watermelons. I noticed that my dog has a similar approach to his diet in the summer. I take care of his hydration and try to help him cool down, for example, by giving him a cold watermelon from the fridge to eat.
In winter, my and my dog’s approach to food is much greater. I eat much more than in the summer, and my pet’s appetite is visibly more.
Give your dog warm food
Before giving your dog wet food, warm it up to keep it warm. Your dog will enjoy warm meals much better on cold winter days than those taken straight from the fridge.
Dog’s winter menu
Food is an inseparable part of our lives, and so is your four-legged friend. That is why paying particular attention to what we serve in a bowl for our pets is so important.
Does your dog have different culinary tastes in winter than in summer? Please write me your answer in the comment below.
If you have any questions or want me to touch on a topic in the next post, share it with me in the comments section.