Feeding Your Pit Bull

Your Pit Bull is a genetically healthy dog with a strong and powerful physique, great amount of energy, and amazing longevity.  A healthy looking Pit Bull should have an athlete’s body type, which is lean and muscular.  His ideal weight should have a bit of an hourglass figure viewed from the side or above.  His stomach should be slightly tucked up, ribs should be easily felt through a layer of muscle, and there should not be any roll of fat over the withers or rump.

A very important factor that influences your Pit Bull’s health and full potential is the food that you give him.  As an active dog, he needs good quality food to keep him going.  An average Pit Bull eats about 20 pounds of food each month.  Puppies and very active dogs need even more than that.  You need to provide your Pit Bull with a balanced meal of both meat and plant-based nutrients.

There are three basic types of dog food that you can provide your Pit Bull:

1. Dry food is the most popular, most reasonably priced, and the healthiest form of dog food, although it is not the most appetizing of the three types.

2. Semi-moist food is tasty and handy for traveling but contains high amount of sugar used as a preservative and not the very best choice for a nutritional diet.

3. Canned food is the tastiest but the most expensive food compared to dry and semi-moist food.  Most Pitt Bull owners give their dogs a mixture of dry and canned food and supplement the diet with treats and dog biscuits.

Give your Pit Bull food with protein and fat content based on his stage of life, making any necessary adjustment for any health and weight problems.  It is essential to put your Pit Bull on a well-balanced diet in order to keep him healthy and active.  Obese dogs are susceptible to joint injuries, heart problems, and make many preexisting problems worse.  If you think that your dog is becoming overweight, you need to give him a low fat, medium protein, and high fiber diet.  Diet foods which have about 15 percent fewer calories per pound are widely available.  Delicious, less fattening home cooked diets are also available.

* Puppies need high protein and slightly higher fat level in their diets like those found in puppy foods.  The same level of nutrients goes for pregnant and nursing mothers,

* Underweight dogs, highly active dogs, and stressed dogs need a high protein diet.  Giving them puppy food will supply them with this need.  On the other hand, obese dogs and dogs suffering from heart problems need to be fed a low fat diet.

* Older dogs, particularly those with kidney problems should be on an average level of diet with high content of quality protein.