14/12/2023
THE FASTING IN THE DOGS:
What is fasting in dogs?
Fasting is a habit rooted in the dog's wild pasts. Just like wolves, and other mammals belonging to the family of canidae, to which dogs also belong. Not every day, they managed to acquire a lot of food, in many cases they didn't get anything. With that natural condition, canids have evolved for many years, as have their digestive system.
Despite the dog's domestication, his digestive system still requires part of the fasting. For this reason, it is common to hear or evidenced that dogs periodically reject their usual feed - voluntary fasting. These do it looking to give rest to their digestive system and allow your body to detox. This voluntary fasting should not be confused with any other digestive or other condition that clears the dog's appetite.
What does fasting consist of dogs?
Fasting consists of not offering any food for a certain time to our dog, just abundant water - Absolute fasting. However, you can also talk about partial fasting, which consists in reducing the amount of food, especially the amount of protein foods. Fasting is commonly done by 24 hours (1 day) each week (every 7 days). Your periodicity may be broader (10 days-20 days).
In the case of absolute fasting, only abundant water should be offered. In the case of a partial fasting, because it doesn't stop being beneficial and also allows to give variety to our pet's daily feed, you can offer your dog a variety of seeds and vegetables portioned fruits and vegetables (without exceeding) as an apple, carrot, mango, pear, papaya, among others. You can also offer Snout Natural Greek Yogurt and / or other easy digestion foods.
A large bone is also a great help for a day's fasting as your dog will be entertained for the rest of the day; it also stimulates salivation and production of mucin (Protein) and amylase enzyme, which have positive effects for the system digestive.
What is fasting for and why is it important?
One of the most important bodily functions is detoxification, which is primarily responsible for the liver and kidney. Dogs body removes waste material continuously. If these accumulate faster than the body is able to remove them, they will accumulate in liver, kidneys, fatty tissues and throughout the system. That's when diseases appear. Therefore, it becomes important to grant a periodic fasting to dogs and allow them to detoxify their digestive system and body in general.
A fasting increases the body's ability to eject waste by changing its digestion process for detoxification. This one has many health benefits, like:
Removes toxins from the liver and kidneys.
Clean up the body's accumulated waste.
Cleans the bowels and digestive system.
Improve immune function.
Improve digestive function and nutrient intake.
Helps overcome allergies and many other diseases.
Improve skin and fur condition.
Reduce excessive body odor and strong breath (if generated by digestive disorders).
Generally improves health and disease resistance.
In what cases should our dogs not be fasted?
Despite how beneficial it can be to practice or allow our dogs to fast. Some dogs won't tolerate fasting, both absolute and partial. Here's what cases mainly can't apply:
In puppy dogs, as they require daily supplying their energy needs, for their development.
In breastfeeding as nutrient intake and daily energy foods is crucial to your health.
Dogs with malnutrition as a special nutrition plan is required.
Sick dogs, or recovering from surgery or procedure, as it will depend on the care and indications of their specialist.
There may be other special cases, where fasting is not advised on dogs, so it is important to keep an eye on their evolution with dogs.
Source:
Alimentación Natural para perros y gatos. Dieta BARF para perros y gatos. Dieta BARF Medellin. Domicilios. Dieta BARF SnoutsBARF