Akitas are particularly susceptible to this disease. They also suffer from elbow and hip dysplasia; therefore, watch what you feed them to avoid excessive weight gain. These skeletal problems come as a result of the excess weight sitting on the elbow and hip joints, making it hard for the dog to move, leading to joint and bone pains. Here is a deeper look at all the food and nutritional requirements for your Akita. Akitas are among dog breeds that have high energy levels and, as such, require large food portions.
Too little water may cause health issues due to dehydration. Akitas need high protein meals as a significant component of their everyday meal to help build their muscles. A great source of protein for your Akita is red meat, including mutton and beef. You can also add some vegetables that contain protein like broccoli and lentils. Adding vegetables to their diet is important if you want them to have a wider selection of nutrient sources instead of relying on meat alone.
Akitas can consume foods that other dogs eat, which is usually a high-protein diet of meats. They can also eat Carbohydrates like brown rice. Chicken , fish, and beef are a good source of protein. Include fats, vitamins, and minerals in their meals to boost energy levels and maintain healthy skin and fur. An apple a day can indeed keep the doctor away.
This is also true for Akitas. Apples help keep the vet away by providing a rich source of fiber, vitamins A, C, and K , minerals, and fatty acids.
They are important for boosting their immunity, keeping skin healthy, and keeping bone diseases at bay. The high fiber content of an apple also helps improve digestion. However, even with all the nutritious benefits, you have to exercise caution when feeding apples to your pet. If the dog has diabetes, apples may not be a good fruit due to high sugar content in them. You should also feed them small quantities as too much may bloat their stomachs.
Apart from apples, Akitas can eat blueberries and bananas. Apart from fiber, they offer vitamins and other precious nutrients that help keep your dog healthy. You can add carrots, Brussel sprouts, cantaloupe, celery, and sweet potatoes. Rice, cheese, and bread are other human foods that you can feed your Akita. Almost anything meaty will be an instant hit with them, so this means chicken, fish, and beef, especially lean steaks, will make your Akita very happy. While Akitas can tolerate a wide variety of foods, there are certain foods that can be harmful to them.
Most foods that humans consume tend to have high fat content and lots of oils that can cause stomach upsets and diarrhea. Try to avoid toxic food like chocolate and caffeine as they can cause vomiting, lethargy, irregular heartbeat, and to some extremes, even death. Theobromine and caffeine are ingredients present in darker chocolates, which makes them more toxic to dogs.
Soft-boiled eggs, no more than two pieces per week. Meat, which is given raw, but previously aged in the freezer, or boiled until halfway through cooking. Suitable rabbit, lean lamb, horse meat.
If the dog is not allergic, beef, veal, and turkey will suffice, but chicken should be fed less often. Akita Inu tolerates the meat of wild animals very well — elk, venison, deer. Fish — laid at least twice a week, although the dog does not like it very much. Lean fish is better to give preference, you can give it after freezing, boil it or pour it with boiling water. Sweets for Akita Inu are boiled bulls — this food is cheap, good for the dog, and they still like it very much.
By-products — to give preference to better nutritional products in this category, liver, heart, kidneys, lungs will do. Before serving, they should be boiled for a long time.
Do not give pork offal, it contains too much fat. Vegetables — carrots, zucchini, onions, eggplants, pumpkin. Sometimes it is allowed to give raw, but often still deserves to be boiled. Fruit — from 4 months , suitable apples preferably green with the skin on , bananas, melons, pears.
Almost all pets love persimmon, but it can weaken the stomach. Vegetables and cereals recommended for seasoning with vegetable oil sunflower, corn, olive, flax. Do not experiment with the Akita Inu diet and often add new products to the menu.
If you want to feed the Akita Inu with dry food In this case, it is much easier to dose the feed, the manufacturers have already taken care of their balance.
What should be excluded from the Akita Inu diet As you can see, this breed of dogs is quite picky when it comes to food and it is necessary to rely on its origin for the composition of the diet.
There is a specific set of products that are never recommended for a pet: sausages; smoked meat; foods high in salt; spices; foods with chemical additives.
Properly organized pet food will help maintain their health in good shape. Final recommendations It is better if the Akita diet consists of several main products like meat, fish, and vegetables. If you have any comments or questions on the content, please let us know! Why do vets not like raw food? Raw meat and dairy can carry pathogens, like E. The Blue Buffalo Wilderness Large Breed Adult Salmon Recipe is a great choice for large-breed dogs like the Akita because it is rich in high-quality proteins to support lean muscle mass.
This formula is made with deboned salmon, chicken meal and tapioca starch as the top three ingredients. Cooked chicken and rice is safe for your dog to eat. However, chicken and rice alone is an entirely unbalanced diet lacking in so many things. Your pet is prone to an increased number of medical problems.
It is not a good idea to keep your dog on a daily diet of chicken and rice for long. While this dish is extremely healthy for dogs, it does not contain all of the nutrients they need, which they get from other sources such as red meats and vegetables. They can eat grains such as pearled barley, oatmeal, and brown rice.
Good foods for the Akita should also have omega fatty acids 3 and 6 , glucosamine and chondroitin, prebiotics, probiotics, antioxidants, along with vitamins and minerals. Common vegetables such as carrots and sweet potatoes and others ; and fruits and berries such as apples, cranberries, and blueberries round out healthy ingredients for their nutrition.
This kind of diet, fed in several small meals during the day, is believed to help avoid problems. We suggest that you measure the amount of food you feed and only leave the food sitting out for about half an hour for adult dogs. Then put it away. This should give your dog time to eat. We recommend feeding adult Akitas two meals per day throughout their lives. You can feed Akita puppies small meals per day while they are growing. According to virtually all sources, including breeders, Akitas are notoriously food aggressive.
You should be aware of this issue from the time your Akita is a young puppy and work to prevent it. It may not seem to be a big problem when your Akita puppy is three months old but it most definitely will be a problem when your dog is an adult and weighs pounds.
Large breeds like the Akita are often at special risk for bloating. You can view a video of a dog with bloat here. This video may be upsetting for some people to watch but the dog is fine now. We do suggest you watch the video if you would like to see what some of the signs of bloat look like. You can read the symptoms of bloat here. Feeding one large meal per day can encourage dogs to eat fast, gulping in air which can be a trigger for bloat.
Many other ideas about what does and does not contribute to bloat are still in dispute, but everyone seems to agree that multiple small meals spread throughout the day are beneficial. Fat puppies often end up with bone and joint problems later in life. Keeping your Akita lean throughout his life is much better for his overall health.
The Japanese Akita or Akita Inu has slightly smaller bones and a face that is a little foxy. According to the Akita Club of America, hypothyroidism is common in the breed. Symptoms can include skin and coat problems, itching, lethargy, a musky odor, or a sudden onset of aggression. Hypothyroidism can be diagnosed with a blood test so make your veterinarian aware if you suspect this issue.
Progressive retinal atrophy, an eye disease, can also occur in the breed. It can result in impaired night vision and eventually lead to blindness. Hip and elbow dysplasia can also occur in Akitas, as they do with many giant breeds. Keeping your Akita lean, especially as a growing puppy, can help reduce the chances that he will develop hip and joint problems later in life. Akitas are also prone to a number of autoimmune diseases and other conditions which affect the immune system.
Note that many of these diseases are relatively rare in the breed but they are possible. If a condition is mentioned once for a breed in a veterinary publication it is usually associated forever with the breed, even if no dog ever has it again.
Be cautious about believing everything you read online about diseases and health problems connected to breeds. Focus on the main health problems that occur in a breed.
As a breed, Akitas have a particular sensitivity to certain vaccinations, drugs, anesthetics, insecticides, and other medications.
This is documented in veterinary literature but you should remind your veterinarian when he sees your dog. Akitas may also have pseudohyperkalemia, which is a rise in the amount of potassium that occurs when blood is drawn. This can result in a false reading for hyperkalemia in laboratory tests. This condition occurs in many east Asian dog breeds.
The Akita Club of America recommends the following health tests for Akitas, especially if a dog is being considered for breeding:. Hip Dysplasia. Autoimmune thyroiditis. Elbow Dysplasia Optional. Patellar Luxation Optional. Evaluations through December Percent Abnormal. Percent Normal. Percent Carrier. Percent Equivocal. Statistics from the OFA database. The percentage of Akitas with abnormal elbows a sign of elbow dysplasia has likewise been sharply trending downward. These reports show that breeder selection for better hips and elbows have been improving the breed.
If you are thinking of getting an Akita you should talk to the breeder about the health issues described here. The Akita Club of America supports research into many of these conditions and progress is being made. For more health information about the Akita, please visit the breed club web site and read their health section. The Akita is a long-lived breed, living years. Many dogs live into their teen years. This is old for any dog and especially so for a giant breed.
The Akita Club of America also supports genetic diversity research and their web site includes a good section on Geriatrics. Many dog lovers try to protect their dogs and keep them healthy by feeding a dog food with more natural ingredients so their immune system will stay as strong as possible. Many people recommend feeding a food that is free of some of the most common food irritants such as corn, soy, and wheat. These are not the most common dog food allergens — beef, dairy products, and chicken, for example, lead to more food allergies for dogs than corn, soy, and wheat.
But many people like to avoid soy and grains in dog foods. There are many good grain free dog foods today if you want to feed one to your dog. Avoiding artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and preservatives is also suggested as a way to help keep the immune system stronger. In other cases, natural flavor may be perfectly harmless. Natural preservatives such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and certain plant extracts are preferred. As with most dogs, when choosing a food for your Akita you should look for a food that has good sources of protein and fat.
Ideally you will select a dog food that features two or three meat proteins in the first several ingredients listed. Both whole meats and meat meals are good sources of protein. Whole meats refer to foods such as whole chicken, beef, fish, and lamb.
They contain several times as much protein as a whole meat. Meat meals are usually quite acceptable as one of the first ingredients in a good quality dog food.
They are used by many good dog food brands. Some companies will go a step further and also add a related organ meat. For example, if the first two ingredients are whole chicken and chicken meal, they may also add chicken liver. This is one way of adding more protein to the food.
Most dogs will enjoy foods that have liver added. It is best if the liver is named. Many dog foods today, even some of the most expensive and highly touted, use lots of plant proteins such as lentils and peas. These foods often have high protein percentages on the label. Your dog is able to digest meat protein more easily than plant protein. Meat protein is a much more natural source of protein for your dog than plant protein.
Dogs also need good sources of fat. You should look for named fat sources such as chicken fat. Other named fats also provide needed nutrients such as fish oil which can provide omega-3 fatty acid to help keep the skin and coat healthy.
Puppies can benefit from DHA which is Docosahexaenoic acid. This is a specific form of omega-3 fatty acid that helps with brain and eye development. Older dogs seem to benefit from medium chain triglycerides which feature medium chain fatty acids MCFAs. These have been found to help older dogs feel and act younger. They are often made from a combination of coconut oil and other oils.
If you want to avoid corn, soy, and wheat in your dog food , your Akita may still be able to eat an alternative grain such as barley or oats. Keep in mind that most sources recommend that Akitas should avoid soy-based diets, so we would suggest trying to keep soy out of their diets.
Or you can feed a grain free dog food that uses an alternate source of carbs that is low glycemic. If your Akita has a food allergy or food sensitivity , you may need to work with your veterinarian to identify the food triggers unless they are very obvious.
There are lots of good foods with novel meat proteins today as well as limited ingredient diets which we will discuss below.
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