"If you give your dog salt, do you have such heavy tears, do you have to eat? "
"If you give your dog salt, its fur color will not be bright."
"Yes, yes, yes, you must not have salt in the food you eat."
I don't know when the dog breeders started, and these words were filled with the crowd of dogs. They attributed the dog's tears, the dry and dull color, and even the length of their lifespan, all due to the salt.
Is this really the case? Can dogs eat salt?
The author will endorse salt today and treat salt as a poison, and this is not a matter of salt. In dogs' daily diet, salt is not only not a terrible "toxic substance", but also a necessity in dog food.
Nutritional ingredients list of a certain brand of dog food
The author would like to ask everyone to look at the picture above first. The nutritional ingredients list of a certain brand of dog food is captured. We can clearly see that one of them is called "water-soluble chloride". What is this ingredient? You guessed it, it's salt. Because in the analysis of the composition of dog food, it is difficult to determine the sodium content and the chlorine content is relatively easy, the salt content in dog food is determined by testing this type of "water-soluble chloride".
This is a first-tier brand of dog food nutritional ingredients list, and this is not an isolated case. If it is really as some people say that dogs cannot eat salt, and there are so many dangers, then why are all dog foods containing salt?
Let me take you to understand the whole story step by step:
Dog salt is harmful and there is no real data support
Nowadays, pet institutions and pet hospitals in various countries, so far, we seem to have not heard of any bad situations due to excessive salt consumption. Moreover, according to experiments by a certain institution, as long as pets are provided with sufficient clean water, the adaptability of pets and dogs to salt is relatively large, and there is almost no safety limit.
Of course, you can't grab a handful of salt and mix it into pet food. Even if you do this, your pets will refuse to eat it. It’s like our daily dish, if we have too much salt, we can’t even put it.
Salt explanation and efficacy
Salt, the chemical name sodium chloride (NaCl), is a mineral crystal. Among them, chloride ions and sodium ions are two indispensable minerals in animal bodies, and dogs are naturally no exception.
1. Chloride ions are one of the components of hydrochloric acid in dog gastric juice. It can not only stimulate the activity of pepsin in gastric juice, but also enhance digestive function and bactericidal effects.
2. The content of sodium ions in the mammals is second only to calcium ions and potassium ions, accounting for 0.13% of the body weight of mammals. They are mainly found in bones, tissue fluids and plasma, and play a very important role in nerve conduction, regulating the safe level of body fluids, regulating acid-base balance and stabilizing osmotic pressure.
3. In addition to the effects of its own minerals, salt can also improve the palatability of daily dog food and promote dog's appetite.
What are the harms of eating too much salt for dogs?
Salt is important to dogs, but we all understand one truth that "everything will turn back". Even if we consume too much salt on weekdays, it will definitely affect our health. So, what are the dangers if a dog consumes excessive salt?
1. The lacrimal gland is too developed, which stimulates the lacrimal glands. Intake of too much salt will make the dog's tear glands too developed, thereby increasing the secretion of tears. Leaving deep tears in the corners of the dog's eyes, not only damages the dog's appearance, but may also induce eye diseases if the situation is serious. Therefore, when the dog has tears, the owner should take the dog to the pet hospital for eye cleaning and care in time, and adjust the daily diet to be light.
2. Long-term consumption of foods with excessive salt content will also make the dog "heavy taste". Over time, the dog will feel that the taste of dog food becomes bland and tasteless, so he chooses to refuse to eat it.
3. Loss of calcium in the body
The dog's body only has sweat glands on the soles of the feet, so no matter how hot it is, we will never see dogs sweating. So what methods do dogs use to expel salt from their bodies in daily life? That's right, it's urine. When the dog consumes too much salt, the number of urination will increase, and calcium ions will also be excreted when the excess salt is excreted.
4. Foods with high salt content in dogs will cause the kidneys to be in a working state of "three highs" (high pressure, high perfusion and high filtration) for a long time, thereby increasing the burden on the kidneys and accelerating kidney failure. Once a dog's kidney failure occurs, it is irreversible.