Read time: 3 mins
19 Aug 2020
By Dr. Ciara Clarke
It’s appropriate that Valentine’s Day is soon approaching because we love love love puppies! Aside from toilet training, what’s not to love?! They’re soft, playful and think you’re the best thing in their world.
But there’s so much to think about with your new ball of fluff! Worry not, we’ve created a quick list of essentials so you can get back to planning that romantic meal together.
Human-grade ingredients
Real meat i.e. not rendered meat meal, bone or animal derivatives (yuck!)
High-quality protein and carbohydrates
Fresh vegetables, botanicals and omega oils
No grain fillers
No preservatives
No artificial colourings, sugars or sweeteners
All Butternut Box meals use human-grade ingredients and source our meat from trusted UK farms.
Processed dog food contains bulky grains like wheat, rice and corn. All Butternut Box meals are grain free, with our carbohydrates coming from nutritious lentils and sweet potatoes.
Using only human-grade fresh meat, never meat meal or animal derivatives, your puppy’s digestive system can process this protein with greater ease. All our meals use a single protein source, meaning if they have an upset or allergy to one meat, you can confidently offer another one.
Gently cooked vegetables, organic flax seed, turmeric, rosemary and thyme are all powerful antioxidants that promote development of a healthy immune system, brain, skin and coat.
Freshly prepared and delivered, all our food is preservative-, sweetener- and filler-free, so there are no strange chemicals going into your puppy’s young body. Butternut Box is specially formulated by our nutritionists for all dog ages and breeds, so your dog can eat this food straight away as a puppy through to adulthood.
Though it may sound a bit flowery, socialisation is so important! Every puppy has a learning window where they absorb the key life skills needed to become a happy and confident dog with other animals, people, places and noises. This involves having positive social interactions with adults, children, adult dogs and other animals, as well as careful exposure to different situations in the environment like traffic, crowds, travelling in the car, hoovers and any sights and sounds it will have to cope with in life. It’s important that this is done correctly when your puppy is still young enough to happily accept new things. Your local puppy class is a great place to start!
All puppies, regardless of their background, should receive a minimum course of two puppy vaccinations. Diseases such as Parvovirus can spread through contact with an infected dog or their poop. For this reason, it is not advisable to introduce your puppy to unvaccinated dogs or where dogs of unknown vaccination history visit. However, your garden and fully vaccinated family or friends’ dogs are all safe places and ways to start social interactions.
All puppies over the age of 8 weeks must now be microchipped by law. This will see more dogs reunited with their owners after they go missing! A microchip can be placed by a trained breeder, vet or nurse; it is smaller than a grain of rice and remains for life. Don’t forget to change your contact details if you move house, though!
