Rottweiler Diet

Recommendations

• A healthy diet for a Rottweiler must include a proper balance of ingredients such as minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates and proteins. According to officialrottweilerguide.com, if Rottweilers do not ingest a diet with this balance of ingredients, they can become ill at some point in their life.

Healthy Diet

• Dr. Richard Pitcairn, D.V.M. states: "All of us--humans and animals--should have fresh, wholesome, unprocessed food in our daily diet." According to Dr. Martin Goldstein D.V.M., you can boost your pet's health by feeding him homemade food. You should give your dog the same food that you would give to yourself. A Rottweiler's diet should include foods such as chicken, beef, bison, turkey, fish, raw vegetables, yogurt, brown rice, the occasional fruits, oatmeal and cottage cheese.

  Their diet should include raw, high-quality meats; however, they can thrive on a strictly vegetarian diet. Include an equal amount of cereals, meat, bread, salt, animal oil and a lesser amount of vegetables. Signs that your Rottweiler is receiving a healthy diet include maintaining a proper weight, being active and having good coat luster.

Second Best Diet

• If you cannot feed your dog a homemade diet, yourpurebredpuppy.com states that you should read the ingredients on commercial dog foods and make sure that all of them have passed USDA inspection. Choose a dog food that lists meat as the first two ingredients. Do not give your dog any food that contains soybeans or corn, which may be difficult for your animal to digest. Anything that says "animal byproducts" or "animal digest" should be scrutinized as well.

Frequency

• The standard care of Rottweilers is to feed them four or five times a day until they are 10 to 12 months of age. Once the puppy has reached adult age, which is 90 percent of its total weight, its food should be gradually changed to adult food being fed once or twice a day. Make this change gradually, over a period of 5 to 7 days, giving the dog's digestive system time to adjust. Keep your dog on a routine feeding schedule, typically in the morning, or at a typical dinner time.

Commerical Dog Foods

• Commercial dog foods are typically filled with products that humans would not eat. The meat in dog foods often comes from diseased or disabled animals, or from animals that were already dead. When a dog food lists ingredients such as animal byproducts, be aware that these are parts of the animals that are not safe for human consumption, such as the head, lungs, beak and feet.

  Extra chemicals are added to dog food to keep it from spoiling, such as BHA and BHT, which can cause liver or kidney failure. Another common preservative used in pet foods is ethoxyquin, which is labeled a poison and listed as a pesticide.

  Commercial dog foods may cause health problems that include dandruff, loose stools, excessive shedding, flatulence and itching, according to yourpurebredpuppy.com