Pet Food - Think about what you are feeding...
Posted on Sunday, November 07 @ 15:00:19 GMT by jenvetadmin
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jenvetnurse writes "Commercial Foods:
The majority of people feed a commercially pre-pared diet to their dogs because it’s convenient and we assume our dog is getting the correct balance of nutrients.
Many people are considering changing to a fresh home-made diet – they worry about the chemicals, salt levels etc which are added to these processed foods.
The bulk of some pet food is actually offal from slaughterhouses, meat and grains which are unfit for human consumption. Meat used can be udders, lungs, ligaments, intestines and diseased animal parts. Not a pleasant thought. Click read more ...
There are so many different brands of pet food available – not all of these use poor ingredients – but how do you know which diet to choose? Price is a good indicator – hence the expression ‘buy cheap – get cheap.’ When you look at the label on pet food – ‘other parts’ or ‘meat and bone meal’ means odd parts of the animal as above. Each batch of pet food manufactured is slightly different as the ingredients vary each time.
The nutritional quality of some pet food is questionable – more worryingly though could these foods be harmful? Some vets say that feeding slaughterhouse scraps can increase the chances of cancer.
As we know chemicals added to the food are designed to improve palatability, preserve the food and generally make the food more appealing. Emulsifiers prevent fat turning rancid. Some of the preservatives used commonly are Butylated Hydroxytolunene, Propylene Glycol, Ethoxyquin and Butylated Hydroxyanisole. There has been little research into what harm these chemicals do to our pets.
Some pet food companies have begun to use vitamins and natural preservatives as an alternative to dangerous chemicals.
We are what we eat:
A good quality diet can promote good health – a poor quality diet can promote a range of illnesses. Disease of the urinary tract can be caused or worsened by some pet foods as it alters the pH of their urine. Crystals/stones are produced which can block the bladder and be potentially life threatening. This affects dogs and cats and is commonly seen in practice.
With all of these health problems a poor diet could be a large contributing factor:
Allergic skin, food intolerance, obesity, poor coat, general malaise, pancreatitis, heart disease, feline hyperthyroidism, gastric torsions and diabetes.
So how do we choose a safe, healthy commercial diet?
1. Veterinary recommended diets are advisable – Hills Science Diet and Pro-Purina being the main two. Feed a diet appropriate to your animal. Diets are tailor made for growing puppies and senior cats etc.
2. Never buy foods containing ‘by-product meal’ or similar description. Look for definite meat ingredients i.e. chicken or lamb and don’t buy really cheap foods. Own shop brands fall into the cheap category and are of dubious quality.
3. Aim to buy food which states ‘natural’ ingredients – as these contain vitamins as preservatives and tend to use natural alternatives to dangerous chemicals.
Home Made Diets:
We are all advised to eat a healthy diet with at least five portions of fruit or veg each day. We do not have scientifically prepared food each meal time so you could say that dogs – provided they have enough meat and vegetables can only benefit from freshly prepared food.
There are some strange diets out there – one example being The BARF diet http://www.willowglen.com/barf.htm I personally think this is a bit extreme.
Raw food can be arguably healthier in that the vitamins are not lost through the cooking process – however I personally would be afraid that I was risking giving my dog salmonella or E.coli both which can cause serious gastro-enteritis.
Some people do say they have fed raw bones/carcases for years without a problem but I am sceptical on that point. There are many books and web sites on feeding home-made diets – it seems to be very commonplace nowadays.
Here is a site which recommends the Atkins Diet for dogs: http://www.pamperedpuppy.com/features/200410_feedingpt3.html
I would not recommend it though.
This site is quite sensible and has some good information http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/people/TabathaHoltz/cats/food1.html
Which foods can be fed safely in a home-made diet for dogs?
Meat:
At least 25% - 50% of each meal should be meat such as lamb, beef, chicken, turkey or fish. A good quality meat is essential – not offal or animal parts.
Vegetables:
When feeding dogs vegetables they should be mashed first as the cellulose skin coating all vegetables is not easily digested by dogs. Vegetables provide fibre and lots of vitamins. Carrots, broccoli, leafy greens and peas are first choice.
Fruit:
Fruit contains simple sugars which is a good way of providing energy, also of course vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants
Grains:
Rice is often fed to dogs – it’s cheap and highly digestible form of carbohydrate.
Oats are also fed to dogs – they must be soaked first in water or stock – oats are a good source of iron.
You can also add eggs – cooked or raw and yoghurt in small amounts.
It is essential to get the Calcium to Phosphorus ratio correct -with an imbalance serious health problems will arise. The above is not a recipe for a home-made diet - just a guideline as to what ingrediants - with modification are used.
Cats:
Cats are obligatory carnivores – they need meat to survive – changing your dog’s diet is one thing but a craze for meat-free living has given rise to some owners wishing their cats to be vegetarian. There was a post recently on Vetpro regarding vegetarian cats – well if you have a vegetarian cat the chances are it will be blind or have heart disease due to Taurine deficiency and/or kidney failure due to low potassium apart from being generally mal-nourished that is. Dogs can safely be fed vegetarian diets but you must look out for any signs of lack of nutrients such as coat changes.
Ask your vet to recommend the best diet which is appropriate for your dog or cat. If your pet is doing well on it’s current diet and you are happy that it is of good quality why change? This article is just to get people to think about what they feed their pets. Please feed-back with your views in the forums.
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