Small Animal Nutrition
Promoting Your Pet's Excellent Health Starts with Feeding Your Pet Excellent Food!
Proper nutrition is an essential part of a healthy pet's wellcare plan. The food your pet eats becomes the building blocks of all biological processes that occur within its body. The immune system and the hematopoetic system (especially the portal system feeding into the liver) interact with all components of food that travel down the GI tract. Good food sustains wellness in numerous ways by promoting healthy skin, a properly functioning digestive tract, a balanced immune system, strong bones, and healthy organ systems. It is my personal opinion that diets rich in simple (i.e. high glycemic) carbohydrates, denatured proteins, oxidized fats, as well as diets that come from undesirable food sources, promote inflammation. The consequences of ongoing inflammation from these food triggers can be seen in our pets in a variety of different ways. Some pets experience local inflammation in their digestive tracts. Many experience inflammatory skin conditions or chronic ear infections. Some experience arthritis at an early age. Chronic inflammation also increases the odds that your pet will develop cancer. Each pet expresses its unique sensitivity when subjected to chronic inflammation. I am a firm believer that choosing to feed our pets an anti-inflammatory diet (ideally) based on minimally processed foods does more to promote lasting health in our companion animals than any other well care strategy available.
While whole food diets are ideal for most companion animals, there is a wide variety of quality, commercially available pet foods in today's market. I prefer to feed a minimally cooked diet, though I believe many healthy pets can thrive on a superior commercial diet. Look for foods that have an identified meat protein in at least three of the first ingredients. It is best to know that the food was not made in China as some pet food ingredients coming out of China have been contaminated (wheat gluten is one example). Look for whole grains when grains are listed. Try to find foods that contain no genetically modified ingredients. What about the AAFCO label that states the food passed a feeding trial? Realistically, the feeding trial only lasts 6 months so in my opinion the AAFCO approval is not terribly valuable- it simply means that the animals stayed alive during the 6 month feeding trial. Better than nothing? Perhaps.
I feed my own dogs and cats raw food from a commercially available product (for convenience) such as Nature's Variety, Northwest Naturals, or Aunt Jeni's Homemade. There are so many good raw foods on the market these days, check out what is available in your area. The raw preparations I feed are complete and balanced, and I rotate among brands (and protein sources) to cover an array of macro and micro nutrients. The proteins and fats are not denatured by heat processing. My pets also get table scraps and consume a fair amount of farm animal manure. Extra fiber and microbes. Yum!
I would recommend to anyone wanting to make their own dog food that you do extensive research beforehand. Making nutritious dog/cat food is not rocket science but you do want to follow general guidelines so as to avoid common mistakes. Make sure you will be providing an array nutrients (including minerals) and pay attention to their balance over time. Know what foods to avoid that could be toxic to your pet. Refer to the favorite links page to visit some of the reputable resources available to those of you choosing to prepare your own pet foods at home.
Are there risks involved with your pet eating raw foods? Yes, raw foods can carry pathogenic forms of bacteria such as E. Coli and Salmonella that originate from the animal tissues making up the food. Try to get your raw foods from quality animal sources that are less likely to carry contaminates (animals that are pasture raised and finished vs. feedlot finished). Remember, however, that a variety of kibble based pet foods have been recalled and/or linked to bacterial pathogens. Feeding processed pet foods arguably carries as much risk as or more risk of pathogenic contaminates than quality controlled commercially available raw formulations carry.
One extra comment regarding cat food- I strongly discourage feeding dry kibble to cats. I don't care how high quality the food is! Cats are animals that need moisture in their food and I do not believe drinking water in between makes up for lack of water in the food itself. Check out this link to the carnivore connection in cats. There are so many quality diets in canned form- at least consider getting your cat off of kibble and onto canned food if raw or home made is not an option. Exceptions? The barn cats out there on kibble get to supplement their diet with birds, mice, and whatever other prey they are able to catch. But please do your house cat a favor by switching it to a high quality food that contains adequate moisture!
While whole food diets are ideal for most companion animals, there is a wide variety of quality, commercially available pet foods in today's market. I prefer to feed a minimally cooked diet, though I believe many healthy pets can thrive on a superior commercial diet. Look for foods that have an identified meat protein in at least three of the first ingredients. It is best to know that the food was not made in China as some pet food ingredients coming out of China have been contaminated (wheat gluten is one example). Look for whole grains when grains are listed. Try to find foods that contain no genetically modified ingredients. What about the AAFCO label that states the food passed a feeding trial? Realistically, the feeding trial only lasts 6 months so in my opinion the AAFCO approval is not terribly valuable- it simply means that the animals stayed alive during the 6 month feeding trial. Better than nothing? Perhaps.
I feed my own dogs and cats raw food from a commercially available product (for convenience) such as Nature's Variety, Northwest Naturals, or Aunt Jeni's Homemade. There are so many good raw foods on the market these days, check out what is available in your area. The raw preparations I feed are complete and balanced, and I rotate among brands (and protein sources) to cover an array of macro and micro nutrients. The proteins and fats are not denatured by heat processing. My pets also get table scraps and consume a fair amount of farm animal manure. Extra fiber and microbes. Yum!
I would recommend to anyone wanting to make their own dog food that you do extensive research beforehand. Making nutritious dog/cat food is not rocket science but you do want to follow general guidelines so as to avoid common mistakes. Make sure you will be providing an array nutrients (including minerals) and pay attention to their balance over time. Know what foods to avoid that could be toxic to your pet. Refer to the favorite links page to visit some of the reputable resources available to those of you choosing to prepare your own pet foods at home.
Are there risks involved with your pet eating raw foods? Yes, raw foods can carry pathogenic forms of bacteria such as E. Coli and Salmonella that originate from the animal tissues making up the food. Try to get your raw foods from quality animal sources that are less likely to carry contaminates (animals that are pasture raised and finished vs. feedlot finished). Remember, however, that a variety of kibble based pet foods have been recalled and/or linked to bacterial pathogens. Feeding processed pet foods arguably carries as much risk as or more risk of pathogenic contaminates than quality controlled commercially available raw formulations carry.
One extra comment regarding cat food- I strongly discourage feeding dry kibble to cats. I don't care how high quality the food is! Cats are animals that need moisture in their food and I do not believe drinking water in between makes up for lack of water in the food itself. Check out this link to the carnivore connection in cats. There are so many quality diets in canned form- at least consider getting your cat off of kibble and onto canned food if raw or home made is not an option. Exceptions? The barn cats out there on kibble get to supplement their diet with birds, mice, and whatever other prey they are able to catch. But please do your house cat a favor by switching it to a high quality food that contains adequate moisture!
**Note that my thoughts on small animal wellcare, including nutritional needs and vaccination strategies, are not intended to be general medical advice. Please discuss any of the above topics with your own veterinary medical provider!