Diet & Nutrition

Overview

Maintaining a healthy body weight is a very important aspect of a pet’s overall physical health. Good nutrition can help provide your pet with a happier, safer, and longer life. There are many nutritional supplements that can help fight against disease, maintain a proper weight, and promote the overall well-being of any animal.

Why is maintaining a healthy weight important?

Obesity is a common problem among pets, as it can be easy to overfeed a pet that knows how to beg. Being overweight is a serious problem for animals, and can cause health problems as they get older. With proper diet and exercise, all pets should be able to meet their dietary needs and be within a healthy weight range. The best way to make sure your pet’s needs are being met is to consult with us about a specific diet for your pet and their lifestyle. Our staff will help your pet battle unhealthy weight gain and counsel you on the best nutritional options available.

When is a diet change needed?

Pets should be fed a balanced wellness diet based on a number of factors, including their life stage, their breed or size, activity level, and any health issues they have. Diet changes are recommended when they enter a new life stage. For example, transitioning is recommended from puppy or kitten to adult, or from adult to senior, which is usually around age seven. Diet changes may also be recommended if your pet develops any issues that could be treated with a special diet, such as obesity or a food allergy.

How diet & nutrition can help your pet

We will help you make the right dietary changes for your pet so that they can stay on track living their happy and healthy lives. A healthy diet and good nutrition can reduce or even eliminate:

• pet allergies

• itching and scratching

• dull coat

• arthritis

• joint and hip problems

• intestinal disorders

Skin and coat supplements are a great way to keep your pet looking and feeling their best. Arthritis and joint supplements can be helpful for many pets as they age.

Easy Steps to Improve Your Pets Diet!

1. Use a ceramic or metal food and water dish. Plastic dishes degrade quickly and expose your pet to toxins. They also are harder to clean. Wash bowls with soap and water and rinse completely.

2. Only buy a small amount of food at a time and check the date on the bag. Fats are the major reason foods go bad. Fats oxidize quickly and reduce the amount of beneficial fats your pet is getting and will reduce the amount of protein and vitamins that is also available to your pet from its food. To help avoid this keep the food in the bag. Most bags are now made to slow down this process. Also keep bag closed and as air tight as possible. Freezing is also a good option.

3. Because fats oxidize quickly you can add extra fats like fish, krill, flax or coconut oil when giving your pet its food. Be careful though too much of any of these can cause diarrhea.

4. Add probiotics. Probiotics usually do not survive long in any food that is exposed to a heating process. So even if your food claims there is probiotics in it, there probably is not enough in it to be of any real benefit. Probiotics help with the immune system and also help with the production and absorption of some essential vitamins!

5. You can also add up to 15 to 20 % of healthy people food to your pet’s diet without worrying about causing the diet to be unbalanced. We never recommend pork products for our pets. It can be too rich. Veggies need to be cooked, pureed or frozen. This will break down the cell walls so the nutrients are available to your pet. When your pets get a hold of something they shouldn’t, it is less likely it will cause a problem if you mix things up.

6. The best website for information on your pet’s food and diet is dog/catfoodadvisor.com or the AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) talkspetfood.aaf.org.

7. We DO NOT recommend raw or homemade diets. These diets are usually unbalanced. Don’t just follow the internet! You could cause your pet more health issues if they are not getting a balanced diet.

8. Don’t be afraid of the words Meal or Byproducts. Meals have a higher percent of protein than plain meats. Plain meats are 70% water.

9. DO NOT feed your pet a grain free diet! Grain free diets are more harm than good and are a leading cause of DCM (Dilated Cardio Myopathy)

We do not recommend designer pet foods. Pet stores will tell you differently just to sell the foods they carry. Be sure to feed only foods that that have actual Veterinary Nutritionist’s research behind them and an AAFCO label on the bag. Otherwise, they have not been tested for nutrition value.

Cardiomyopathy and a Grain Free Diet in Dogs

In July 2018, the FDA announced that it had begun investigating reports of canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs eating certain pet foods, many labeled as "grain-free," which contained a high proportion of peas, lentils, other legume seeds (pulses), and/or potatoes in various forms (whole, flour, protein, etc.) as main ingredients (listed within the first 10 ingredients in the ingredient list, before vitamins and minerals). Many of these case reports included breeds of dogs not previously known to have a genetic predisposition to the disease. The FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine and the Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network, continue to investigate this potential association. Based on the data collected and analyzed thus far, the agency believes that the potential association between diet and DCM in dogs is a complex scientific issue that may involve multiple factors. We understand the concern that pet owners have about these reports: the illnesses can be severe, even fatal, and many cases report eating “grain-free” labeled pet food. The FDA is using a range of science-based investigative tools as it strives to learn more about this emergence of DCM and its potential link to certain diets or ingredients.

If you have further questions or concerns, please talk to us and Visit www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/news-events for the full article.