Pet Food Choices

"Let food be thy medicine." - Hippocrates


"Feed the dog, Not the bag." - I can't remember who, but they were smart




There are lots and lots of foods on the market now. Most are good. Some are very good. Some are absolute crap. I'm going to mention a few by name. I guess that's an endorsement, but just because I don't mention it doesn't mean it's not good.


There is no food that is properly designed to be "good for all life stages."
Puppy food is designed for puppies. Senior food is designed for seniors. I encourage owners to feed an age appropriate food.


Here are a few general statements: Puppy foods are higher in fat and calcium. Adult foods are lower and fat, moderate in carbohydrates, and higher in protein. Senior foods are higher in fiber and carbohydrates, lower in fat, and moderate in protein.


Most puppies only need puppy food up until 6 or 9 months of age. Spaying and neutering doesn't make a pet fat. But their metabolism doesn't ramp up and so they just don't need the same calories as an intact dog or cat would. So from the time of their surgery, it's usually OK to go ahead and switch to an adult food.



Many adult foods are simply too many calories for the pet they are feeding. This is ESPECIALLY true in cats. Don't hesitate to switch to a lite or less active food. They don't have to be "fat" to switch. It's a preventative thing.


Senior pets must be careful what kind of proteins they eat. It's not that they need to be on a low protein diet. They need to be on a moderate protein diet. Older pet colons also benefit from a little extra fiber - just like you and I. Fiber is your friend!


Let's talk grain free.
This is a hot button issue. Many folks are ABSOLUTELY convinced that corn is the devil's fruit. Others see corn as an excellent carbohydrate source. I'm in-between those two extremes.


I disagree with the assertion that dogs and cats don't eat grains in the wild, therefore grains are bad. Dogs and cat's rarely eat a bowl of rice or some corn on the cob in the wild. What they do eat are the things that eat the rice and corn and have the corn in their bellies when they are killed and eaten. Therefore, the dog or cat do get the grains in an unprocessed/partially digested manner.


It's an effective argument to say that wild canids or felids don't eat processed grains and that processed grains are different from raw. Ok - I'll give you that one. But I have a hard time believing that grains are absolutely bad.


Rice and corn, for instance, can be outstandingly well digested by the body and are an excellent source of energy. Critics of grains in our pet foods argue that the processed grains used in pet foods are not an intended food for dogs and cats. Because of that, they are not appropriate for the overall health, energy, and immune state of the host system. Although these components don't cause direct damage, they still cause subtle disruptions in the body's energy and/or homeostasis. Therefore, your pets are "healthier" if you don't eat them.


There is big business in the specialty pet food market now. I find it immensely interesting that one company who markets a grain free diet uses potatoes as the carbohydrate source. Anybody ever seen a dingo eat a potato?

"We only use the part of the chicken you would eat." or "100% muscle."

Have you ever seen a wild dog or cat eat their kill? They leave tasty parts we would eat behind. Instead, a dog or cat eats from the butt hole forward. They need the guts, the liver, the heart, the lung, the kidneys, the blood. Sure, meat is tasty. But the good, balanced nutrition is in all the bits and pieces we won't touch with a 10 foot pole. Don't let this marketing trick fool you. "Animal digest" and "offal" are pretty disgusting to think about but they are really good for your pet.


Raw Diets:

I've seen some pretty amazing things happen when a pet with a poorly controlled, hopeless, chronic condition suddenly transforms when they are fed a raw diet. I've also seen some trainwrecks and death from people who don't know what they are doing. A proper raw diet is NOT JUST MEAT! It irks me when people think that some chicken meat constitutes a raw diet. If you feed your pet meat only, you will kill them. Just because it's not cooked, doesn't mean it's not balanced. If you are considering feeding raw - DO YOUR HOMEWORK! There's a right way and a wrong way. Some pets do fantastically on raw and it can be an excellent choice for someone dedicated enough to do it right.

Food safety is critical when feeding raw. Be aware of your source. Salmonella and E. coli can be just as lethal to your pets. Campylobacter and listeria as well. Quality sourcing of a quality product that is handled in a safe way is not easy to do. Nor is it cheap. If you aren't careful, you WILL make your pet sick. It is quite possible to kill your pet with raw food.

Therapeutic veterinary diets:
Each of the major food manufacturers has a line of therapeutic diets. Royal Canin, Purina, Iams Company, and Hills are the major players. Discussing therapeutic diets with veterinarians is sometimes like discussing politics or religion. People tend to have pretty strong feelings about it.

My opinion is that Royal Canin has far and away the best product line. I like them and encourage them to be fed. Your veterinary hospital may have two or three product lines that they carry. Some hospitals are exclusive to one company. I'm not a fan of Hills foods. Not at all, and that's all I'll say. They have one or two good diets, but they are the one that most folks recognize by name.

There is no such thing as a "prescription diet." Meaning no foods are considered legend drugs by the FDA and require a prescription. Prescription Diet is a trademarked marketing term used by Hills. If your veterinarian says they require a prescription to sell you a food - that's not technically correct.

Therapeutic diets are sold only through veterinarians because they are considered to be so specialized or restricted that they are not appropriate to sell over-the-counter to the public. Feeding a kitten or puppy a diet intended for a kidney failure patient could severely hurt the kitten's ability to develop and grow normally. Feeding a diet intended to prevent urinary crystals could be disastrous in certain dogs and cause them to become severely ill from pancreatitis. Although these foods are not technically a prescription product, your veterinarian may restrict to who and for what reasons they sell these foods in the interest of safety.

Specific foods:

When people ask me what foods I recommend I list the following:

Royal Canin
Wellness
Innova
Eukanuba
Iams
Purina Pro Plan


I have inconsistent results with Nutro. I have a strong dislike of Hills. Very strong dislike.

I'll add more to this later.

AMH