How much food should I feed my dog or cat?

This is a question I answer nearly every day. The answer is: It depends.

Start with what the bag says. If you're feeding an appropriate food for your pet (puppy for puppies, senior for senior, etc) then look at what the bag suggests. The bag assumes normal patient with average metabolism. The number listed on the bag is in 8oz measuring cups.

Look at the cup you are using to measure. When in doubt - check how much the cup you are using holds. Typically, you can feed 25% above or below what the bag suggests. Anything outside of that, and the pet needs to be on a different formula food. For instance, if the bag suggests 1 cup of food per day, you could feed anything between 3/4 and 1 1/4 cups and be within an acceptable range.

Puppies - don't worry too much until they are around 4-5 months. If a puppy seems hungry and wants a little more - that's OK. Just keep it reasonable.

Remember, feed the pet, not the bag. If your pet needs more or needs less, feed more or less (within that 25% window). If you're having trouble getting your pet to loose weight and you're already feeding the smaller amount, you really need to have a talk with your veterinarian so you can discuss a veterinary diet that is designed for weight loss. Weight loss is a great topic for another post.


AMH

Pop-top cans and hyperthyroidism in cats

This is interesting. I have to thank my Mother for bringing this to my attention. I thought it was total bunk, but there might be a little something to it.

There have been no studies that demonstrate that canned foods or pop-top cans cause hyperthyroidism. However, there have been two retrospective studies that looked at many, many different things in the life of a hyperthyroid cat to try and see if there were any statistically significant findings. There were. More hyperthyroid cats ate canned food compared to dry. (But there were several other statistics about lifestyle, sex, age at onset - that's all for another blog post). One study suggested that cats eating fish, giblet, and liver flavors were over represented.

These studies looked back as far as 1974. Canned foods at that time were not prepared using the same chemicals used now, but the link was still there.

So - is it the can, the lining, or something else? Iodine may be the culprit. It may be the plastic, it might be the teflon, it might be preservatives, it might be aluminum, it might be just plain bad nutrition.

The moral of the story is - we don't know. But it's awfully darned suspicious. Feline nutrition needs to be improved upon. We've let our cats down in this respect. Canned food is recommended for many cats, some experts suggest cats should ONLY eat canned food. (increased water intake is a good thing in cats - again, something for another post).

AMH