If you’ve been to my clinic for an appointment or we’ve shared a virtual phone consult, you’ve most likely heard my “food talk.” In fact, for a while, new clients would come in expecting to receive the “food talk;” that’s why they were here. Maybe it’s been a while since we’ve talked about food together, let’s review some of the highlights and why it’s so important to your dog or cat’s health.
The one thing we do for our pets day after day is feed them. We do that more than walks, baths, play time, anything really – treats, prewashing the dishes, and meal times – somehow, we spend a lot of time giving food to our pets. And we know from our own nutrition that the better we eat the better we feel. Same thing for our pets.
At mealtime, my dogs wouldn’t care what’s in their dish, as long as they finish theirs first and have a chance to clean one of the others’ bowl. But WE can see what food does to our pets so WE know what’s in there IS important. Lower quality food is linked to bladder infections, diabetes, shedding, seizures, hot spots, ear infections, stomach ulcers and so on. As a result, each one of us feeds the best food we can.
To drive home the importance of high quality food, not well-advertised food, we’ve all seen the lawsuit against, then recall of, a nationally sold dry dog food. The lawsuit alleged dogs were bleeding internally from the food. We’ve seen that here at Healthy PAWsibilities® – about 2 years ago we had several dogs who had blood coming out every end of their body. I could find no cause on bloodwork or x-rays but the dogs got better when placed on a higher quality food. One dog went back to her national brand, bleeding came back, owners vowed to never buy that food again, and she has been great since.
How to identify great quality food is a challenge too – the labels all say the same thing! And there are great debates about what food is best – in my world, the food should look real. The more the food in our dogs and cats’ dishes look like meat and veggies, the better it is. Raw is great, cooked is fabulous, but what about convenience and time involved in making the food? Some pet families need to convenience of dry – there are some great dry foods that are better than grocery store and nationally advertised food that will still do great things for your four-legged family. If you top dress with real food or feed one real meal on the weekend, then you are doing great things to help your dogs and cats live healthier lives.
Need specifics? We can custom tailor a meal plan suitable to your new situation.
Looking to make your own? The updated edition of Dinner PAWsible is due out May 5, 2015 and available here – there are more recipes, more instructions and a section listing specific health concerns and how to modify the recipes for your pets’ special needs.
Dr. Cathy Alinovi DVM
As a practicing veterinarian, Dr. Cathy treated 80% of what walked in the door — not with expensive prescriptions — but with adequate nutrition. Now retired from private practice, her commitment to pets hasn’t waned and she looks forward to impacting many more pet parents through her books, research, speaking and consulting work. Learn more at drcathyvet.com
jb
March 28, 2015 at 11:03 pm
Most people should not have the responsibility of a pet or children. They just do not understand or care to research what it takes to rear & care for another being, let alone themselves.
It is really sad. Most rely on erroneous information for Vets, Doctors, Nutritionists, all of which have been indoctrinated by Pharmaceutical Companies, Pet Food Industry, Large Unconscionable Conglomerate Food Companies. All of which are primarily concerned about PROFITS! Not your well-being.
If it advertised or endorsed by these sources named above . . . . . RUN AWAY! It is most likely CRAP!
Ellie
March 30, 2015 at 7:38 am
Great article. You can read ingredient lists all day but the fact is that when those ingredients go through the extensive high heat processing that is used in the making of pet food those ingredients are no longer what they were when they started the process. The nutrition (if there was any) is gone and that is why you see a long list of synthetic vitamins tacked on the end of your ingredient lists. Usually the list of vitamins is much longer than the food ingredients and those synthetic vitamins are actually what makes the “feed” meet industry standards.
Our pet’s bodies are designed to assimilate real fresh prey. They do not brush their teeth in nature and have no need to because the food they eat keeps a natural balance of enzymes in their mouths that naturally keep their teeth clean. The processed foods that pet food companies make cause tarter and gum disease. You can try to brush their teeth everyday but few pet owners do. We now see pets with serious tooth and gum disease at age 5! The cat food industry is actually making canned cat food that can be easily lapped up by cats that have had their teeth removed. Totally unnecessary and criminal in my opinion.
There are many easy and inexpensive ways to make your pet’s food at home. You can invest in a good book or search the internet for recipes that suit your needs. Feeding a pet is no more complicated than feeding a human. You don’t need a degree to feed yourself and you don’t need one to feed your pet a good nutritious meal of fresh food. If you don’t want to feed raw then you can cook your pet’s food at home. That kind of cooking is not nearly as bad as the processing that pet foods go through. At least it still resembles real food as the doctor said.
EAshton
November 19, 2015 at 8:29 pm
Is there ANY type of canned catfood that’s recommended? or dry?
Dr Cathy
November 19, 2015 at 9:57 pm
Recommended foods depend on what is going on with your cat. A great source for more information is https://truthaboutpetfood.com/the-2015-list/
Joy
April 7, 2022 at 2:22 am
We get this question pretty frequently – why do we feed Duke and Navy differently? In short, every dog is different. With that, dogs have unique needs based on their stage in life, activity level, food tolerances, gender, and so much more.
Lana Smiley
September 30, 2022 at 10:45 am
Assuming your article was correct – and there are some foods out there that are horrible – I’d have to ask why most dogs fed a commercial dry dog food are healthy, have shiny coats, and have high energy levels??