What should I be feeding Fido and Fluffy?
by Deborah L. Johnson, DVM, CVMRT, certified in Animal Chiropractics by the AVCA

When it comes to choosing the right food for their pet, pet owners often make their choices based on fancy packaging, slick advertising campaigns, and brand name foods they have known forever.

That's a mistake.

Skip the glitz and go straight to the ingredients label. That is where the choices you make can make the difference in your pet's health and quality of life.

There are several key things you need to know to decipher a food label. Firs, ingredients are listed by weight, from highest to lowest. Since dogs and cats are mainly carnivores, their diets should contain at least 25% (dogs) and 40% (cats) protein. Of the first three ingredients listed, at least two should be protein sources such as beef or lamb. They should be good quality proteins such as chicken or chicken meal, and not chicken "by-products" or chicken "digest" which can contain some pretty undesirable things. Avoid labels that do not specify the protein source, for example "poultry" or "meat" instead of "turkey" or "lamb".

Next, let's look at the carbohydrate sources. They should be wholesome, complex carbohydrates like potatoes and whole grains. It is a good idea to avoid corn or corn derivatives, since corn is one of the most common allergens for pets and is not an ideal protein source for a carnivore. Also avoid fillers such as beet pulp, peanut hulls, and wheat or rice flour, which are inexpensive ingredients added to make your pet feel full, but have little or no nutritional value.

Third, while fat is a necessary and important part of your pet's diet, the quality of the source should be considered. Avoid un-named animal fats, rather, look for diets containing chicken fat, sunflower oil, or flaxseed oil.

Finally, avoid several common preservatives that have been identified as potentially linked to cancer, such as BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin. Look for diets using natural preservatives like vitamin E (tocopherols), vitamin C (ascorbic acid) or Rosemary. Natural preservatives may not last as long as synthetic ones, so be sensible and don't buy that 40# bag of food for your Chihuahua.  As a general rule, I don't buy more than my pets can eat in two weeks.

Now that you know how to read a label, how do you choose between the different forms of food available? Of the three basic types of pet food... dry kibble, canned, and semi-moist... the only one to really avoid is semi-moist. These diets remain in their semi-moist state because propylene glycol has been added to them; meaning up to 25% of the diet can be sugar! Canned foods really do not accumulate dental tartar any more quickly than dry foods, so I feed my own dogs a mix of canned and dry foods (plus lots of fresh "people" foods, but that's for another time). Canned foods should be the mainstay of all male cats' diets, as the high moisture content has been proven to help prevent urinary blockage. However, keep in mind that canned foods are more calorie dense than dry kibble, so you might consider mixing the two types of food so your pet feels satisfied but does not gain weight. Use the same method of judging ingredient quality for canned foods as you would for dry.

Contrary to what we have all been taught, it is critical to your pet's health to vary its diet as much as possible. Most pet owners have been taught to pick one diet and feed it to a pet for life. Even if you chose the best commercial diet available, it doesn't make sense that your pet could get everything it's body needs by eating the exact same thing every day. Humans don't eat that way, why should their pets? New research shows that feeding one diet for life may actually set pets up to develop allergies, one of the most common medical problems vets see today. Here's how: if your pet is not getting all the nutrients it needs for his body to function, it will begin to reject the diet, forcing you to change protein or carbohydrate sources. If you aren't sure you buy that theory, look at the recent trends in pet foods. For years the main protein source in most commercial diets was beef.  Then everyone jumped on the lamb and rice bandwagon.  Now most diets use chicken as their main protein source.  This cycle is likely to continue every few years as a way for manufacturers to keep your business because your pet is not reacting to their food.

To avoid this problem, you should vary your pet's diet as much as possible, if not from day to day then at least from bag to bag.  Few pet food labels contain a date when they were manufactured, so it's up to you to police yourself.

If your pet is sick, geriatric, or has been eating the same diet for years, you should not change to this method of feeding overnight.  A younger dog in good health can usually be changed to this method of feeding over two to four weeks.  In cats, varying the diet may take much more time and patience as cats have been found to imprint at a young age what they consider to be "food" and will often reject new forms for quite some time.

We feed five dogs and four cats in our house.  I follow this method of feeding by buying at least two types of dry food at a time and mixing them together in a container.  I also find as many different quality canned foods as possible and use a different kind at each feeding.  I feed them as much as they will eat in 15 minutes, twice a day.  A carnivore's system is designed to eat a big meal and then digest it, so if your dog or cat "grazes" all day, those digestive enzymes never get fully geared up to do their job and some important nutrients may be lost.  Again, converting a cat to eating on a schedule may take much more time and patience than a dog.