Your Pet's Nutrition is Critical

Your pet, like you, is what it eats!

Constantly, day and night, your pet's cells are dying and new ones are being created to replace them. This process happens even more rapidly in most animals than people as their life span is shorter and their metabolic rate is faster. What determines how healthy cells are? Of course, the quality of the diet!

There are many poor diets out there today, equivalent to T.V. dinners and fast food for us. Many non-specific or recurrent problems we see in pets, we are convinced, relate to poor diet. We recommend you feed the best foods you can possibly find for your pet. Don't try and analyze the labels, they will only confuse you. Here is a list of reputable pet foods.

• Medi-Cal (available only at vet clinics)
• Science Diet
• Royal Canin

We believe Medi-cal/Royal Canin to be in a class by itself. That’s why we carry it at Central Valley Veterinary Hospital. Interestingly, it is quite cost comparable to the other diets mentioned.    
The benefits of feeding a higher quality diet are:

     1. Coat - healthier, shiner, less shedding, lower incidence of skin disease.
     2. Bowel function - stools firmer, less volume, less gas.
     3. Skeletal system - healthier bones and joints, perhaps slower onset of    arthritis.
     4. Healthier urinary tract - this is especially true in cats.
     5. Slower aging.

---

WHY BUY PREMIUM PET FOODS?

Going to a pet/grocery store to buy pet food can be a very frustrating and confusing exercise nowadays, even if you have a degree in nutrition. Why? Because there is infinite choice and all the labels look similar. Actually, these labels can be very deceiving as ingredient listings can be manipulated and grouped in such a way as to give a false impression that meat, for example, is the main ingredient.

What does not go on the pet food label is how the food is processed, how digestible each component is, where the ingredients come from (i.e. supplier), and how many ingredients vary from batch to batch (depending on what is cheapest). As a general rule, the more expensive pet foods are processed in such a way that nutrients are optimally digestible (i.e. the pet eats less and passes less stool). Good pet foods obtain their ingredients from a reputable supplier (i.e. a proper feedlot as opposed to back alley slaughterhouses where the animals have been pumped full of antibiotics prior to dying and being sold for pet food). Low grade pet foods will often vary ingredients depending on what is cheapest at that time. This requires an adjustment in your pet's digestive system and may result in diarrhea or lack of interest in the food.

How do you know then which one to pick? Listen to your Vet! We know from years of experience which foods pets do best on and which companies are reliable. At this time, the foods we recommend are Medi-Cal/ Royal Canin as well as Hills Prescription, and Science Diet. The reason we carry the pet foods we do at Central Valley Vet Hospital is because we believe them to be amongst the best available. If you have any questions about your pet's food, feeding schedule or any other health question, please don't hesitate to give us call.

---

Feeding Dogs:

Feeding dry food only to reduce tartar formation.
Avoid overfeeding puppies between three and eight months of age as this is the time that obesity problems start. For puppies which are starting to get too heavy, we have a diet which is ideally suited: Medi-cal Adolescent formula. This diet is still increased in proteins + ca like a regular puppy food.

Avoid feeding scraps or canned foods which often stimulate appetite artificially, resulting in over-eating as well as fussier appetites. Dogs are not people - they need to be fed diets appropriately-balanced for their species.  
Always accurately measure out the amount of food you offer your dog using a proper cup measure. This makes for more consistency in its feeding program and allows us to compare apples to apples when it comes to our dietary recommendations.

---

Feeding Cats:

Recommendations on feeding cats have changed recently. In the past, we used to recommend dry food only to prevent tartar formation. However, it is now becoming apparent that the benefits of canned food outweigh the tartar issue. First of all, the difference in tartar formation is likely only in the order of 15% between dry and canned. Secondly, dry food, by its nature, has to contain a certain amount of carbohydrates to maintain its characteristic shape and texture. As it turns out, cats don't handle carbohydrates very well and there's some suspicion that the carbohydrates in the dry food may be contributing to some of the obesity problems and other health problems we are seeing in cats. Canned food has less carbohydrate and more moisture which is more suited to the cats' carnivorous constitution.

We now recommend feeding mostly canned food. Since cats don't like left-over canned food, we recommend that you finish at least one can in a day and supplement with a small amount of dry food (ie: a couple of tablespoons) in between. This allows you also better control over the amount of food your cat consumes. Never leave your indoor cat free choice access to dry food as it usually results in obesity.

---

 "WHY Purchase Pet Food from my Veterinarian"

Pet Nutrition Page 1

Pet Nutrition Page 2