Animals – New Year, new diet

Ever had a New Year’s resolution that promises that you and your dog will eat healthier this year? If so, let’s look at what is “the right diet” for your pet.

In short, there is no right diet that works for all pets. It depends on their age, activity levels and, of course, diseases. We all have our own ideas about what is the best way to feed our pets, and these ideas vary over time as well.

A raw food diet is more natural to their ancestry, but most of our companion dogs are couch potatoes during the day and will not need the high protein and energy that their wild counterparts or working farm dogs need. Many of these diets have crushed bones in them which can cause inflammation for the gut wall.

Somehow feeding whole bones does not seem to have the same effect. Whole bones also have the advantage of keeping the chewing teeth clean, but may cause constipation, get stuck or result in fights in multi-pet households. Personally, I like the idea of feeding a raw diet, but it is important to look at the formulations and ingredients to make sure it is balanced, especially if you are creating your own. Fortunately, there is a lot of guidance on the internet on home-prepared diets.

Commercially available diets are generally well balanced and easy to feed. Many are produced with specific life stages, anticipated adult size (and hence growth rate) or even disease conditions in mind.

They also have all ingredients listed, which is great if your pet has allergies. Most bags have feeding guidelines, which most of us follow for the first day or two and then become more approximate, usually overfeeding.

The other issue is that feeding just dry kibble seems boring, so we add something to make it more appealing, but forget to take that into account in the feeding quantity. And then there are the treats … a bit of biscuit at teatime etc. (How can you say “No” to those eyes!).

Most dog rolls are high in fat, and many kibbled diets have high grain levels, which can both lead to allergic skin conditions. If the dog gets enough exercise to burn it off – like many farm dogs – then no harm is done, but many urban companions can develop health (especially skin) conditions from them.
One important thing to remember is to avoid feeding raw and kibbles together. Raw food requires a higher pH to digest than cooked food, and feeding them together can cause gut inflammation due to either low high pH (too much acid) or too high pH (incomplete digestion leading to allergic reactions in the gut). Many dogs will eat grass when they feel discomfort in their intestines or if they do not get enough fibre.

So, whatever diet you choose, it can be the right diet if your pet is healthy, happy and has a good body shape.