When choosing
a brand of dog food for your pet, higher cost usually indicates
higher quality
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| After seven years of college study preparing to be
a veterinarian and 25 years of practical experience with pets, I
am still amazed and slightly shocked on a daily basis. These shocks
usually result from conversations with pet owners when I inquire,
"And what do you feed your pet?" and they reply, "Oh
whatever's on sale." |
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| The number of dog and cat patients veterinarians
treat that are suffering from nutrition-related disorders is way
out of proportion to what might be expected. With the advanced knowledge
of pet nutrition readily available to every pet owner, there really
is no excuse for the large number of cats and dogs afflicted with
nutrition-related problems. |
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| In my experience, the most common
identifying sign of poor nutritional status in my patients has been
dry, flaky skin and sparse, course, brittle hair coat. Contrast
this image to a pet that has a full, shiny, soft coat with healthy-looking
skin. It doesn't require any special education to observe your pet
and simply decide if the skin and coat are healthy-looking. If they
aren't, you must evaluate what you are feeding before you do anything
else. Other factors such as skin mites (mange), allergies, autoimmune
disorders, genetic defects and bacteria/fungal infections will certainly
damage the skin and coat. These disorders must be diagnosed by your
veterinarian, but remember, any treatment will be less effective
(and possibly ineffective) if the pet lacks basic nutritive input. |
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| Studies indicate that as many as 60 percent
of pets in America are overweight. Simply put, they are taking in
more calories than they are burning off through physical activity.
Believe it or not, an overweight pet can still be malnourished,
and often is! |
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| A diet may be to high in calories and yet too low
in essential amino acids (protein), essential fatty acids, vitamins
or minerals. Overweight pets that are that are put on a low-calorie
reducing diets are at even greater risk of malnourishment due to
lower nutritional density of food consumed and the resultant reduction
of nutrients they do need. Always check with your veterinarian regarding
the nutritional aspects of weight reduction. |
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| I have a question. Why is it that for so many pet
owners the first place to "skimp" and "economize"
is in the price they'll pay for pet food? The "whatever's on
sale" mindset shows either a lack of understanding of good
pet nutrition or a pathetic disregard for the health of the animals
in their care. You can skimp or cut corners on other non-essential
things, or have fewer pets, but to skimp on your pet's daily source
of life-giving sustenance is inexcusable. |
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| I am going to assume
that many pet owners simply have not been properly informed of the
fundamental role good nutrition plays in the optimal health of their
pet. The reason for this lack of knowledge is due to two factors---both
correctable. |
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| Factor I -- Less-than-aggressive
informational input by some pet health professionals. Veterinarians,
groomers, breeders, kennel operators and pet store owners must do
a better job of informing the pet-owning public about the good brands
of pet foods available and the need to avoid the generic, cheap
imitations so often chosen by pet owners. |
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| At the same time, pet owners should be willing to
trust the pet professionals' advice. Often pet professionals are
not taken seriously, since many pet owners believe we're only trying
to "sell' em something." There's a built-in resistance
to spend more money on a quality food because the pet owners perceives
a profit motive driving the pet professional's advice. The pet professional
must, therefore, not sell the product, but rather knowledgeably
explain to and inform the pet owner of the advantages to the pet
of a higher-quality food. The food will then sell itself! The pet
will look and feel better; the customer will see the results and
return to purchase more of the higher-quality food. |
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| Factor II -- Ambiguous labeling of pet food
products. Some pet food producers use eye-catching, confidence-building
descriptives that give insufficient information about the type and
quality of the ingredients in the food. As a pet food purchaser
you should ask yourself what these descriptions really mean. Their
intentions may have you believe you are purchasing a good-quality
product, when in fact what is in the can or bag may only
contain digestible nutrients sufficient to meet minimum nutritional
requirements for an average dog or cat. |
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| What if your pet isn't average?
Then you may see evidence of nutritional inadequacies such as poor
weight maintenance, dry, flaky, itchy skin and brittle, coarse hair.
Regardless of what "eye-catching" descriptions are used
on the label, you must look at each pet to see how the diet program
performs for that individual. |
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| Let us start right now to intelligently
assess what we're calling pet food and to recognize how a good quality
pet food will promote a quality life experience for our pets. |
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I'll share with you some basic concepts I've learned
through more than 25 years of hands-on veterinary practice. These
basic observations of pet health as it is influenced by nutrition
have been sharpened by my own critical view of sales reps' high-pressure
tactics, sweeping generalizations and outright misrepresentation
by some pet food and supplement producers. Not being content to
accept claims or hype regarding the multitude of products thrown
at the customer, I've always demanded to see some facts. Quite honestly,
facts are often lacking, generalizations abound and critical analysis
of "standards" are still missing. Keep the following concepts
in mind the next time you reach for your pet's "daily bread."
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1. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
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| This concept is based on the inescapable fact that
higher the cost of the foods ingredients, the easier they are for
the pet to digest and use for biochemical processes. For example,
egg whites are highly digestible and have excellent nutritive value,
but they are expensive. Therefore, most pet foods don't contain
egg whites. Corn and soybean meal, on the other hand, provide only
marginal nourishment for dogs and cats and are relatively inexpensive.
Not surprisingly, they are often the foundation for many pet food
diets! The pet food industry is well aware of the cost-conscious
consumer; anything to keep that bag or can of food less expensive
to produce is of paramount importance. So remember, in general,
the higher the price, the better the quality and digestibility of
the ingredients. |
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It is a fact that a pet consuming a highly digestible food will
require less of this food than if consuming a poorly digestible
food. Another way to state this is: To maintain a certain level
of health, a pet needs to eat more pounds of cheap food than expensive
food. If you feed more cheap food, you'll certainly have to buy
more (and have more fecal waste!), so is the consumer really saving
money on this kind of program? (Study Table 1; it's a good, simple
guide.)
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| 2. A BRAND OF FOOD YOU'VE "ALWAYS
FED" MAY NOT BE SO GOOD! |
GOOD
QUALITY FOOD
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While discussing diet with pet owners
and upon making the recommendation to change to a better product,
I'm often hit with the statement, "But Doc, I've always fed
XYZ Brand to my dogs and they've all done just fine." If an
individual is resistant to discovering something new or better,
or ways to improve on obvious deficiencies, there's really no point
in talking any further. This pet owner hasn't given himself or herself
a chance to see that there can be a difference in how the pet looks
and acts! All the person sees is what he or she has always seen
and observes to be normal and will never have anything better to
compare it to. I'm tempted to ask this person, "If you've always
ridden a horse to get around, would you not drive a car simply because
a horse has always worked out OK?"
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- Main ingredients -- meat, lamb, fish, chicken
- Higher purchase price
- High digestibility
- Low fecal waste
- Less required by pet to maintain health
- Usually doesn't have dyes to enhance its appearance and is
not promoted through ambiguous claims
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| 3. LOOK AT THE INGREDIENTS |
AVERAGE-QUALITY
FOOD
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This is your best guide to the quality of the food. By law, every
bag or can of pet food must list the ingredients in descending
order according to weight. This means the major ingredient is
listed first, then the second prominent and so on. Personally,
I'd rather see meat byproducts, lamb, fish meal or chicken listed
first rather than corn, and I'd also expect to pay more than for
the corn diet. Per pound of food, my pet will derive more benefit
from the meat-based diet than the vegetable-based diet. Dogs and
cats may be "domesticated" behaviorally, but we humans
cannot do a quick digestive fix on creatures whose physiology
and anatomy have evolved over millions of years and are based
upon predator-prey (carnivorous) food acquisition. Sure, it would
be more convenient for us if our pets were herbivores---but let's
quit pretending that our pets are primarily plant eaters simply
because it would be easier and less expensive for us if they were.
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- Main ingredient -- corn, wheat, rice, soybean meal
- Low purchase price
- Inefficient digestibility
- Lots of clean-up required
- More required to maintain health
- Often promoted as "looks like" real meat or cheese,
contains food dyes with interesting colors
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| 4. IF IT SAYS "HIGH PROTEIN" ON THE LABEL,
IT MUST BE HIGH QUALITY |
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| The high-protein label means absolutely nothing, but
it sure sells a lot of food for the manufacturer! I could put together
high-protein diets for pets that provide no nutritive value whatsoever---
they'd die of malnutrition in a month! |
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| What you need to know about the protein in pet food
is the source of the protein. Guess what? Feathers, cow hoofs, leather
(rawhide), hair and beaks are mostly protein, but as a food source
they are not very digestible. Cows and horses do utilize corn and
other plant material quite well, partially due to their relatively
long digestive tracts and extended time it takes the ingested food
to transit the digestive tract. Meat-eaters (dogs and cats) do not
digest corn, soybean meal and other vegetable sources of protein
very well due in part to their relatively short intestinal tracts
and fast transit times. In addition, the dog and cat pancreas (a
gland absolutely essential for digestion) does not secrete any enzymes
to break down plant cellulose for carbohydrate utilization. |
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| Think about this for a moment. If your
dog or cat was lost and on it's own looking for food, would you
ever find it out in a corn or soybean field foraging for an easy
meal? Of course not. A dog or cat would starve to death in a corn
field! Why, then do we insist on feeding our pets diets that are
composed mostly of corn, soybeans, wheat, barley or rice? |
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| Don't misunderstand me. I am not
saying that grains such as corn, beans, rice, barley and fiver fillers
such as beet pulp and ground peanut hulls are bad for dogs
and cats. In the correct amounts and combinations they can play
a roll in good pet nutrition. However, I am saying that just
because grains are cheap, easy to wrap a label around, store conveniently
and don't need refrigeration, they should not be the foundation
for a diet formulated for creatures that are primarily meat-eaters. |
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| Here's how to tell what protein is poor-quality
for dogs and cats. Keep Table 2 with you and do a little research
by cruising the labels of pet foods. Remember Factor 1-the higher
the quality of digestibility, the high the price. |
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| Digestibility, as it relates to protein,
is the measure of how well the animal can break the unabsorbable
large protein molecules into smaller, absorbable amino acids in
the intestine. There are numerous types of amino acids, some of
which are essential for good health; egg whites have lots of different
amino acids and corn only a few. For the dog or cat, egg whites
are about the best source of easily digestible protein, so egg whites
are given a value of 1.0 on the digestibility scale. Table 2 shows
how other proteins stack up to eggs for digestibility. |
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You can see from the rankings in this table
which protein sources provide the best digestibility. Now you should
be thinking, "If a product is labeled high protein, so what?"
You want to know the source of the protein by looking at the ingredient
list on the bag or can of food.
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| 5. JUST BECAUSE YOUR PET LOVES THE FOOD
YOU'RE FEEDING DOES NOT PROVE THE FOOD IS HIGHLY NOURISHING |
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| Give a child a choice and his or her diet
would consist of fries and chocolate malts. Give your pet a choice
and the diet quality may not be optimal either. You must choose
wisely and provide responsibly a diet that will promote optimal
health, not just meet minimum or "average" requirements.
Most cheap pet foods were deliberately formulated to just barely
meet a dog's minimum nutritional requirements. |
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Pet owners have an obligation to provide
their pets with reasonably adequate food, water and shelter. So
equipped with your knowledge of basic nutrition, to feed a poor-quality
diet is plain and simply unfair to your pet. Keep in mind that if
your pet gulps down food ravenously, it may be doing so because
it need more than what it's been getting. It doesn't mean that it's
a great food because the pet eats it so well.
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| IN MY OPINION |
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| Of the literally hundreds of brands of
pet foods available to the consumer, there are a limited number
which approach what I would call "good quality." These
have as their foundation (first or second ingredients) meat, lamb,
fish or chicken. Also, meat byproducts are especially beneficial
to pets. Meat byproducts, according to the definition established
by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), do
not include horns, teeth, and hoofs but do include organ tissue
such as liver, kidneys, heart and lungs. |
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| These diets that contain meat or fish protein
as their foundation will be superior to vegetable-based feeds in
their life-giving nourishment for our dog and cat friends. And all
you have to do is read the label. |
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| It is my contention that many brands of
pet foods are woefully overrated in their ability to properly nourish
dogs and cats. Often these foods are purposely designed to just
meet minimum standards for health maintenance. Our pets are the
innocent victims of a pet food industry that is resistant to change
what for the industry is a good thing-cheap products that sell.
Do you want proof of my contentions? |
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| Well, the best objective proof lies in
the fact that multi-millions of dollars are spent by pet owners
on supplements such as vitamins, omega fatty acids, digestive enzymes,
zinc, fiber and other nutrients to correct deficiencies in their
pets health. A really good diet requires no supplementing and in
fact should not be supplemented. |
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| For subjective proof ask any veterinarian
why so many patients are obese or suffering from dry, itchy, flaky
skin and poor coats. Why are there so many "allergic dermatitis"
cases? Why are so many dog eating ravenously and yet are thin and
cannot maintain weight properly? Perhaps being fed "whatever's
on sale" has something to do with it. |
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| If pet health professionals would do a
little better job of stressing the importance-no, the necessity-of
optimum nutrition, and if pet food purchasers would be little less
price conscious and a little more discriminating when they make
that purchase decision, then a multitude of minimally nourishing
pet foods would no longer be available to consumers. |
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| My suggestion would be to feed your pet
only those products manufactured by the well established, easily
recognized brand-names companies. Be aware, nevertheless, that since
many of these products are specifically formulated to meet minimum
nutrient requirements for an average dog or cat, your particular
pet may not be optimally nourished. If your pet develops nutrition-related
problems, check the pet food label. You may need to upgrade to a
food containing higher quality ingredients. When in doubt about
pet nutrition, consult your veterinarian. |
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PROTEIN DIGESTIBILITY LIST
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Egg whites…………………………………………………
Muscle meats (chicken, beef, horse, lamb)
Organ meats (kidneys, liver)……………….……
Milk, cheese…………………………………….........
Fish...................................................
Soy...................................................
Rice...................................................
Oats..................................................
Yeast.................................................
Wheat................................................
Corn..................................................
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1.00
.92
.90
.89
.75
.75
.72
.66
.63
.60
.54 |
(Note: Values in this table are approximate,
as they have been taken from several nutrition sources and
personal communications with nutrition experts.)
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Dr. T.J. Dunn graduated from the University
if Illinois, Collage of Veterinary Medicine in 1970. Since that
time he has worked in Chicago, Milwaukee, and for 20 years in Rhinelander,
Wis., where he has established three different animal hospitals.
His present small-animal practice includes a pet food/supply store
attached. A major component of his practice is devoted to nutritional
counseling of pet owners.
Dunn has published numerous articles on pet health care as well
as articles on blastomycosis and Lyme disease.
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