What are you feeding your pet?

By Jennifer Herne, LVT

This is a question that can cause more questions. Let's start by talking about the kind of food you feed your dog or cat; these are the most common pets that clients have questions about when it comes to their diet. You should be feeding your pet a high quality diet. You may wonder what a high quality diet is, and how do you pick the correct food. Veterinarians sell high quality foods. You may think the food is expensive but here are some things to consider; higher quality foods produce less poop. How, you may wonder? Well the answer is simple, the higher quality foods have higher quality ingredients and the ingredients are specially formulated to be utilized (broken down, digested) by the pet. When the ingredients are readily available for digestion and absorption by your pet, they aren't just pooped out. If your pet is eating a low quality food, the ingredients are basically passing through the digestion system and not being utilized by your pet, and your pet is not getting adequate nutrition.

You may see things such as poor coat quality or dry skin on your dog when feeding them a low quality diet. A dog can also develop allergies from a food; usually the big culprit is grains in the food. You might also be feeding your dog a lot of food and he is just not gaining weight. You may wonder, how would you know a food is low quality? Well you know the old saying, you get what you pay for...it applies in this situation. Most low quality foods are in huge bags and are the lowest price in the store and this is because the food contains "fillers", has by products or is low in meat. It is always recommended to visit your local veterinarian for a nutrition consultation and also they can help you determine how much food your pet should be eating. Proper diet is also linked to a healthy pet and most veterinarians have wellness diets available. Make sure you visit your veterinarian for proper nutritional information. We hope to see you soon!