What should I feed my pet?  How much should I feed?  How do I get my pet to lose weight?  Are “grain-free” diets better than diets with grain? What is the best food to feed?  Should I feed canned or dry or raw food? What ingredients should I look for in a food?  Does my pet need a special diet?  What is a Prescription Diet?

We can help answer all these questions and more during your pet’s appointment and consultation. There is no ONE perfect food, and there is no single ingredient that is better than others.  We recommend foods that are a national name brand, that is AAFCO approved, and complete and balanced for your pet’s life stage. Your puppy needs a growth diet or one for “all life stages”.  Nutrients such as protein, carbohydrates and fats are found in ingredients and should be in the right proportions for your pet’s needs. Contrary to popular belief, there is no ideal ingredient line-up that ensures the best nutrition. Quality of ingredients is important but so is the nutrient content in those ingredients.

Overfeeding is the number one nutrition problem we see in pets. Over 60% of cats and dogs are overweight. It is important when decreasing calories to achieve weight loss that you do not underfeed the amount of protein your pet needs. Weight loss diets are specially formulated to provide the right amount of nutrients in a low-calorie form.  We recommend Metabolic Diet and R/d for most dogs and cats who need to lose weight.  We will determine your pet’s current percentage of body fat and their target ideal weight.  From there we will design a weight loss strategy that will work for your pet’s lifestyle and condition. We encourage owners to bring their pet in for weigh-ins to monitor their progress. There is no appointment needed and there is never a service charge for weigh-ins.

What about “grain-free” diets?  Are they better than regular diets?  Actually, no.  If your pet is not allergic or sensitive to grains, we recommend feeding a diet with grains. There have been many recent reports and studies that have shown an association between grain-free and boutique diets containing peas, lentils and chickpeas and the development of serious heart disease. There is ongoing research into this issue and more information can be found here: What Dog Owners Need to Know About the FDA’s Grain-Free Diet Alert

For pets with specific medical conditions requiring therapeutic dietary therapy, we carry several different brands of prescription diets. Pets with kidney disease, food allergies, digestive issues, and many other conditions will benefit from the tailored nutritional composition of these diets. If your pet would benefit from these diets, we will discuss them more fully when indicated.