What should I be feeding Fido and Fluffy?
by Deborah L. Johnson, DVM, CVMRT, certified in Animal Chiropractics by the AVCA

When it comes to choosing the right food for their pet, pet owners often make their choices based on fancy packaging, slick advertising campaigns, and brand name foods they have known forever.

That's a mistake.

Skip the glitz and go straight to the ingredients label. That is where the choices you make can make the difference in your pet's health and quality of life.

There are several key things you need to know to decipher a food label. Firs, ingredients are listed by wieght, from highest to lowest. Since dogs and cats are mainly carnivores, their diets should contain at least 25 (dogs) and 40 (cats) percent protein. Of the first three ingredients listed, at least two should be protein sources, ideally two different protein sources such as chicken and lamb. They should be good quality proteins such as chicken or chicken meal, and not chicken "by-products" or chicken "digest" which can contain some pretty undesirable things.

Next, let's look at the carbohydrate sources. They should be wholesome, complex carbohydrates like potatoes and whole grains. It is a good idea to avoid corn or corn derivatives, since corn is one of the most common allergens for pets. Also avoid fillers such as beet pulp, peanut hulls, and wheat or rice flour, which are inexpensive ingredients added to make your pet feel full, but have little or no nutritional value.

Third, while fat is a necessary and important part of your pet's diet, the quality of the source should be considered. Avoid animal fats, rather, look for diets containing chicken fat, sunflower oil, or flaxseed oil.

Finally, avoid several common preservatives that have been identified as potentially linked to concer, such as BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin. Look for diets using natural preservatives like vitamin E (tocopherols), vitamin C (ascorbic acid) or Rosemary.

Now that you know how to read a label, how do you choose between the different forms of food available?

Of the three basic types of pet food... dry kibble, canned, and semi-moist... the only one to avoid is semi-moist. These diets remain in their semi-moist state because propylene glycol is added to them, meaning up to 24% of the diet can be sugar! Canned foods do not really cause pets to accumulate dental tartar any more quickly than dry foods do, so I feed my own dogs a mix of canned and dry foods (plus lots of fresh "people" foods, but that's for another time). Canned foods should be the mainstay of all male cats' diets, as the high moisture content has been proven to help prevent urinary blockage. However, keep in mind that canned foods are more calorie dense than dry kibble, so you might consider mixing the two types of food so your pet feels satisfied but does not gain weight. Use the same method of judging ingredient quality for canned foods as you would for dry.

Contrary to what we have all been taught, it is critical to your pet's health to vary its diet as much as possible. Most pet owners have been taught to pick one diet and feed it to a pet for life. Even if you choose the best commercial diets avaialble, it doesn't make sense that your pet get everyting it's body needs by eating the exact same thing every day. Humans don't eat that way, why should their pets? New research shows that feeding one diet for life may actually CAUSE pets to develop allergies, one of the most common medical problems in pets today. Here's how: if your pet is not getting what it's body needs to function, it will begin to reject the diet, forcing you to change protein or carbohydrate sources. If you aren't sure you buy that theory, look at the recent trends in pet foods. For years the main protein source in most commercial diets w