Nutritional Consultations
For anyone looking for individual guidance on how to provide good nutrition to their dog, cat, or bird.
How to choose good food for your pet
Understand the biology of your pet
- Do you have a goat? Then you should feed corn and wheat
- Do you have a rabbit? Then you should feed fruits and vegetables
- Do you have a dog or cat? Then you should feed meat
- Understand that Vets are not nutritionists
- Nutrition is an elective in vet school and is funded by Hill Science Diet and Nestle Purina.
- The nutritional information they are given is extremely bias.
Understand how commercial pet food came about
To most people, the concept of prepared pet food makes perfect sense and they don’t question it for a second. Pets eat pet food and people eat people food. Well, that wasn’t always the case. In truth, extruded pet food pellets as we know them today have only been around since WWII.
Before the advent of pet foods, most dogs and cats lived off of meats, table scraps and homemade food from their owners. It wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that the world saw its first food made specifically for dogs. An American electrician, James Spratt concocted the first dog treat. Living in London at the time, he witnessed dogs around a ship yard eating scraps of discarded biscuits. A light bulb went off in his head and shortly thereafter he introduced his dog food, made up of wheat meals, vegetables and meat. His company flourished and by 1890 he was taken over by a large corporation and production had begun in the United States as well.
But it wasn’t until the early 1900’s that pet food really caught on. Canned horse meat was introduced in the United States under the Ken-L-Ration brand after WWI as a means to dispose of deceased horses. The 1930’s saw the introduction of canned cat food and dry meat-meal dog food by the Gaines Food Co. During WWII metal used for cans was set aside for the war effort, which nearly ruined the canned pet food industry. But by the time WWII ended, pet food was off and running again, sales had reached $200 million. For companies such as Nabisco, Quaker Oats, and General Foods, pet food represented an opportunity to market by-products as a profitable source of income. The number one benefit was convenience, and with the economy booming, people could now afford the luxury of pet food. At first, canned pet food was the primary type sold, but by 1956 the first extruded pet foods were hitting store shelves. Extrusion is the process by which pet foods are formed into pellets, and then sprayed with synthetic nutrients to compensate for nutrition lost during processing.
Success continued throughout the 60’s and 70’s as companies began to diversify flavors and refine the extrusion technology. The 80’s saw the introduction of ailment-specific diets such as those offered by Hill’s Pet Nutrition. The pet food industry has grown to $15 billion in annual sales, dominated by multi-national corporations such as Heinz and Nestle. Ironically, as a result of dog health problems we’re now seeing a trend toward natural, holistic, raw, and yes, homemade, human-quality pet foods – not too different from the type of foods folks fed their pets before pet food ever existed.
Learn how to read labels
Dog food is by weight. The first 5 ingredients are what the food is mostly made up of.
What ingredients to Avoid
- Any chemical preservatives. They would be listed as BHA, BHT, Propylene Glycol, or Ethoxyquin.
- By-Products
- Artificial Colors
- Corn
- Wheat
- Soy