What should I feed my dog? by Dr. Annie BC
As a veterinarian, I probably get asked this question on a daily basis. After 15 years of practice there is one thing I can tell you for certain…no one is 100% certain. This should be obvious given all the trouble the dog food companies have been having lately. Taurine deficient diets are causing Dilated Cardiomyopathy, and Lisa Fletcher with ABC news is finding euthanasia drugs, lead and mercury in popular kibble and canned brands. So what should we be feeding our dogs? I am not going to pretend to know the definitive answer but here are my thoughts…
Home-cooked diets are best.
People benefit from a home-cooked, whole foods diet. I am fairly certain our best friends do as well. With a home cooked diet you are in control of the ingredients. You know what goes in the food. Not to mention, the fresh, home-cooked diet requires no processing or extra preservatives. It is the most natural, wholesome way to feed. The problem lies in which recipe to use. We need to make sure home cooked diets are well balanced to benefit our canine companions. Dogs are not just small humans, they have different nutritional requirements. There are many recipes and blogs on the internet directing people on how to cook for their pets. But we have to be careful. There is no license for being a “nutritionist”, anyone can call themselves one. I only trust veterinary nutritionists. These are veterinarians that spend 3-4 more years specializing in nutrition. They are the true experts when it comes to feeding your pet. Most vet schools have veterinary nutritionists. UC Davis, for example, has a program that will formulate home-cooked diets specific for your pet. Their service is best for animals with ailments and can be a little expensive. I usually direct clients to a website called BalanceIt.com This website has been around for decades and is loved by most veterinary specialists. It is created and operated by a veterinary nutritionist. You can choose the food sources (depending on what you are having for dinner that night) and you can buy supplements directly on the site. I honestly believe this website is the best resource for feeding your pet the best food possible. Check it out…www.BalanceIt.com
But who has time to cook?
OK. Full disclosure. Although I do believe a balanced, home-cooked diet is by far the best food for your pet, I don’t do it. I just don’t have the time. I don’t really cook for myself or my family. I consider it a luxury when I have the free time to cook. So what is the alternative? What commercial brand should we feed or should we stick to something local? So many questions with few concrete answers. So what do I do? I feed my dog a variety of foods. I will buy a high-quality bag of kibble, feed it until there are only a couple helpings left in the bag, then I purchase an entirely different bag of food. I take the bottom of the old bag and put it at the top of the new bag so there is a little transition time where Izzie, my chosen one as my friend calls her, gets a mixture of foods. I used this technique on all my dogs through the years. It is basically like hedging your bet. If one food is lacking in something, like taurine, she won’t be deficient for too long. If one food has too much of a bad thing, like Mercury, at least she won’t be exposed long enough to build up the chemical in her body. Of course, I would prefer to choose diets with everything she needs and nothing she doesn’t. Variety is good but we can be selective in the kibble we buy.
If I can’t cook, what brand of kibble or canned dog food should I choose?
The way I see it there are 3 ways a food company spends money on their product. (1) Ingredients (2) Research or (3) Advertising. Contrary to popular belief, dog food is a low-margin industry, so there is a limited budget for each of these three areas. In my eyes, the least important of these three things is advertising. So when I see a dog food brand advertising on tv (tv ads are expensive) I don’t buy their food. Basically no Iams, Eukanuba, Alpo, Beneful, etc. If you see it on television it is probably not a great food.
I think research and ingredients are equally important. It is a no-brainer why ingredients are important so I want to spend some time talking about research. The minimum a food company should do is an AAFCO diet trial. AAFCO, the Association of American Feed Control Officials, is a non-profit organization that sets standards for both animal feeds and pet foods in the United States. In order for a dog food to be marketed as “complete and balanced”, it must meet the nutritional standards established by AAFCO. In veterinary school we learned that not only should a dog food be AAFCO analyzed, they should also be AAFCO tested. This means the company feeds the food to dogs and make sure the dogs stay healthy. I know, I know. Anyone who isn’t a veterinarian but knows anything about pet nutrition thinks AAFCO is kind of a joke. It is really a bare minimum. But it is amazing how many dog food companies have not been AAFCO tested and approved. If I had to choose between a food with high-quality, human grade, organic ingredients or a dog food that has lower quality ingredients (i.e. not organic) but has been given to a bunch of dogs who thrived on the diet, I would chose the well researched brand.
Shouldn’t we be feeding raw diets to mimic the diet of wolves?
In my opinion, no. Unless there is a medical need for it. There is a reason we started cooking meat. Meat contains parasites and bacteria. I have had patients that ate a raw diet their entire lives but suddenly broke with diarrhea that never resolved. Dogs may have a higher threshold for bacteria like salmonella, but there is still a point when they get overloaded with bacteria. Cooked food is the best. You get all the benefits that you get from a raw diet, like no preservatives, without the risks.
What about grain-free diets?
Grain free diets are, again, only useful if your pet has a medical condition (like allergies). Otherwise there is no reason to cut down on grains. Grain-free diets tend to have higher levels of protein, again with the idea to mimic the natural diet of wolves. This is where I get lost. Catching prey is hard work. I have spent some time on the plains of Africa with the big carnivores. I have seen them hunt, I have observed their lifestyle. Let me tell you, hunting is hard. Lions don’t catch prey every day, and that is on the plains of Africa where food sources are everywhere. Wolves are not taking down enough prey to eat high levels of protein. They are omnivores like us and probably would get excited to get a kill every now and then. Low protein. Now I don’t buy into the idea that we should feed dogs like wolves anyway. Our dogs are living much longer than your average wolf. But even if you did want to feed a “natural” diet, grain-free isn’t the answer. These high protein diets can wreck havoc on the kidneys. Dogs need their kidneys, lets be nice and not overwork them.
What do we know for sure about feeding dogs?
No one is sure about the best formulations for our dog foods. I do believe in the website BalanceIt.com and encourage everyone to check it out. I prefer feeding a variety and not relying too much on one brand. I do frequently check recall lists and avoid any foods that are being recalled. (I have included a list below of brands that have been implicated in creating heart disease in dogs, since it is the most recent problem.) There is one thing, however, that we have pretty much proven in the veterinary world…thin dogs live longer. Digesting and processing food is a huge strain on the body. The less you eat the better…to an extent. You don’t want to see your dog’s ribs. You want to feel the ribs but not see them. Avoid too many treats and get frequent weights and check-ups. Keep your pet thin and on a balanced diet and they will live a long, healthy life.
Sincerely,
Dr. Annie Harvilicz D.V.M
Founder & Cheif Veterinarian
Animal Wellness Centers