Pets World

Up until fifty years ago most dogs ate table scraps. During the fifties when people moved to the suburbs and convenience was the norm cereal companies cornered the pet food market in supermarkets and agricultural feed stores.

Today pet owners get to choose from a puzzling array of colorful bags of dry premium foods, convenient semi-moist packets, and gourmet diets for puppies, adult dogs, hunting dogs, show dogs, lactating dogs, old dogs, and fat dogs.

Compounding this issue is the barrage of advertising touting the benefits of this or that food: It's all natural, it's real meat, it's non-allergenic, it's high protein, it's low protein, it's low-fat, it doesn't have by-products, your dog will love it.

Add to this the claims of the nay sayers: It's cooked, it contains chemicals, it causes allergies, they use road-kill and animals not fit for human consumption, soybeans cause bloat . . . and it is a wonder that anyone can choose. Yet, today, the commercially prepared dog foods made from a fixed formula of ingredients and preparation methods provides your pet with a balanced diet that rivals what is available for humans.

Pet owners can help themselves by doing a little research, by choosing a food that meets their needs as well as their pet. Dogs as well as humans need some diversity in their diets. We would not like to eat the same food day in and day out and neither does your pet.

History

Commercial dog food is a by-product of breakfast cereal processing. American manufacturers included dried meat scraps in their dog meal for a balanced diet. The canning of horsemeat unsuitable for export began in the 1920s, and within 10 years, nearly 200 brands of canned food were available.

The pet food industry took an enormous leap after World War II when the consumption of meat increased and the availability of by-products led to development of the rendering industry and new uses for meat and bone meal. Dry foods gained in popularity and owners frequently top-dressed the kibble with canned meat. Thus the stage was set for an explosion in types of canned and dry foods and development of the convenient semi-moist foods and snacks now available.

Early kibble foods were made from dough of grain flours, meat meals, dairy products, and vitamins and minerals baked in large pans and broken after cooking. The development of the extrusion method, in which the dough was pressed through a rotary machine that molded or shaped the pieces before baking, revolutionized the growing industry.

What should they eat?

Like all living creatures, dogs need a combination of fats, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water in a balanced diet that provides sufficient calories to meet their daily needs for growth, activity, and repair. The claim on a bag of dog food that it is a complete food means nothing unless the nutrients are in a form available for absorption into the dog's systems.

Dog foods also must contain vitamin and mineral supplements in balanced concentrations. Too much of one mineral may interfere with absorption of another; too little of a mineral may interfere with vitamin use or other mineral use.

However, slight differences in processing temperatures, in quality of the ingredients purchased, and storage humidity and temperature of ingredients and of the finished product can cause variations in the quality that may affect a particular dog, a particular breed, or a particular line of dogs within a breed.

In addition, some breeds or groups of breeds may require slightly different percentages of particular nutrients. Therefore, all dog foods are not perfect for all dogs.

Food Sensitivity

An allergy is a condition of unusual sensitivity to a substance or substances usually protein in nature which is perceived by the body as foreign. Signs of allergies in dogs may manifest as itching and in some cases diarrhea. Food allergies account for only about 5 to 10 percent of all allergic reactions in dogs and cats. Although diagnosing and managing food allergies is challenging most pets are not food allergic, so don't automatically think food if your pet has skin or digestive problems.

Diagnosis of a food allergy is a demanding diagnostic process requiring strict dietary management to make sure your dog ingests no allergy-triggering food. Because the signs of food allergy resemble those of other canine allergies - and because effective treatment depends on pinpointing the allergy-causing ingredient - diagnosing food allergies is challenging for both owners and veterinarians. If you bring your pet to the animal hospital with a complaint of itching or digestive distress, your veterinarian will first rule out more common causes of these signs.

The rule-out process might include a physical examination and laboratory tests for flea allergy dermatitis, the most common cause of allergic skin disease of animals, inhalant allergies, seasonal reactions to pollen, mold spores, and dust mites, and food caused digestive intolerance, an acute adverse reaction to food that does not involve the immune system.

If your pet has an immediate adverse reaction to a diet change, the reaction is probably not an allergy because it takes more than one exposure to a food ingredient to incite an allergic reaction. That's why dogs and cats that have been eating the same food for months or years with no problem can develop a food allergy.

Some dogs just get tired of eating the same thing so it is wise to vary their diet between two types of protein. You might feed a chicken based product for six months and then change to a lamb based product for six months and continuing to alternate back and forth. If the food allergy remains a suspect, your veterinarian will then help you try to pinpoint what might be causing your pet's problems.

Most food-allergic dogs are hypersensitive to only one or two ingredients, with beef and dairy proteins topping the culprit list. Ingredients that may also cause problems - but not as often - include grains, pork, chicken, eggs, and fish. Allergies to food additives including preservatives may also be a cause but are rare. To definitely diagnose food allergies, most veterinarians recommend a trial with an elimination diet - a diet that contains a protein and carbohydrate source the animal has never been exposed to.

To start with, feed the elimination diet for a period of up to 16 weeks and monitor your dog's response. Signs should abate if your dog is indeed food-allergic. To get conclusive results from the trial, your dog should ingest nothing but the elimination diet and water. That means no treats, rawhide, or chewable medications. Following this strict regimen can be difficult, especially for those living in multi pet households.

If signs are resolved after an elimination-diet trial, you can assume something in your pet's diet is causing the allergy. But to be certain, some veterinarians recommend reintroducing the original diet. A recurrence of signs within 7 to 14 days confirms food allergy. There is no cure for food allergies. Managing a food allergy means simply avoiding the causative ingredient or ingredients. Long-term avoidance is simply a matter of keeping your dog on the elimination diet you used to diagnose the allergy.

Unfortunately, however, some dogs become allergic to ingredients in the elimination diet over time. If this happens to your dog, you'll need to find another nutritionally balanced diet that contains "new" proteins and carbohydrates. Again this is a reason for alternating your dogs food between two protein sources. Most pet owners will do well by their dogs if they buy a good quality dry dog food.

If a dog has a healthy skin and coat, is energetic, and gets good marks from the veterinarian on the annual checkup, pet owners can continue to feed the same diet no matter which they have chosen.

Two things to remember--any change in your pet's diet should be introduced gradually, and a healthier diet won't make your pet more vibrant if he doesn't get enough exercise everyday. Your pet will love you for it!