DOG FOOD And NUTRITION

There are some situations that Ive personally encountered where standard weight loss - diet and exercise - just isnt possible, says Deborah Linder, DVM, DACVM, who heads the Tufts Obesity Clinic for Animals. One example was a household that had a family member with Alzheimers disease. That person could never remember if she fed the dog and kept giving him meals, so in that case we considered medication.

Q Ive heard many times that grapes and raisins are toxic to dogs, but how?

Q I read with interest your article in the April issue about bully sticks and the inadvisability of feeding raw food. You do not...

Q My dog, a cavalier King Charles spaniel, loves popcorn.

[From Tufts May 2011 Issue]

While dogs need dietary protein and essential amino acids, and meat has proven to be an excellent source of both, they can meet their requirements from other sources such as egg, dairy and vegetable proteins like soy. However, the best canine diets for completeness, palatability and digestibility include some meat, says nutritionist Sally C. Perea, DVM, MS.

[From Tufts October 2010 Issue]Ive been subscribing to your newsletter for many years now. Its always got great information, and I save old editions just in case I have a question later. Id like to have a definitive answer, if possible, on the safety of rawhide treats. My dogs (we have four right now, all 85 pounds or more) have always loved them, but I kept reading and hearing about dangers of them, so I switched to pork treats.

Are elk antlers okay for dogs to chew on? I stopped giving them to my German shepherd because I thought they were wearing down his teeth. Is that a legitimate concern?

Tommie Waters of Perryville, Arkansas, is confused. "Recently I received a catalogue selling dog-related products," she writes, "and I noted it had an item that sounded like marijuana. To quote the promotion: ‘Cannabidiol Wellness Dog Treats, infused with non-psychoactive cannabinoids and derived from organic hemp extract, are nutritious and delicious. Made with organic super food ingredients, the calming treats help ease a wide range of symptoms and issues such as appetite stimulation, anxiety, seizures, pain and joint muscle problems and can improve quality of life at the end of life. Handmade in the USA.'

If you looked at a bag or can of dog food even just a couple of years ago, chances were reasonably high that you would not see how many calories it contained. There was only something called the Guaranteed Analysis, which is hard to interpret. But at least 40 percent of pet dogs are believed to be overweight in the United States, making excess weight one of the biggest health problems faced by dogs and their owners; thus, many found the missing.

There are a number of good reasons not to feed your dog home-cooked meals. One is a preponderance of evidence in published research studies that fully 95 percent of the popular recipes for dog foods offered in books, on the Internet, by breeders, and by other popular sources are nutritionally inadequate and...

Human-grade, Premium, Organic, Holistic, Gourmet, Senior, Natural, Supports Brain Development, Helps Muscles Function.

Pet food is a multi-billion-dollar industry in the United States, and companies spend no small amount of money deciding what words to put in large, bold letters on the front of their packages to get you to buy their brands. But many of the come-hither terms have no legal definitions. They mean whatever the manufacturer wants them to mean. Others do have …

Only a couple of health claims are allowed on dog food. One of them has to do with improved dental health; some foods have a scrubbing action on the teeth as the dog chews them. The other is about urinary health. All other health claims are illegal. So why is it that so many dog foods have claims like supports brain development or helps muscle function? …