I’ve heard the idea used to explain / justify things like:

• Supplementing a commercial pet food with “people food” (which I do)
• Rotating through a variety of commercial pet foods (which our pet food shopping habits survey shows 45% of our readers do)
• Making a variety of homemade pet foods (and not worrying too much about day-to-day nutritional balance)

Ongoing micronutrient imbalance can erode a pet's health over time.

Thanks to a press pass at the recent American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Forum, I got to attend some pet nutrition seminars given by board-certified veterinary nutritionists. I wrote a bit about one session on homemade pet diets earlier (on my own blog), but I wanted to give more time and space to one concept in particular:

This idea of nutritional balance over time.

Jennifer Larsen, DVM, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist at University of California-Davis, poked a few wholes in the idea during her seminar. After reading through my notes from the event, I sent her some follow-up questions via email to find out more.

When Larsen chooses or creates a pet diet for a veterinary teaching hospital client, she explains, “First, my perspective is that the primary goal of the nutritional management of any case is to provide adequate amounts of energy as well as all the required nutrients. Secondly, specific nutritional modifications are considered if needed (like fat restriction, limitations in potassium or phosphorus, etc). Then, I consider ingredients that work within these parameters (as well as withing criteria from the patient and client) and go from there. This is the same process whether I ultimately meet my goals using a commercial diet (over the counter or prescription), a parenteral formulation [via IV], a liquid elemental enteral product [via feeding tube], or a home-cooked diet.”

Other considerations include:

• The pet’s nutrient requirements compared to a “normal” pet population
• How a pet’s energy intake affects micronutrient requirements
• The bioavailability of those micronutrients in specific diets or ingredients
• What digestibility values determine nutrient content of the diet

Calling nutrition both a quantitative and a qualitative science, Larsen sums up her concerns about “nutritional balance over time,” like this: “I have heard the ‘balance over time’ concept as a means to promote dietary variety and achieve nutrient balance, and specifics on how this is achieved are never provided.”

Questions to Ask, Answers You Need: Nutritional Balance Over Time

Which version of nutrient requirements will you use? There are several … National Research Council, Association of American Feed Control Officials … etc.

How exactly will you balance out the various deficiencies? For example, if the diet is deficient for your pet’s needs (in something like zinc) and you feed the diet for two weeks, then do you on day 14 give a supplement that has 14 x the daily requirement? Or, do you give various levels of supplements over many days with the idea that the total amount will average out to the daily requirement?

Nutritional Balance Over Time: Concerns [emphasis mine]

“My fear,” says Larsen, “is that it is a convenient way to justify the approach of feeding casually and not worrying about such things as micronutrient requirements. It seems to me that this practice could set us up for multiple chronic marginal deficiency syndromes, such that over clinical signs of such would show up after a long period of time, if ever (given the short life spans of our pets). Also, this brings up the concern of suboptimal performance that may only be manifested in certain parameters of health and well-being that we don’t typically measure. I do see overt deficiency and toxicity cases. But, what about the many potential others that have more vague signs? The deficiency signs for multiple nutrients include lethargy and inappetence.”

Ingredient variables include things like cooking method (which can alter nutrient levels). Then, there is the common mistake of substituting volume measurements for weight ones. And, even a seemingly well-balanced homemade pet food that looks good for protein, carbs, and fats … can still be deficient in micronutrients (there are 40 of them). So, even if you use a decent recipe and merely swap out protein or carb sources once in a while, a fundamentally deficient recipe is still fundamentally deficient.

Plus, there is a tendency for “recipe drift,” where:

• Measurements get less precise over time
• Ingredients get substituted
• Feeding amounts shift (up or down)
  

Nutritional Balance Over Time: The Human Comparison

Larsen calls the human analogy (that we don’t feed ourselves particularly well and we’re mostly OK) a poor one … because there are many forms of rampant malnutrition in industrialized countries, including:

• Obesity
• Vitamin D deficiency
• Vitamin B12 deficiency
• Iron deficiency
• Calcium deficiency

In other words, we don’t do a terrific job on this for ourselves. Even if we work hard at a dietary variety, most people return to the same foods again and again.

Do you believe it’ll all work out? Or are you regularly calculating and re-calculating your pet’s nutritional intake, especially when it comes to micronutrients? If so, I’d love to know more about your methods and strategies.

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Food Safety Modernization Act: Background

McChesney offered this background on why the updated food safety rules (including those that apply to pet food supply safety) are necessary:

• In the U.S., 15% of the food supply is now imported.
• The number of individuals considered at high risk for food-borne illness now sits at 30% of the human populatioin.
• Each year 48 million people get sick from some sort of food-borne illness (that’s 1 in 6).
• Just under 130,000 of them are hospitalized … with about 3,000 dying each year.

McChesney admits these illness numbers are “significant but not astronomical,” but he points out that some short-lived food-borne illnesses can lead to long-term problems, including arthritis and kidney disease.

Food Safety Modernization Act: Focus on Prevention

McChesney explains in the AVMA podcast that the new rules focus on prevention, including:

• Requiring food product makers and suppliers to develop food safety plans that target the most likely problems they’ll face.
• Identifying the possible hazards for certain foods or ingredients
• Better collaboration and shared tools between federal and state food safety officials
• New regulations on any imported foods

McChesney says that the Food Safety Modernization Act addresses things that can go wrong, especially during transportation of foods across the country or around the globe and what he calls “food defense” (keeping us safe from food “attacks,” in other words).

Thanks to the Food Safety Modernization Act the FDA also gained more inspection and recall powers. It can, now, for example institute a mandatory recall, if necessary. In addition, new rules boast stronger registration procedures for food  companies with:

• Updated registrations required every 2 years
• FDA ability to “delist” companies, if necessary, which would prevent them from selling products across state lines

When it comes to imported products, McChesney says the Food Safety Modernization Act puts the responsibility for product safety on the shoulders of IMPORTERS. That likely means importers will want their suppliers to implement similar food safety processes.

So, in theory, that means if a TAINTED ingredient comes in from another country, then the pet food manufacturer who used that tainted product would be responsible.

Food Safety Modernization Act: Faster Response

McChesney explains that the FDA also gained the ability to STOP the sale of a product quickly. “In the past,” he says, ” we had to rely on the states to do that.”

I’m not convinced these new FDA food safety regulations will necessarily keep foods safer overall. I do think these are important steps, and I do think it’s good that the FDA can move FASTER to stop potentially dangerous product sales … before more people or pets get sick … if / when something happens.

***

I called the FDA to be sure these new rules indeed apply to both human and pet foods, and I was assured that is the case. At this point, I think it’s hard to say whether or not the Food Safety Modernization Act will keep our pet foods safer or not.

Have you read the new regulations or listened to the podcast? Do you think it’ll make a difference? What are your main concerns?

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But, just in case you want to go on a scavenger hunt, here are my best tips for unraveling your pet food company’s ownership.

Pet Food Companies: The big players

• Mars
• Nestle
• Proctor & Gamble (P&G)
• Hill’s
• Del Monte

To find out if these big consumer product companies own your fav pet food brands, look on their MAIN websites for a link to “brands.” For example, I didn’t realize until I went looking that Mars owns Royal Canin, Pedigree, and Whiskas.

Pet Food Companies: The smaller players

You can also work your way backward from the BRAND you like … to the company who owns it by starting at the brand’s own website. Often you will find links to company ownership WAY down at the bottom of the page in TINY print in the “footer.” Look for links such as:

• Investor relations (because there you can find out under what name the company trades on the stock exchange)
• Names of other companies (for example, you can go from Purina to Nestle Purina to Nestle)
• Trademark references (which often say that various brand trademarks are the property of XXX company)
• Site maps (sometimes you have to look at the site map, which is often a page only search engines really notice)
• News links (often you’ll find announcements that a company has been bought out, or if you look at the very bottom of any good press release … there is usually a little biographical paragraph about the company, including any owners or subsidiaries)

Pet Food Companies: Trail Goes Cold

If you dig around and find only references to the one BRAND or one COMPANY, then the chances are good that it’s a solo entity. To double-check that assumption, you can always call or email the company and ask about ownership.

In some cases, brands that were once under one umbrella get broken apart in some acquisition deal. For example, the dog food I now feed … got “left behind” in such a deal. That’s fine by me, actually. The company still operates as its own entity, and I still buy the food from a small, locally-owned feed store in my rural community.

Do you know who owns your favorite pet food company? Do you think it matters? If so, why?

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What does yours look like?

Puppy Chow and Dog Chow, because the brand has been around for a long time and I could afford it for my first very-own dogs (as an adult) ~ circa 1990

Eukanuba, because I’d started writing about veterinary medicine and began hearing people speak of “grocery store brands” with derision (At the time, I believe, it was available ONLY in pet stores.) ~ circa 1995

Pedigree, because I could get large bags of it at Costco ~ circa 1997

Science Diet k/d, because my late dalmatian developed kidney disease (and yes, some not-so-sensitive people blamed her illness on what I had fed her throughout her life) ~ circa 2001

Exclusive Chicken and Rice, because the guys at our local feed store (I live in a rural area) recommended it and we could get 1 free bag every 6 bags ~ circa 2004

Infinia Salmon and Sweet Potato, because the Exclusive got an F from K9Cuisine’s Free Dog Food Rating Tool (My dogs were doing great on the Exclusive, but the F bummed me out. The new food gets an A. Both are mayde by the same company, so I still get a free bag once in a while.) ~ circa 2010

Infinia Turkey and Sweet Potato, because my eldest dog became a water monger (drinking and peeing like crazy) on the salmon kind. (We feared he had become diabetic, but he returned to normal when we changed back to a poultry-based food.) ~ circa 2010

So, I’m curious. If you traced back your past pet food choices, what did you feed and why? What made you change?

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Published in January 2011 by the Canadian Veterinary Journal (vol 52, pages 50-54), the review article abstract begins:

“Feeding of raw meat-based diets to pets has become an increasingly popular trend amongst pet owners. Owners, who desire to provide the best for their pets, seek veterinary opinions about food options. This paper reviews and applies standards of evidence-based medicine to grade the available scientific literature that addresses the nutritional benefits or risks, infectious disease risks, and public health implications of raw, meat-based pet diets. Although there is a lack of large cohort studies to evaluate the risk or benefit of raw meat based diets fed to pets, there is enough evidence to compel veterinarians to discuss human health implications of those diets with owners.”

Broad Recap of Raw Pet  Food Studies Noted

After explaining the various kinds of research out there and its relative level of evidence, the review article goes on to recap studies the authors found and considered. On this scale (1-5), those with lower level numbers carry more scientific weight based on a variety of factors. This graphic and page from Dartmouth University explains what evidence-based medicine means.

Evidence of Nutritional Benefit

Level 4 evidence of nutritional benefit ( ~98% of pet owners reporting “healthy” dogs and cats)

Level 5 evidence of nutritional benefit (the Prochaska and Piekutowski paper noting increased bioavailablity of raw food) … except another study in people showed cardiovascular risks of raw (non-meat) diets due to Vitamin B12 deficiency

Evidence of Nutritional Risks

Level 4 evidence of nutritional risks, including:

• Too much Vitamin A in cats fed raw pork liver
• Feline pancreatitis in cats (usually related to too much fat in the diet) fed cooked pig brain or raw or cooked oily fish
• Poor bone development in two litters of 6-week-old, large-breed puppies (fed raw since week 3)
• Excessive thyroid hormone production in a some members (not all) of litter of German shepherd puppies (eating 80% rice with 20% raw meat, with excessive phosphorus)
• Commercial and homemade diet analysis showing low calcium and phosophorus in three of five diets measures
• Commercial and homemade diet analysis showing two of the five deficient in potassium, magnesium, and zinc

Evidence of Infectious Disease Risks

Level 2 and 3 evidence of infectious disease “risks” to pet or humans sharing their environment, including:

• 6% of raw pet foods testing positive for Salmonella
• 50% of raw pet foods testing positive for Escherichia coli
• 80% of raw chicken diets testing positive for Salmonella (some pets on this diet shedding Salmonella in stools up to 1-7 days after consumption)

While the authors note some antimicrobial resistance and some cases of animal and human illness, they go on to say, “Few studies document that Salmonella shedding by dogs or cats can result in illness in humans.”

Yet, there is more Level 4 evidence that Salmonella, in particular, is indeed found in many raw pet diets, so they say, “As there appears to e strong evidence that raw food can contain Salmonella, it is vitally important, if feeding a raw meat diet to a pet, that hygiene of the food preparations area and the feeding bowls be diligently maintained. This may, however, be difficult to achieve. A recent study found that standard methods of cleaning and disinfecting food bowls were minimally effective at eliminating Salmonella. This included soaking with bleach and cleaning in the dishwasher.”

Study Conclusion

The authors ultimately conclude that at this point, looking at the research that currently exists, “Clearly, there is some compelling evidence suggesting that raw food diets may be a theoretical risk nutritionally. In addition, raw food poses a substantial risk of infectious disease to the pet, the pet’s environment, and the humans in the household. What is lacking, however, is level 1 evidence from randomized controlled trials or strong level 2 evidence from large cohort studies to evaluate risks or benefits of raw meat diets in pets.”

***

I know this post is much more technical than usual, so holler if you have questions, and I’ll do my best to answer. I have not read all 42 references cited in the footnotes. It’s actually quite hard (an expensive) at times to get copies of scientific journal articles.

I had the chance to attend the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Forum in Denver a couple weeks ago, and I planned to attend a session called “Raw Food Diets: A Research Review,” but the presenter ended up super sick and could not do the session, so it got cancelled.

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1. Salmonella contamination (~ 74%)
2. Another contaminant (~ 14%)
3. Too much or two little of an essential nutrient (~11%)

Pet Food Contamination

Remember, of course, that this figuring comes years after the HUGE melamine contamination and pet food recalls that affected numerous pet food brands, particularly in 2007. [ Look for an Excel file at the bottom of this FDA pet food recall page for all kinds of recall data. ]

Digging through the recall notices, however, I found other pretty scary contaminants in all kinds of food for animals, including for horses, turkeys, sheep, reptiles, and pigs … in addition to dogs and cats:

• Livestock / poultry medications (like monensin sodium, an antibiotic that can be fatal to horses in high amounts)
• Aflatoxin (a naturally occurring fungus / mold that can cause liver problems in people and pets)
• Metal fragments

Pet Food Ups and Downs

Pet foods can also get recalled for having too much or too little of a good thing … in other words, an essential nutrient in:

• Inadequate amounts
• Too high a concentration

In the last couple years, I found recalls due to too little thiamine (B12) in a couple of cat foods, too little Vitamin D in swine food, and one due to an excess of Vitamin D.

Salmonella in Pet Food. Salmonella Sickness in Dogs and Cats

Clearly, however, salmonella surfaces as a real culprit in pet food recalls. You can find Salmonella enterica in the GI tracts of many animals. It’s most common for animals, including our pets, to live in a “subclinical carrier state.” Essentially, that means they have Salmonella in their bodies, but it doesn’t make them sick.

Other pets can and do get sick from Salmonella. Look for these symptoms:

• Fever
• Anorexia (not wanting to eat, cannot eat)
• Lethargy (dull, low-energy behavior)
• Diarrhea, possibly with mucus or blood
• Abdominal pain

The good news, though, is that often pet food manufacturers learn of possible Salmonella contamination before any animals turn up sick.

Because these Salmonella-related recalls are so common, it’s easy to get a bit complacent about them. But, Salmonella can be a big deal. So much so, for people, that the USDA hopes to convince people to be more careful with food prep at home.

QUESTION: Has your pet ever gotten sick relating to a pet food recall? How’d it happen? How’d you track down the cause?

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In the six months studied, new parents totaled nearly one-third (32.3%) of the outreach for help with pet joint pain issues linked to being overweight. That’s  6.6% jump over numbers pulled in 2008.

The pet obesity link to arthritis and other troubles is clear. Even a couple extra pounds or two (especially in our smaller canine friends) is the equivalent to a big percentage overload on their bones, joints, and connective tissues.

Why Dogs With New Babies in the Family Gain Weight

The reasons behind fatter pets in households with young children include:

• Dogs eating foods babies / toddlers drop from high-chairs (78.4%)
• Families paying less attention to the dog’s food portions (67.7%)
• Dogs getting fewer walks due to time constraints and logistics of dogs + strollers (64.6%)

Simply put … too much food, too little exercise.

Friend of the company and blog, Dr. V from Pawcurious recently gave her take on this subject called “The long slow descent down the totem pole.” You can hop on over there to read her real-world advice on where to seek (perhaps demand) help with petcare tasks that might slide with a newborn in the house.

Dogs Love Food-Wielding Kids

A former colleague and longtime friend Elizabeth McGuire writes a blog called Peace, Love and Guacamole. It’s part photo essay, part written essay that elevates the tiny, everyday moment to the universal, part belly-laugh funny.

For example, she once posted THIS photo with the headline “Hope or Faith?”

My reply? “Stone-cold fact.”

To which Liz said, “Yep, it’s a fact. And also a reason that Zoe is our chubby dog!”

My Meager Dogs + Kids Advice (Relating to Food)

Since I am not a mom, I cannot offer much more advice than this … since it’s probably a given that your baby / toddler will share food with your dog — accidentally or otherwise:

• Make sure it isn’t foods poisonous to pets, like raisins.
• *Try* to cut back on regular meal portions to make up for extra calories gotten elsewhere.

Tell Us Your Dogs + Baby Survival Strategies!

So, how did you cope when babies came into your once dog-only home?

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When I work in the traditional journalism realm, I do not get the chance to voice my opinion. So, let me recap a few things and comment here.

Key Point: Vegetarian and Vegan Diets for Dogs and Cats –> Species Inappropriate

Cats are obligate carnivores. They really, truly need meat in their diet. Depending upon whom you ask, that means:

• Cat food that’s mostly meat
• Cat food that’s only meat
• Cat food that’s only raw, fresh meat

Dogs are also carnivores. It gets a little muddier with dogs because they do indeed fall into the family carnivora, but so do some berry-eating bears. So, again, depending upon whom you ask, dogs are:

• Carnivores, with omnivore leanings, who can and will eat carbohydrates
• Straight up carnivores, who need meat-based dog food
• Straight-up carnivores, who need raw meat dog food

So, does feeding these pets we bring into our lives a non-meat diet make sense? Many say, “No.”

The best quote in answer to this question comes from Lew Olson, author of Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs:

“Trying to feed a cat a vegan diet would be like me feeding my horses meat. You’re taking a whole species of animal and trying to force it to eat something that it isn’t designed to handle.”

Key Point: Vegetarian and Vegan Diets for Dogs and Cats –> Risk of Nutritional Imbalance

The biggest medical risk dogs and cats face when fed vegetarian or vegan diets is taurine-related dilated cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart with weak contractions and poor pumping ability). Cats cannot make their own taurine, so they need in their diets. Dogs can make taurine if the diet supplies the right amino-acid building blocks (found in meat). Both species can suffer taurine deficiencies, and if it goes on too long, the heart damage is permanent.

Other possible nutritional imbalances from vegetarian / vegan pet diets include:

• Problems with Vitamin A and Vitamin D
• Wrong combinations of amino acids
• Not enough total protein (less than 25 grams per 1,000 calories recommended)

These risks are real for home-made vegetarian and home-made vegan dog and cat food. They are real for commercial vegetarian and vegan dog and cat foods. One of the veterinary nutritionists I interviewed treated a cat who nearly died due to food deficiencies in a commercial vegan cat food.

One of the arguments or justifications I heard was that pet owners can simply supplement their way out of these concerns. After all, they told me, pet food companies do it. Nearly all cat foods include supplemental taurine and other things.

And, yes, that’s true. However, once you start removing an entire category of food from a pet’s diet (meat-based protein), then you can easily cross over into feeding a not-really-food-like pet food. This quote got shortened in editing, but I love it so much, I’m posting it here.

“Experimentally, there are ways to get around it,” says Cailin Heinze, VMD, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist and assistant professor of nutrition at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, “but you’re adding a lot of chemically synthesized nutrients to replace what would normally be in an appropriate diet. If we want to get a specific amino acid into a diet, we can – in theory – make a diet that meets the nutritional needs of the cat, but it’s kind of ‘Franken-Food.’ It’s not food.”

Commentary: Vegetarian and Vegan Diets for Dogs and Cats

Some of my journalist friends who also write about pet health told me they would have a hard time interviewing and being objective with someone who feeds a vegetarian / vegan diet to cats, in particular. Honestly, it wasn’t that hard for me because I COMPLETELY understand where these pet owners are coming from. I really do … even if I don’t agree with them on this choice.

It can be done (more so for dogs than for cats), but it takes a LOT of work and direct, ongoing participation of both a family veterinarian and board-certified veterinary nutritionist. So, if you are considering this option, please don’t do it lightly because there are direct and serious medical risks for your dog or cat. My other article lists several DON’Ts, but the one I want to emphasis here is that these diets are particularly risky as puppy food or kitten food.

I thought Lew Olson summed up the dilemma best with this:

“When people tell me they want to feed a vegan diet, I say, ‘Get a goat, get a rabbit.’”

In other words, if your ethics preclude animal-based food, then choose a pet that naturally does not eat meat.

Your Turn: What do you think about vegetarian and vegan diets for dogs and cats?

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Who me? Steal fruit? Never!

I’ll go first. My eldest and biggest dog Ginko, who is 1/2 Lab and 1/2 greyhound, has a penchant for stealing fruit and vegetables.

Yes, we’ve had trouble with hamburger buns disappearing from the kitchen counter, and once an entire ham-and-cheese sandwich, but he is most famous for his escapades involving fruit and veggies.

We have to keep our produce locked up much of the time now, but you can read all about the various heists via the links below.

• Peaches
• Bananas
• Cucumbers
• Papaya
• Pineapple

What’s Your Dog’s Biggest / Funniest Food-Stealing Score?

Go ahead! Amuse me. What kind of food does your dog like to steal?

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Dog Dental Health Matters

The statistics are staggering, with 80% of dogs (who are not getting good dental care) suffering from some kind of dental disease by the time they reach their third birthday. Since I’m fairly certain MOST people DO NOT brush their dog’s teeth every day or at all, it isn’t a surprise that companies are trying to help with products aimed at canine dental health.

The first time I heard about kibble shape mattering in a dog’s dental health was when Hill’s Pet Nutrition came out with their “dental diet.” The kibble, which was much larger than usual, shears off in slices as the dog chews. This biting, shearing action is supposed to help keep teeth clean.

Normal Kibble vs. The X-Factor

So, I was surprised that most dog food kibble continued to be the usual round or disk shape for many, may years to come. Now, Pedigree has introduced a patented (not kidding) x-shaped kibble designed to clean a dog’s teeth while he eats.

I’m told the Pedigree folks studied “oral biometrics,” including how much force with which a dog can bite down as well as how wide he can open his mouth, etc. The looked at the geometry and physics of all this and designed an x-shaped food meant to fit better into a dog’s mouth and help out with some scraping while the dog eats.

What Do You Think?

Is this hype? Pseudo-science? Or a helpful way to keep dogs’ teeth healthier?

I tend to give the dog food makers credit on this one because they really do a LOT of research before making a big change. That’s expensive.

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