Commercial Foods (Part 1)

My first Irish Setter puppy was raised on Nutro Natural Choice. I knew it was supposed to be one of the top notch commercial foods available out there, at least I thought so. When he reached about 2 years of age he started having digestive issues - vomiting in the mornings, passing soft stools, going on hunger strikes for a couple of days… disinterested in food. I did all I could to make him (a beautiful show Irish Setter) feel enthusiastic about his meals. This means doctoring his food (adding fresh meats, some veggies, soft/canned foods, warming his food up – you name it). All of that to no avail. Next, came blood screening tests, x-rays, abdominal ultrasounds…yet, nothing abnormal could be found.  I eventually gave up and labeled him as the guy with a “sensitive stomach”.

As clients began asking what commercial diets they should feed their pets, I felt unprepared to offer a precise answer. With so many copious options in the market and new ones appearing each year, one can easily get overwhelmed. In general, what one feeds his pet depends on a wide range of factors like costs, brand name, ingredients, pet’s lifestyle, etc. Considerable scientific evidence suggests that food impacts both the gastro-intestinal (GI) function and the microbial ecology and overall health of the canine GI tract. With the pandemic of serious health issues in our pets (not to mention GI problems), a question began to taunt me: what are we really feeding our pets? To properly answer this question, one must first address the dynamics of the pet food industry.

Brand names like Purina, Nutro, Hills, Iams, etc. rank high in the gross retail sales in the world. If they sell, one must reason that the food must be good, right? As a vet, I can't possibly give my full support to that assumption. Can what they produce really be considered optimum nutrition? Good quality ingredients are not easy to find as they are used for human consumption as well. If these companies manufacture gigantic quantities of food, are they really using high quality ingredients? And at what cost, if they are competing with human food producers for the same ingredients? The price of most pet foods doesn't seem to be rising much compared to the rising costs of human food such as chicken, pork, lamb or beef. Everyone has felt the increase in food prices. So, there is clearly a paradox. What is wrong with the picture?

To answer the initial question of what to feed your pet, you must address the issue of ingredient quality first. Good quality ingredients will surely cost more. Do a price/quality comparison at Whole Foods vs. Aldi and you’ll understand what I am talking about. If that little can or bag of food is cheap – beware! It can’t possibly offer what dogs need the most: good quality meat!

 (part 2 to follow)