Nutrition is one of the biggest factors contributing to the health and well being of your pet.  Feeding an appropriate diet will go a long way to ensure a long and healthy life for your pet.

With all of the options out there, it can be difficult to determine the quality of a food.  In general, with pet food, you get what you pay for.  Lower quality foods tend to be less costly because they are made up of less expensive and less healthy ingredients.  Lower quality foods also tend to contain excessive amounts of sugar, salt, and artificial colors and flavors.

Higher quality foods will certainly be a little more expensive to purchase, but their content will be healthier and more nutrient dense.  Because of this, these foods may actually be less expensive to feed in the long run, as the quantity fed will be less.  Proper nutrition will also lead to a healthier pet overall, and result in fewer medical issues.

One of the easiest and fastest ways to determine the quality of a pet food is to look at the ingredient list.  High quality foods contain whole, specific ingredients.  Avoid foods that contain by-products of meat or  grains, artificial colors and flavors, and nonspecific ingredients.  Look for a food with the highest meat content as possible.  Grain free foods (such as EVO, Orijen, and Nature's Variety Instinct) have the most meat content you can find in dry food, and are a good choice to feed mature, healthy dogs and cats.

The same guidelines apply to canned foods.  Choose foods that use whole, specific ingredients, and avoid by-products and nonspecific ingredients.  Cats, in particular, generally do very well on high quality canned food diets.  Cats require a high amount of meat based protein in their diet, and these high amounts are difficult to process into a dry food.  Cats are also ill-adapted to drinking water out of a bowl... their bodies are meant to derive moisture from their food.  The high moisture content in canned foods keeps cats appropriately hydrated.  Feeding cats canned food can help to prevent common health issues, such as, Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, urinary crystals, obesity, skin and haircoat issues, diabetes, megacolon, constipation, and kidney issues.  If you do feed your cat a dry food diet, it is recommended to use a high protein, grain free diet.

Cats and dogs can also do well on appropriately formulated home prepared diets.  Just like with people, it is good for them to eat fresh, minimally processed food.  However, in order for pets to get the benefits of such a diet, it is imperative that the diet be properly balanced, so that it contains the ideal combination of nutrients.  More information on home prepared diets will be provided upon request.

The Kiel Veterinary Clinic carries and recommends Natura Pet Products.

Article written by Rachelle Hein.