I’m always enthused to share my holistic veterinary perspective on a variety of pet health topics, but having the opportunity to speak on the topic of nutrition is especially important to me.

 

I’m a firm believer that feeding your pet a nutritionally complete and balanced, human-grade, whole-food diet is the healthier option as compared to a commercially-available, feed-grade, processed-food diets that most owners feed.

 

Besides making a home-prepared food for your pet, there are many options available to owners now that are readily accessible through local stores or home delivery.  Generally, the preparation is quite simple in terms of defrosting and slightly warming or hydrating with warm water.

 

What many owners don’t consider is that when a commercially-available, feed-grade, processed-food diet is fed there are often ingredients that are lower-quality than human-grade options that could cause health problems in your pets on a short or long-term basis.  Such is why I recommend owners heavily scrutinize the ingredients in the foods and treats provided as meals or snacks and ask themselves if they would be willing to eat foods having comparable ingredients (and if they won’t then why do they feel it’s the right choice for their pet).

 

I recently weighed in on this topic for Greatist.com.  When assessing the ingredient profile, make sure to be aware of the 4 Red-Flag Ingredients Sneaking Into Your Pet Food (click link to read full article).

 

Hopefully, by abiding by the recommendations of what not to feed your pet he will stay healthy for many years to come.

 

Dr. Patrick Mahaney