Pet Cuisine: Feeding Galloping Gourmets
My-Dog.info > Dogs, Diet & Food
Will your dog really be better off if you buy the
70-cent-per-can "gourmet" dog food instead of the
ordinary half-dollar brand? Will your finicky cat thrive, yet
lose weight, if you switch to an expensive "diet"
dinner? Finding the right answer for your pet can be important to
its health and to your pocketbook.
Feed for pets is more than a $6 billion industry, with almost
$5.7 billion devoted to dogs and cats. According to the Pet Food
Institute, a trade association, there are 54.5 million dogs and
63.2 million cats in the United States.
After the first dog biscuits were sold in 1860, change came
slowly. Canned horsemeat joined dry dog foods in the 1920s, with
dry meat meals and the first cat foods appearing in the 1930s.
Commercial variations flourished in the 1960s.
The Human's Dilemma
If you stroll down the supermarket pet food aisle today, you
may find some 100 varieties of dog food.
Most common are "low-calorie" products to help Rover
lose weight. Prominent, too, are brands with nutrients suited to
dogs of different ages. Some victuals claim benefits purely
cosmetic, such as alleviating canine "bad breath"--a
condition more likely to trouble the master than the mastiff.
Amid such a profusion of products, how is one to choose?
Specialized pet foods, sometimes called
"prescription" feeds or diets, have been marketed
primarily through veterinarians or kennel clubs, and intended as
part of a comprehensive health regimen. Recently, however,
they've begun showing up on supermarket shelves.
"We are opposed to the sale of 'prescription' diets in
supermarkets," says George Graber, Ph.D., director of FDA's
division of animal feeds in the Center for Veterinary Medicine.
He explains that feeding a pet such foods without the advice of a
veterinarian could harm the pet.
The regular dog and cat foods on the market provide a
"complete and balanced diet" for pets, and clearly show
this in their package labeling. While some products may claim to
taste better--and large manufacturers maintain kennels with the
happy mission of testing such claims--all foods so labeled are
adequate nutritionally for healthy animals. FDA insists that pet
food be as safe for animals as human food is for people. Labels
list ingredients in order of preponderance, along with a chemical
analysis. Even a product's name may not be misleading as to
content or nutritional properties.
FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine works closely with the
states through the Association of American Feed Control Officials
(AAFCO) to insure the safety of animal feeds. Manufacturers must
provide scientific support to justify nutritional claims,
including the assertion that a product constitutes a
"complete and balanced" diet, either throughout an
animal's life or during a specified part of its life cycle.
Who's the Gourmet?
Whether or not a pet becomes a demanding "gourmet"
depends on its owner. In choosing varied, "gourmet"
diets for our pets (diets to which they may become quickly and
expensively accustomed), we fall into an anthropomorphic fallacy,
a tendency to attribute human characteristics to animals.
Dogs and cats are creatures of habit. A pup or kitten raised
on an ordinary feed will grow to like it, sometimes shunning
rarer delicacies in favor of "the usual." Though Fido
may clamor for your steak while his own chow waits in his bowl,
he'll ordinarily go for his regular meal if other temptations
don't compete. Variety is not so important to him as it may seem
to you.
Some "gourmet" pet foods (and especially pet
"treats") are designed to appeal more to the human
purchaser than the animal consumer. Color-blind canines are
indifferent to the pastel hues that beckon the buyer of dog
candies, just as kittens value the cute shapes less than the
content of their bonbons. We pay extra for such gimmicks because
we consciously or unconsciously equate human tastes and needs
with those of our pets. Catering to this tendency in the extreme
was a luxury mineral water marketed in New York as "the only
water your dog needs to drink."
"What are you trying to achieve in adopting a special
diet for your pet?" asks Beverly Corey, D.V.M., an FDA
veterinarian. "Once you know that, do you have enough
information to make the proper selection?" Your answers to
these common-sense questions can protect you from wasteful
spending, and they can prevent you from inadvertently harming
your pet's health.
You should have reason to depart from a "complete and
balanced" pet diet in favor of a more specialized regimen.
These reasons may include age, disease, or even stress, but they
should be diagnosed by a veterinarian. Otherwise, a good rule to
apply to your pet's system is the traditional wisdom, "if it
ain't broke, don't fix it."
Pet Foods with Drug Claims
FDA is especially concerned about pet food products labeled
for the prevention or treatment of disease. Such labeling, Graber
points out, renders the product a drug. He says that as far as he
knows, no pet foods carrying drug claims are being legally
marketed in the United States.
FDA has been working with the states, through AAFCO, to make
sure that pet foods are not labeled with drug claims. Of
particular concern recently has been cat food labeled for the
prevention of feline urological syndrome (FUS), a urinary tract
problem in male cats.
In February 1990, AAFCO sent a letter to pet food
manufacturers reiterating FDA and AAFCO's position that claims
that a product may prevent or treat FUS are drug claims and are
not allowed on feeds unless they're approved as drugs. Even
though FDA gave companies ample time to make necessary label
changes, some failed to make them.
Armed with FDA documentation, Missouri and Texas state
officials have seized hundreds of tons of cat food labeled for
the prevention of FUS, and New York state officials are
contemplating similar action. At least one company whose products
were seized has assured FDA that it will no longer label products
for sale in the United States for the prevention of FUS.
In a similar case in 1987, the manufacturer of Purina Puppy
Chow complied with FDA's request to withdraw its advertising
claims that the product could ease canine hip displasia (CHD), a
genetic disease affecting the hip joints of some breeds of dogs,
particularly German shepherds. The supporting evidence printed in
the advertising brochure provoked a strong reaction in the
veterinary community, which dismissed it as scientifically
inadequate. Although American Kennel Club breeders have made
progress in breeding a tendency toward CHD out of some purebreds,
many dogs still suffer from the complex problem, which involves
not just breed but genetics, weight when young, and other
factors. No dog food has been shown to relieve the disorder.
FDA allows companies to make "gray area" claims on
pet food labels provided there is adequate data to support their
safety for these uses. "Gray area" claims are defined
as those that provide useful health-related information, but do
not directly state disease prevention or treatment. Examples of
gray area claims are "low magnesium" or "produce
acidic urine pH."
Weighty Problems
"Low-calorie" pet foods have emerged to help pudgy
pooches and fat felines reduce. A safe and effective weight
reduction program, however, must recognize not just the
physiological differences between humans and dogs or cats, but
also those between dogs and cats.
From a fifth to over half of dogs are overweight, though the
lack of agreement as to what constitutes canine obesity
complicates the estimate. If your dog is overweight, in most
cases a veterinarian's opinion is needed to decide what to do.
Placing the dog in a hospital and starving it used to be
considered an option. But, according to FDA veterinarians, this
is rarely done today because it's now known to be extremely
dangerous. It produced only slightly more weight loss than
reducing the amount of regular food, and certainly the dogs
didn't like it.
Unless your dog is so committed to its regular food that it
refuses anything else, the best course is usually to switch to
the same amount of "diet" product recommended by the
dog's vet, rather than reducing the amount of regular food.
Putting cats on a diet can be tricky, too. A
"fasting" cat can develop a painful liver condition
called hepatic lipidosis. More gradual weight reduction, with
enough food to maintain 60 to 70 percent of the cat's usual
energy intake, is essential. A veterinarian can help you
determine what this means in terms of food portions or types for
Tabby.
Other Nutritional Needs
The commercial success of age-based dog foods set off
widespread mass-marketing of specialty pet foods. Promoters claim
these products address the particular nutritional requirements
your pet encounters as its physiological makeup changes with age.
Does your pet really need this costlier precision in its diet?
Some veterinarians find advantages in these products for some
dogs and cats, though the nutritional benefits will likely vary
with breeds as well as with individual animals. But it's also
true that any "complete and balanced" food will be
adequate for pets of all ages without particular health needs.
Specialized foods can make valuable contributions toward
controlling pets' afflictions, though usually as part of a
comprehensive therapeutic program. For example, inflammatory
bowel or other gastrointestinal diseases can respond well to
special diets, but the advice of a vet is essential in treating
pet illnesses. Well-intentioned experimenting with a pet's diet
may relieve one condition only by risking another.
Cats and dogs aren't our only pets, though they have commanded
the lion's share of veterinary research. AAFCO now is devoting
new attention to "specialty products" designed for
gerbils, goldfish, ferrets, and other creatures. Overweight
hamsters may some day find themselves doomed to reducing diets,
just like dogs, cats--and people.
Though gourmet goodies may tempt you as you stroll the pet
food aisle, it's wise to keep in mind that expert advice, rather
than impulse and intuition, should be your guide in feeding Fido
and Tabby. This approach can protect both your pet's health--and
your pocketbook.
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