Wet food, kibble and hydration status in pets
Does wet food *actually* make your pet more hydrated? What about adding water or liquid to dry food? I’ve talked about water intake at length in the context of FLUTD and dry food for cats, but often people extrapolate things they’ve heard about feline urinary or renal disease to be a blanket rule for healthy…
Rotational dieting – 5 bogus claims & an update
A note on the burden of proof: I am often asked for further studies to ‘prove’ that rotational diets have no benefits – except the burden of proof lies with the individuals who claim rotational diets have benefits, and if they cannot produce evidence to support their claims (that rotational dieting somehow prevents allergies, improves…
Grain Free DCM – its still here.
Yes, you read it right. Non-hereditary (nutritional) dilated cardiomyopathy linked to grain free and boutique/exotic diets is still a problem, and it was never a case closed. However, unfortunately pet owners and even some vet professionals interpreted the FDA’s statement in 2022 to mean that nDCM was cancelled, done, finished, finito. We didn’t need to…
Processing isn’t the problem
The nutrients are. Beyond simply labeling something “healthy” or “unhealthy,” the NOVA classification system in human nutrition offers a perspective based on the extent and purpose of food processing. Often people try to attribute this same system to the pet food industry, and make sweeping claims that less processed = better. However, does this classification…
Is raw food safer? Recalls by the numbers
Often raw feeders will claim that kibble is much more frequently recalled than raw – but this isn’t actually looking at the full picture. So, let’s actually take a look at the numbers and what they mean in the context of the pet food industry as a whole. Both raw and kibble diets can be…
Food allergies – the ultimate guide
When pets display dermatological and gastrointestinal symptoms, pet owners are often immediately suspicious of a food allergy but unfortunately it isn’t that simple. While food allergies (Adverse Food Reactions aka AFR) are a recognised clinical condition in dogs and cats, however the condition isn’t as well understood as in humans. While AFR can occur, environmental…
Fortified foods and kibble – what they have in common
Before you start screaming about synthetic vitamins and pet food being so “processed” and deficient that it needs synthetic vitamins – let’s take a look at human food, and how it might not be as rich in nutrients as you might think, and why synthetic vitamins aren’t as scary as people like to make out.…
Are carbs making your pets fat?
My pet got fat eating kibble because it’s so high in carbohydrates! How often have you heard the above statement? Let’s discuss carbohydrates and how it relates to weight gain and obesity in our pets. Carbohydrates are a macronutrient, meaning they are needed in fairly large amounts in your diet. Carbohydrates are an energy supplying…
Histamines & itchy pets
While histamine is part of the body’s natural immune response to allergies, you might be surprised to know that histamine can also be found in varying amounts in food! Histamine is a vasoactive amine that is chemical signalling molecule released by the immune system to trigger an inflammatory response. It’s this response that is what…
The problem with mixing diets
Surely if it’s complete and balanced, mixing two different diets shouldn’t matter, right? I see a lot of pet owners struggle with this concept, that if feeding two diets from different brands, at any ratio, it won’t matter because the diets are complete and therefore you won’t have nutritional deficiencies or excesses. Well, let’s test…
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