Feeding Tips

1. Feed meals:

Avoid free choice feeding. Leave the food down only while your pet is eating and take up your pet's remaining food immediately after he is through eating. Less frequent feeding will decrease plaque formation which leads to dental calculus (tartar), improve your pet's interest in and attitude toward his food and strengthen his bond with you. This is especially true for cats who tend to become friendlier and easier to handle. Young pups need 2 - 4 meals daily while adult dogs need only one meal a day.Even cats who prefer to nibble all day will do fine if offered 2 - 4 meals.

2. Feed dry or kibbled food:

Canned, soft moist foods and table foods leave excess food deposits which quickly form plaque. Dry foods are completely balanced, nutritious and provide abrasive stimulation for the gums. Because dry foods are formulated to provide all the food a pet needs to stay healthy and at an optimum body weight, the palatability of the food is designed to limit the animal's intake at the right point. Feeding table foods, treats, canned or soft moist foods upset this correct balance between appetite and need often resulting in pets which are overweight and finicky.

Try Hill's Prescription Diet T/D for tartar control. This new formulation contains a dense matrix which holds together allowing the full length of the tooth to penetrate the biscuit before it breaks apart, thus cleaning the soft plaque from the tooth's surface.

When your pet lacks interest in the food you offer look at the following possibilities before being tempted to go out and try a different brand of food or to offer something from the table.

Is your puppy's growth rate slowing down? Puppies require a lot more food of a higher nutritional value when growing. It is natural for the pup's appetite and need for food to decrease when the majority of his growth has been reached. Each time the pup reaches one of these points it is time to eliminate one of his meals.

3. Feed premium quality pet foods:

Quality, freshness and consistency of ingredients set premium diets apart from commercial diets. Profit drives the marketplace and large pet food companies spend millions of dollars to entice you to buy their brand. Advertising, packaging, food coloring, gimmicks and increased palatability to the pet are the methods used. These diets are formulated according to the Nutritional Research Council (NRC) requirements but the selection of ingredients is based on the cheapest source of the most expensive ingredient - protein. Each batch of food may contain different ingredients in a different proportion from the next.

4. Avoid treats and table foods:

Feeding table foods, treats, canned or soft moist foods upset this balance between appetite and need because the palatability of these foods is much higher than the quibbled foods. The animal overeats because these foods taste so much better than dry food and the pet becomes overweight. People often free choice feed their pet dry food thinking the pet has the sense to eat the dry food because it is good for him. Then the owner offers all sorts of table foods because the pet begs and seems hungry. The result is that the pet eats little or none of the balanced nutritious diet, overeats an unbalanced diet , gains too much weight, becomes finicky and malnourished

Pets, like children, prefer treats over nutritious foods and we need to resist giving in to them.

5. Health concerns:

It has recently been shown that some cats have problems with the semi-moist cat foods which contain propylene glycol (a feed additive which keeps the moist food from spoiling). These cats develop anemia from damage to their red blood cells.

Dogs and cats both develop food allergies just as humans do. There is concern that food additives may contribute to this problem. We advise avoiding foods containing artificial food coloring and preservatives.

Feeding your pet quality dry kibbled food, in meals, will help to keep him fit and healthy and to live a longer and better life.

Q & A

What can I do if my pet is used to table foods and won't eat dry dog food?

Begin by taking up the dry dog food if you have been leaving it out all the time.

Don't allow your pet in the kitchen while preparing foods or while eating. It is best to feed your pet before you eat to avoid the temptation of feeding the scraps.

Feed your pet dry, premium quality, fresh kibbled dog food (such as Health Blend®) one or two meals daily, leaving the food down only while he is eating. When he has finished eating or if he turns away and refuses to eat, take up the food until the next meal time. It is not unusual for a dog to wait up to 3 to 5 days before his true appetite returns. He definitely can out wait you.

If you can't out wait your dog try these suggestions. At first, offer the dry food, mixed with some table foods which are healthful but don't contain fats and carbohydrates. Examples of healthful foods are: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, lettuce and green beans. Steaming the vegetables will make them more palatable. Canned green beans are easy to fix and most pets like them.

An alternative is to serve a small portion of dry food and stir a teaspoonful of canned Mixit, a product designed to enhance the palatability of food, thoroughly to coat each kibble. Most dogs will take to this readily and over time you can eliminate the Mixit as you pet's appetite returns. Also most Health Blend, Science Diets and Prescription Diets all come in a canned form and can be used as a top dressing to enhance palatability.

My dog eats only dry kibble but he is overweight. My schedule is very busy and I don't have the time to take my dog out for extra exercise. What do you suggest?

Fortunately for your dog the dog foods available today provide you with several options. Each dog is an individual and has different needs for energy depending on factors such as inheritance to gain weight easily, age, level of activity, and calorie content of food eaten. The simplest way to help your pet to lose weight is to provide a dog food with restricted calories.

If we look at a diet prepared for a normal adult active dog such as Science Diet® Canine Maintenance and compare it to diets with fewer calories then the choices are easier to see.

Hills Prescription Diet^® R/D (reducing diet) 40% fewer calories
Hills Prescription Diet^®W/D (weight diet) 15% fewer calories
Hills Science Diet^® Canine Senior 15% fewer calories
Hills Science Diet^® Canine Light Maintenance 25% fewer calories

Unless your dog is grossly overweight we recommend starting with Prescription Diet W/D or Science Diet Light Maintenance. If after two or three weeks you see no change then go to the R/D. Once your pet has reached his ideal weight you need to help him maintain it. If he continues to lose weight beyond the desired amount the you can switch him to the diet with the next higher level of calories. For example: if your pet needed to eat R/D to lose the desired weight but then he appeared too thin, then you could go to W/D to maintain him. Some dogs may need to have a diet of half R/D and half W/D.

Grocery store less active diets are usually about 15% fewer in calories than Canine Maintenance. However, many commercial diets are formulated with high palatability so that your dog will eat more than it needs for optimum health, which can result an overweight pet.