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What You Should Know...
Ask That Second Question
By T. J. Dunn, Jr. DVM

Feeding dogs and cats... I made a major mistake for years and didn't even realize it.  Many veterinarians and pet owners continue to be misled when considering cheap, grain-based pet foods.  Here is what I missed...
   When a dog (or cat) was presented to me that looked and acted healthy and I asked "What are you feeding your pet?"  (unfortunately many veterinarians don't even think to ask this fundamental question!),  if the pet owner responded that the brand was some cheap, grain-based food like Ol' Boy, I actually formed the impression that Ol' Boy was a pretty good dog food.  Heck, the dog looked great so that cheap food must be OK.  What I failed to ask was one more question and that vital next question was "WHAT ELSE DO YOU FEED THE DOG?"
    In every single case where the dog looked good, the owners were also feeding table scraps or left-overs like chicken, meat, bacon, eggs.  In every single case where the pet was being fed only a cheap, grain-based pet food...no table scraps or treats... the pet would show signs of less than optimum  health.  Our entire hospital staff could predict which pets were on a cheap food and which pets were fed well; we could even guess which brand the dog ate with 80% accuracy... before we asked the owner what they fed.  We called these unfortunate, grain-fed dogs "CORNDOGS".
    I will make a guarantee based upon observation of thousands of dogs and cats...if you feed ONLY a cheap, grain-based pet food and feed absolutely no scraps or left-overs, within 6 to 8 weeks your pet will begin to have a course, brittle hair coat, will develop a dry skin but the coat will seem slightly greasy and dusty.  The image on the right shows a classic example of what you will see when a pet is fed exclusively a grain-based diet. The pet will probably itch. It will eat lots of food (owners mistakenly interpret this as "The dog/cat loves that food!") because it isn't maintaining its weight properly and the pet is nutrient starved.  Now add some meat or high quality protein to the cheap stuff or switch to a top quality pet food (it will have meat in it!) and within a few weeks you will actually see an improvement in the pet's coat, there will be a decrease in food consumed (owners mistakenly interpret this as  "He doesn't really care for that new stuff") and the pet will feel better. I have witnessed this scenario over and over again.
    So if you are feeding a cheap pet food based on grain AND your pet looks quite good, I know for a fact that you are feeding some scraps or treats.  Keep it up!  Table scraps are fine for dogs and cats; just don't feed bones.  I have surgically removed bone fragments from dogs' and cats' digestive tracts many times and have seen pets die from obstructions or penetrating lesions that cause peritonitis.  There are better ways of dental care than feeding bones.  Feed bones even to a big dog and you may be taking unnecessary chances with your dog's health.  I have seen many surprised pet  owners on emergency calls shake their head in disbelief that bones could be causing all that trouble... until they see the X-rays. (See a few yourself here.)
    On the other hand, you would be doing your pet a favor by buying a top quality meat-based pet food.  Iams and Eukanuba make good ones.  Purina Pro Plan Chicken and Rice is an excellent choice for dry dog food, and there are a number of other companies making high quality, meat-based dry foods. (There's a great selection of foods that can be  shipped right to your home, kennel or office through PetFoodDirect.com.)

LARGE BREED PUPPY FOOD

How important is it to feed "size-specific" dog food?  Here is what I have found...
    One of the first major dog food companies to come out with LARGE BREED puppy food stated that there were reduced levels of calcium and phosphorus among other ingredient changes.  They claimed that rapidly growing breeds would benefit from "slightly" reduced levels of various ingredients.
    The interesting thing is that if you look at the recommended amounts they tell you to feed when comparing their Regular Puppy Food with the new Large Breed Puppy Food, you would see that the recommended amount to feed was slightly MORE for the Large Breed Puppy Food!  So where is the effect of the dog getting "slightly " reduced amounts of calcium and phosphorus if the dog should eat a greater amount of the Large Breed Puppy Food compared to the Regular Puppy Food?
    So I called the company and asked about this.  Their reply was that there really is "very little difference" between the Regular Puppy Food and their new Large Breed Puppy Food.  I asked "So why bother to market all these foods and make the retailer stock all these varieties when there are already thousands of types of pet foods already on the shelves?  Won't this confuse the pet owner even more?"
    Their response was that consumers perceive a certain need for their pets...pet food companies have to respond to that perceived need or the company will fall behind the competition.  Most well known manufacturers produce good products based upon nutrition research; and much of the impulse to do the research is driven by pet food consumers who demand high quality, breed specific products. Pet food manufacturers know how to make top quality foods and by necessity, the higher quality products will cost more because quality ingredients are simply more expensive than poor quality ingredients. 
   Is it possible that some companies will just slightly tweak the ingredients so that they can then label the product "NEW" or "IMPROVED"?  Will the consumer think a new product must be better than the "old product". For example, the Iams Company (one of the best of all the pet food manufacturers) makes...
SMALL BREED FORMULA PUPPY FOOD...for dogs reaching 20 pounds or less as adult.
MEDIUM BREED FORMULA...for dogs reaching 20 to 65 pounds as adult.
LARGE BREED FORMULA...for dogs reaching over 65 pounds as adult.
    If you looked at the ingredients list for these three foods you would notice that the first four ingredients are exactly the same and in the same order of percent of the total.  It isn't until the fifth ingredient that there is a slight tweak to the ingredients to make each product very slightly different from the others. Iams is a great pet food company but the multitude of minutely different products being put on the feed store shelves is often overwhelming and confusing to many pet owners.
    So...is it necessary to feed size-specific (manufacturers like to use the term "breed specific") pet food to growing puppies?  Maybe not, but there are enough pet food consumers who will demand a food specifically targeting their breed of dog and that is what drives the pet food market.  There are some concepts, though, you really MUST keep in mind, especially with large breeds of dogs.  Please note the following...

*    The notion that over nutrition in rapidly growing large breeds of dogs causes skeletal and other growth defects may not be true.  It depends on what you mean by OVER NUTRITION!  There has been some suggestions that high protein and fat diets contribute to "over nutrition" and  cause problems...so some breeders and veterinarians resorted to actually suggesting that rapidly growing breeds be fed a poor quality food with lots of grains (carbohydrates) and low protein and fat.  The (erroneous) theory was that this diet would under nourish the dog and thereby slow the growth rate. The dog would grow more slowly but eventually attain its normal stature at a later stage of life and it wouldn't acquire those nasty skeletal defects. Unfortunately this theory benefited no one... especially the poor dogs.

*   If over nutrition means the dog is ingesting too many calories for its energy demands and is overweight, then there will be a much higher chance for skeletal problems.  Newer research is showing that it isn't the protein or fat levels in a well balanced diet that causes problems but rather the excess weight a pup may be carrying while growing that is the real culprit.

*   Never allow your growing puppy to become overweight!  I will say it again...

*   Never allow your growing puppy to become overweight!  I don't care how much it begs for more food.  The major problem that is at the heart of these large breed growth difficulties occurs when... THE GROWING DOG IS OVERWEIGHT.
 

Guess what! You have control over whether or not your dog is overweight. (Unless, of course, you discover the dog is surreptitiously making ham and cheese sandwiches late at night while you're surfin' the Net!) Don't blame the dog or cat if they are overweight, don't blame the spaying or neutering, don't blame the high quality pet foods, don't blame a slow metabolism. Blame whoever is feeding them too much. (Of course, there are a few dogs that do have medical problems such as hypothyroidism that may contribute to weight difficulties .  Be sure to have your veterinarian check your dog over if your dog seems to have an obesity problem.)

Let me quote from Canine and Feline Nutrition by Case, Carey and Hirakawa, page 294.  When you read this remember that they are NOT saying that high quality foods cause the problem... it is the excessive feeding practices such as feeding "free choice" that lead to extra body weight that is the problem.  (Free choice is fine for most pets, but IF the pet has a weight problem, you must switch from free choice feeding to a restricted feeding policy.)
    "Excess energy intake [too many calories, tjd] during growth commonly occurs as a result of feeding a high quality, growth diet to a young dog on a free-choice basis or feeding excess amounts of food on a portion-controlled basis.  Studies with dogs, humans, and other species have shown that the consumption of excess calories resulting in maximal or above average growth rate is not compatible with optimal skeletal development."

High quality pet foods are calorie dense (you get more for your money!).  YOU have to be careful not to feed too much of it to your dog.  The answer is not to feed lots of poor quality food but rather to feed proper amounts of good quality food.   Why is this rational concept so difficult for so many veterinarians, breeders, pet owners and even some manufacturers to comprehend? Please... never feed a growing dog poor quality food in a misguided attempt to restrict growth rates or to avoid skeletal problems.
    High protein and fat diets are not the problem... the pup's weight and exercise levels greatly effect the quality of the pup's life.  In fact one flawed research report on rapidly growing Great Danes seemed to prove that high protein and fat diets caused growth problems.  This report initiated all sorts of strange feeding practices.  It was flawed because the pups in the study were confined to a small area during the duration of the test and weren't allowed free choice of exercise.  When the test was repeated with Danes who were allowed free access to exercise, no developmental problems showed up!

Remember this:
     High quality diet + free choice of exercise + regulating the pup's weight = good health  

A recent article in Petfood Industry Magazine (June, 2000, page 38) summarizing the article Nutritional Management of the Large Breed Puppy by A.J. Lepine in Iams Nutrition Symposium Proceedings, 1998, vol.2, indicates that there are three parameters that seem to be of primary concern when considering skeletal abnormalities of the large breeds of dogs: Dietary Protein content, Energy Density of the diet and Calcium content.
Regarding Protein... "Controlled research does not support the hypothesis of an association between high density protein intake and skeletal abnormalities."
Regarding Energy Density...  "Maximal growth rates supported by elevated energy intake increases the incidence of skeletal disease."  [This means you should NOT overfeed these nutritionally dense diets such that your dog  becomes overweight. TJD]
Regarding Calcium...  "Calcium concentration has been shown to have a significant effect on development, morphology and pathology of the skeleton in the large breed puppy.  High dietary calcium concentration interferes with normal skeletal development and promotes skeletal pathology in the large breed puppy."

"The results of ongoing research clearly document that the unique nutritional needs of the large breed puppy are best provided by a diet matrix containing a minimum of 26% protein (high quality, animal-based source), a minimum of 14% fat, and 0.8% Calcium and 0.67% Phosphorus."

Please note the protein is specified as MEAT-BASED rather than GRAIN-BASED and the 26% is a minimum protein content of the diet.   Fat content has variable quality ranges and again the bare minimum is 14%.   Calcium and Phosphorus amounts and ratios to one another are critical and an individual pet owner would have great difficulty providing optimal ratios and amounts in a homemade product.  That's not to say that table scraps should be avoided, but rather that supplementing with Calcium products is risky business.

For the best diet for your individual pet, select a name brand that lists meat (poultry, beef, lamb, fish) as the first ingredient.  From there you can fine-tune your selection to fit your specific preferences.

More topics on Nutrition: Feline obesity seems to be an epidemic!  Find out what you can do about the overweight cat.

Cats Are Different! Grain-based/Meat-based  Fatty Acids The Overweight Pet

"Natural Pet Foods" Nutrition... Basic Principles Focusing On Protein Obesity In Cats