Trending Topics in Pet Nutrition

A common task of a Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist® is to design custom homemade diet recipes for pets that have health issues or for pet owners who prefer not to use commercial foods. We’ve covered some general mistakes that pet owners often make with homecooked diets when they don’t work with a veterinary nutritionist, as well as some situations where cooking for your pet may not be optimal. In this post, I’d like to focus on misconceptions and mistakes about homecooked diets that my colleagues and I frequently run into with our clients – pet owners who get their recipes from a veterinary nutritionist. These issues tend to come up after the consultation, when our clients receive the completed recipe and start cooking. These misconceptions often cause frustration for nutritionist and pet owner alike. Equating volume of food with calories – after a homemade recipe is created for a pet, it is common to have the pet owner question the volume amount of the food because it looks like less or more than they expected it to be, often based on the pet’s previous diet. There may be the perception that there isn’t enough food, but more frequently, the concern is about too much food. Homemade diets are formulated to provide the amount of calories that the nutritionist feels is appropriate for the pet, either based on the pet’s diet history, or on published equations. Nutritionists are trained to think in terms of calories, not volume, and so the volume of the food rarely comes into consideration during the formulation process unless it seems particularly high. Pet owners, on the other hand, tend to think about food in terms of volume, not calories. Especially for pets that were previously fed dry diets, many owners are surprised by the amount of…

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Chronic diarrhea is one of the most frustrating medical conditions for both dog owners and veterinarians (and especially for us veterinary nutritionists!) However, while it can be challenging to find the optimal diet for a dog with chronic diarrhea, it’s worth the extra effort!

A new FDA update provides more information on diet-associated dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). While the specific cause is not yet known, the problem hasn’t gone away

What’s the best food temperature to keep your cat eating well? A new study provides some answers.

The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) recently released the latest version of some dramatic proposed changes to pet food labels and held a short period of public comment. We review some of the biggest proposed changes and provide our commentary.

Preservatives are essential ingredients in some forms of pet foods but they are surrounded by a great deal of misinformation.

How confident are you in your knowledge of how to best feed cats with chronic kidney disease? Take our quiz to find out whether your confidence is well-placed!

The type of your cat food – wet, dry, fresh, or raw – not to mention the brand, can make a dramatic differences in what you will pay to feed your cat. We compare daily and yearly costs for different food types for a theor

Although food allergies are uncommon in dogs and cats, the only way to diagnose them is with an elimination diet trial. Learn tips to avoid common mistakes and to plan a successful elimination diet trial.

Pet food costs are particularly relevant right now, when the costs of many consumer goods have increased rapidly in the last year, leaving many of us paying more for our food as well as that for our pets. The form of the food fed – dry, wet, fresh, or raw – can have dramatic effects on the cost of feeding. We compare the costs of feeding some popular diets of each type for a day and a year for a medium-large dog.