Ask A Veterinarian A Question online now!
Licensed and inspected veterinary pharmacy with Rx and OTC pet medications	Pet health insurance...  backed by the PurinaCare  brand name	Everyone's going Natural... check out these great pet products.	Huge variety of pet foods, fashions, and fun! Browse  the pet friendly aisles.	Ask  a question about pet health care; your  satisfaction is guaranteed!

Related questions and answers...

Marketing creativity can sway the buyer's impression of what's inside the package.  Read ingredient lists on dogs foods and the Guaranteed Analysis

Answer: difference between... dry food... canned... moist
     The single best answer is "it depends".  It depends upon what the ingredients are and the digestibility of those ingredients.  So is one type of food better than another?  No, not if the nutrient values are equal for each portion the dog or cat consumes.  Below are a few guidelines regarding the various types of pet foods... dry, freeze dried, frozen, raw, canned or moist.

    One pound of dry kibble food usually contains 10% moisture.  It isn't totally dry.  Freeze dried foods usually still contain about 3% moisture, raw foods such as meat (muscle tissue) contain retain about 60% moisture, canned foods are about 75% moisture, and the wet "stews" contain about 75%moisture.  So... per pound of actual dry, non-moisture containing substance, you will get more for your dollar with the dry foods.  Essentially, you won't be paying for a can of food that actually contains about 75% water and 25% dry nourishment!

    A good quality dry food, in general, can provide equal nourishment as a good quality moist, canned or stew style food.  The only difference between these good quality products is their moisture content.  You will need to feed more pounds of moist, wet or canned food than pounds of dry food to achieve the desired nutrient intake for the individual pet.  Water has no calories or essential "nutrients". 

    Always feed the highest quality food to a dog or cat that you have on a weight reducing program.  This means you may need to avoid the low fat, reduced calorie, senior, indoor, inactive pet  kinds of foods.  Many of these weight control diets are very low in essential fats/oils so that you, the ever-sympathetic and nurturing owner, can feed your pet lots of tummy-filling meals without the threat of creating an overweight pet.  Too bad the pet loads up on non-nutritive substances and high carbohydrate ingredients just so you and I feel better about ourselves when we fill up those feed bowls.

    Most dogs and cats dental status is not affected by the type (canned, moist, kibbled) regarding tartar buildup!  Every veterinarian sees patients that have eaten dry food exclusively and yet the patient can have serious tartar accumulation.  Another dog in the same household, eating the very same food, may have not staining or tartar at all.

    In most situations it is OK to feed dogs and cats a combination of dry and canned (or other types of  foods).  Do not feed bones of any kind... they are not essential as long as the diet otherwise is high quality.  If you do feed bones you are surely risking potential GI tract problems.

     I can't really feed her less than that because it says on the label she should get 1 to 1and 1/2 cups twice a day!  So I must not be feeding her too much, right?  So how much should I feed her?

Answer:  how much to feed... grain based food... meat
     This is a good question because there is actually no set or standard answer.  My answer usually begins with the statement "That depends".  How much to feed any dog or cat varies mostly as a function of the quality (digestibility) of the food served.  If you feed a grain-based diet that displays corn, wheat, rice, or barley listed first on the Ingredients List on the package label your dog will need to eat a greater volume or weight of it than a diet that has a meat source listed first.  The nature of a dog and cat is such that animal sources of food are digested and utilized for body functions (metabolism, growth, tissue repair, energy) much more efficiently than plant sources.  That is a simple and repeatedly verified fact.

     So, as a pet owner, you should look to purchase high quality meat-based dog and cat foods.  Smaller percentages of some plant material can be included for carbohydrate, amino acid, fatty acid, and fiber content.   You will spend a little more money for meat-based diets but your dog will consume far less weight of the highly digestible meat-based food than the less efficiently digested plant-based food.  You and your dog will get more for your money with the higher quality (more expensive) meat-based foods.

     Now, start feeding according to the recommended portions on the food's label.  However... do not allow your growing dog to become visibly overweight!  Your individual dog may need substantially less food than suggested because individual metabolism, environmental temperatures and activity levels all play a role in total calorie needs of your dog.  YOU have to make that judgment call regarding "How Much" to feed based upon how your dog appears to you.  If too thin, feed more: if too heavy , feed less and increase exercise levels. 

   There is nearly no nutrients in "bones"  that aren't supplied in a good quality pet food.  Feeding bones is much like Russian Roulette... you may get away with it for a while but someday there will be a medical problem.

  Buy only good quality food because everything about the dog is founded on the nutrients from

  Buy only good quality food because everything about the dog is founded on the nutrients from

  Buy only good quality food because everything about the dog is founded on the nutrients from