DOG owners / CAREGIVERS

Body Condition Score (BCS) charts for dogs and cats.

Muscle Condition Score (MCS) charts for dogs and cats.

 Selecting commercial pet food can be challenging due to the plethora of commercial products available and abundance of information on the internet. Below are resources on pet food selection and navigating internet resources.

World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) guidelines on pet food selection.  

World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) guidelines on navigating online nutrition information, for cat owners and dog owners. 

The Pet Nutrition Alliance (PNA) asked pet food manufacturers about Colleagues took the WSAVA guidelines and investigated numerous pet food manufacturers in the "Dare to Ask" project and published their findings online; https://petnutritionalliance.org/site/pnatool/dare-to-ask-we-did/. 

It can be. Homemade diets can be a good option for adult dogs with a nutritionally sensitive condition/disease (e.g. kidney disease) when the dog is uninterested in eating a commercial food formulated for that condition/disease.

I strongly recommend that the recipe be formulated by a person properly trained in canine nutrition, like myself or a fellow Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist®. The homemade recipe should be tailor-made to the individual dog. Also, the recipe needs to be followed, as formulated, because changes in ingredients will alter the nutrient profile of the recipe.

Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) is not a new disease in dogs, however, the association with some grain-free commercial dog foods is new and not simply due to a lack of grains.

Colleagues at Tufts published a September 2021 update in their Petfoodology Bog.

The cause for the association between DCM and some grain-free commercial dog foods has not yet been determined.

Raw meat-based diets are more likely to be contaminated by bacterial pathogens like Salmonella and Listeria.

High pressure processing (HPP) can be an effective non-heating method for reducing bacterial pathogens in commercial raw & freeze-dried foods/treats, IF employed properly.

World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) information on raw meat-based diets.

Dr. Weese & Dr. Anderson's Worms & Germs Blog information about raw meat-based diets.

 Pet Nutrition Alliance

Tufts Petfoodology Blog

 Body Condition Score (BCS) charts for horses.

Equi-Analytical Forage Lab