Feeding a better future for pets
Pets and people belong together and that’s why the cats and dogs in SPCA care are fed PURINA ONE to help them thrive.
Pets are more than just animals; they are companions and members of our family. As pet owners, we want to provide the best possible care for them, and nutrition plays a crucial role in their overall health and wellbeing. Feeding high-quality food to your dogs and cats is essential to ensure they receive the necessary nutrients and maintain optimal health to live long and happy lives.
A good quality diet is especially important for SPCA shelter animals. These animals need all the love and holistic care they can get, and that includes premium nutrition.
So, when a cat or dog is brought to an SPCA Centre, the animal is not only given veterinary check-ups, treatments and a safe, enriching space to rest and recover – SPCA also feeds them PURINA ONE food to support their health as they prepare the pets for adoption into their forever homes.
Given there are more than 24,000 dogs and cats coming into the care of SPCA annually, that’s a lot of little mouths to feed. Purina donated more than 100,000 kgs of food last year to feed the animals, some of whose stories can be seen in TVNZ 1’s SPCA Rescue, on Tuesdays at 7.30pm.
Aoife Cannon, SPCA Head Vet at the Auckland Centre says feeding a good quality diet is particularly important for shelter animals. “A well balanced, readily digestible and high-nutrient diet like PURINA ONE helps support the health of dogs and cats under our care,” says Cannon. “A lot of the animals coming into our care sadly have suffered malnutrition and it is amazing to see the difference just a few weeks feeding PURINA ONE makes.”
The support Purina provides in feeding the cats and dogs of SPCA is invaluable, adds Cannon. “It is not only about putting food in a bowl for our animals,” she says. “The high level of nutrition provided by PURINA ONE has knock-on effects across the board, supporting their immune health and providing them with energy they need to get ready to meet their new families.”
Veterinarian, SPCA and PURINA ONE ambassador Dr Shalsee Vigeant feeds her own dog PURINA ONE and says good nutrition is vital for pets to thrive and live long lives with their humans.
“Nutrition can influence so many different factors and not just the ones we can tangibly see, such as shiny hair coat or good body condition, but things like mood and energy are proven now to be affected by what nutrition we provide for our pets,” says Vigeant. “When it comes to supporting your own dog or cat’s health through nutrition it is always best to feed them specifically formulated food for pets at different ages. And like us humans, higher quality food improves our pets’ energy levels.”
There’s always a big difference in the health and wellbeing of dogs and cats brought to SPCA after they start to eat a diet of PURINA ONE, says Cannon. “We see this in their shiny coats, bright eyes, and high levels of energy and playfulness, all of which make them really attractive to adopters.”
Often SPCA dogs and cats go out to foster homes for a few weeks on their PURINA ONE diet and are “unrecognisable” on their return, says Cannon. “We often have foster parents commenting on how beautiful, soft and shiny their coats are and many adopters comment that they can’t believe the kitten they are adopting is a shelter animal as they are so beautiful.”
Cannon says her own cat is an SPCA rescue and has “absolutely thrived” on PURINA ONE, following a very rough start as an orphan neonate with lots of health issues. “Seeing how well she is doing now on PURINA ONE really gives me confidence in advising new owners to feed their dogs and cats the same.”
PURINA ONE has premium nutrition options available in supermarkets, including life-stage appropriate nutrition for kittens and puppies through to adult and mature adult dogs and cats and tailored needs like large breed dogs, weight management for dogs and cats, skin and coat health and hairballs.