For pet dining
Labels’ promises may not add up, but making own food is also tricky
THE PET FOOD business is big, as a walk down any grocery aisle devoted to dogs and cats will show. Packages featuring brighteyed pets seem to promise long, healthy lives for animals that eat whatever is inside. How does a conscientious pet owner determine which food is best? For answers we turned to the University of Guelph’s Dr. Adronie Verbrugghe, who in December 2011 became the Ontario Veterinary College’s first veterinary nutritionist. The timing was right. When the job was posted, Verbrugghe was nearing the end of a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Ghent.
As an assistant professor of canine and feline clinical nutrition, currently focused on research into obesity in companion animals, particularly cats, Verbrugghe has strong opinions on manufacturers’ pet food claims. Q: What drew you to nutrition research? A: As a child growing up in Belgium, I wanted to be a veterinarian. While I was in veterinary school, my grandfather was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, and I became interested in why certain foods affected him differently. I wrote my final-year thesis on the treatment of diabetes mellitus in cats.
I went on to do a PhD in companion animal nutrition and realized research in this field is lacking, but highly needed. A lot of the available information has come from research on humans and rodents.
Q: If I see a claim that a pet food offers antioxidants to support a healthy immune system, should I believe it?
A: We don’t have a lot of research on antioxidants in cats and dogs.
Everything on pet food packages can be confusing and misleading. A lot of it is marketing, and packaging. People are sometimes too focused on claims that don’t really say anything about quality.
Claims that a product is “holistic” or “human-grade” are meaningless, and can be interpreted as one sees fit. Even a claim that a food product helps prevent tartar only means something if the package also carries the seal of acceptance from the veterinary oral heath council.
If a food is labelled “natural,” it means it does not have synthetic additives such as flavours or colours, which is fine if you can get your cat or dog to eat it. But natural preservatives are not as good as artificial preservatives, so people should be very careful about checking the “best before” date on a “natural” food.
Also, vitamins and minerals have to be added as synthetic additives. So, in theory, a “natural” diet can never be complete and balanced unless the package has a claim that the food is produced with natural ingredients with added vitamins and minerals.
People really should ask a veterinarian which food to buy. I have more trust in the larger pet food companies, such as Royal Canin, Hill’s, Purina and Iams, even though I know some people prefer to go with small or local companies. The bigger firms can afford to do a lot of research and testing for quality and safety, which is very expensive. They also feed their foods all year round in their pet facilities and therefore know if a food is not meeting a dog or cat’s needs. If there’s a recall, they pull their products off store shelves right away. It’s very difficult >>