Why I'm currently NOT feeding raw diets to my dogs or cats

 

Over the last year, I have been recommending lightly cooked diets rather than raw to the majority of my clients. I started cooking my diet early in 2025 as a result of the avian flu (HPAI) situation in the US, particularly H5N1 viruses.  As 2025 came to a close, I hoped I'd feel a bit better; however, I am still cooking and plan to continue for the foreseeable future. 

I have 3 primary risk factors: 

1.  I keep an outdoor flock of chickens that do get to free range on my property. Backyard flocks have been affected and continue to be affected in all states. 

2.  I also have a few cats that live in my barn.  Domestic cats continue to be susceptible to H5N1 exposure and cases continue to be reported. Yes, I do worry about these kitties. 

3. The lean beef that I source for some of my diets does come from dairy cattle (it's very lean).  Dairy cattle outbreaks have continued and have affected cattle in 19 states. 

Fortunately, we don't have any cases of H5N1 in domestic dogs; therefore, I do feel their risk is quite low.  Unfortunately, there have been many cases in 2025 of domestic cats, skunks, raccoons, wild cats such as puma and bobcats, weasels, rodents, seals and red fox across the US including in my state.  Considering the continuation of these outbreaks, along with my lifestyle, I have opted not to take the risk.  I lightly parboil the meat to 160 degrees F and then mix in my other ingredients just as I normally would when my diet was raw.  

For dog-only households, I'd feel comfortable with feeding raw.  With the number of domestic cats affected, I would definitely not feed raw beef (sourced from dairy cattle), or poultry to cats.

Everyone should consider their own level of risk tolerance. If you are interested in following the cases across the US, here is the link for USDA's surveillance of mammal cases:  

Current detection of HPAI 

This diet does not diagnose, cure, treat or prevent a disease!!!!!

I feel like putting that title statement on my website.   I am the first to admit and get in line to say a good diet can in fact "prevent" many diseases and certainly should be considered as a component of preventative medicine and disease treatment. I'll even go so far as to say that it should be considered in every clinical case, but it is not a Silver Bullet and it won't work overnight.

The most frustrating cases I work on include allergies, behavior problems/concerns and gut issues. These are very frustrating because if your pet has one, you want it gone and the cause or causes can be multi-faceted and difficult to identify.

Allergies: I have a dog with allergies and it's terrible.  She licks her feet (which are now brown stained), scratches and chews on herself.  I am a pretty good nutritionist but I CANNOT make her environmental allergies go away.  Although I have tried, I simply can't and believe me, I HAVE tried.  My dogs are always the "guinea pigs" for all the things you see and read on the internet. Everything from coenzyme Q10, to local honey to coconut oil, Trinkit has evaluated it.  Whether her issues are genetic or related to over-vaccination in her youth before she came to us, I cannot say (I do have my suspicions).  We have been successful managing her diet related allergies but the environmental allergies are a battle that even a good raw diet cannot win.  I have a wonderful graduate student currently evaluating some health factors in dogs fed raw diets and the dogs on study have genetic health concerns including allergies.  The dogs have never been fed raw diets previously (they are adults) and while their allergies have improved, they HAVE NOT gone away.  Unless you know for certain what foods trigger the response, diet may help but it won't necessarily fix allergy issues.

Behavior Issues: This one is a major frustration of mine.  Mostly because as a nutritionist and a fairly savvy dog trainer, I don't know in most cases what the roots of the behavior issues actually are.  There are nutrients such as thiamine, B6 and trypophan that are precursors or regulators of neurotransmitters.  These can affect mood.  Through the Holidays, most of us have experienced the amazing influence of tryptophan from turkey consumption.  It's a GREAT thing. Tryptophan is a biochemical precursor of Serotonin which is associated with feelings of well-being.  For that very reason, turkey often is a great addition for dogs with behavior issues. It can also be useful to use "Cool" foods along with manipulations of protein and carbohydrate in the diet; however, these changed WILL NOT FIX the issue because you'll need to include some good training, exercise, and behavior modification in that plan as well.

Gut issues: As with the above issues, I cannot determine if loose stools or vomiting are results of something genetic, acute, a major underlying inflammatory condition, or stress.  I hesitate to even mention the last trigger because we all get so weird about it.  The last thing any owner wants to believe is that they may be causing their pet stress.  My husband refers to this as "SOD" or Spastic Owner Disease and he can in fact quickly identify these owners.  He has a long history of working in the zoological field; therefore, has a pretty good handle on the long term impact of low grade stress on animals.  That's a very hard thing to stomach for most owners.  I'm not sure how well I'd take it if someone told me that my dogs were living under chronic stress that was causing low grade inflammation, resulting in inflammatory diseases down the road.  Is that possible?? ABSOLUTELY.  There is so much research documenting the effects of long term, low grade stress on inflammatory responses in the gut.  Please do NOT take this as my saying every dog's inflammatory gut issues are related to the owner, that's not what I'm saying at all.  BUT, I am saying it's possible and we should all be considering the stresses and pressures we place on our dogs. Dogs that get soft stools every time they travel or compete are the ones that make me nervous.  If you have one of those dogs, I urge you to consider altering the diet before you travel and compete. Adding a digestive enzyme and a good probiotic before you leave can help this process. Realize there is likely inflammation in the gut during these times which will open up opportunities for other issues to wreck havoc on the gut.   Rather than look for simple treatments and cures, we should always try to address the root cause if we can.

Diet and nutrition can be an amazing strength within any treatment and preventative plan.  A solid diagnosis from a veterinarian along with any medical treatments, plus a well balanced diet, can do wonders toward treating and curing diseases.  I love it most when I get to work as a team with a client and their vet...it WORKS so much better that way. Diet and nutrition are amazing and that's why I do what I do, but I will never underestimate the value of teamwork while working through health concerns. 

Petfood Selections - Priorities for Kibble Dog Foods

How sad it's been well over a year that I've blogged.  I can only say that is truly indicative of how busy things have been and that is certainly a wonderful problem to have.

Every semester I give a lecture to my students about selecting petfoods.  This past weekend a friend forwarded me some questions and I realized I should blog my response rather than simply email back since others may have similar questions.

My favorite diets are certainly raw or home-prepared diets; however, I am the first in line to understand those diets are not appropriate for every home and every situation.  There are many fabulous kibble and canned foods for our beloved dogs and cats on the market today. So, I am going to share with you how I select kibble dog foods.  I want to preface this by saying these are my NORMAL recommendations for NORMAL and healthy dogs.  There are totally different selection criteria in play when we are dealing with clinical considerations which I am not addressing here.

First decision point is protein source.  This may or may not be a major decision for some people but if you know you want a fish diet for example, obviously that's where you start.  I RARELY suggest lamb or venison diets.  These are "hot" proteins (so is chicken) and most dogs I work with run "hot".  That's pretty easy to determine if your dog seeks cool places to lay, stretches out while sleeping and gets hot easily or is easily excitable or easily aroused.  These dogs are likely (but certainly not always) "hot"; therefore, cooling proteins are typically better options.  Those of you that know my little Keegan, he is my exception. Keegan is ALWAYS cold, even when it's 100 degrees outside.  He always sleeps curled up and most often buried under 5 pounds of blankets.  You can actually feel cool as you touch his ears and back.  Keegan is fed primarily lamb to "warm" him up.  If you work with a holistic vet, they can help you determine if your dog is hot or cold.  Fish, duck and turkey are good cool proteins, and beef and pork are neutral.

After I've decided if protein source is important to me, I look at fat content.  At minimum, fat concentration should be 15% for a kibble.  If it's below 15%, I don't consider it further.  I am of the strong opinion we have misunderstood the value of fat in diets of carnivores.  They are extremely efficient at using them.  Even overweight dogs do not need low fat diets, they simply need fewer calories...funny thing...so do we :).

Next, I consider protein concentration.  This needs to be in proper ratio with the fat.  I want an approximate 2:1 protein to fat ratio.  In the case of kibbles, if I've found one that has 15% fat, then the protein needs to be very close to 30%.  If the fat is 20%, then the protein needs to be 40%, etc...

If I'm happy with both protein and fat, then I look at ingredients.  I prefer the products that have higher protein and fat concentrations. This is because the higher those two, the lower the starch.  So, when I'm looking at order of ingredients I like to see 2, if not 3 protein sources at the top. If it says chicken (actual chicken meat with high moisture) then I want the following protein to say "meal" such as chicken meal (dried, rendered chicken).  Some of the worst diets in my opinion will have a high moisture meat ingredient like chicken at the top of the list but then quickly be followed up with a carbohydrate fraction that is dry such as peas or potatoes or a grain.  When you consider the entire diet on a dry matter basis, suddenly that high moisture chicken is no longer the top ingredient.  If you select your diets first based on fat and protein rather than ingredients you likely won't get fooled by this trick because those diets won't even reach the 30% protein and 15% fat minimum in the first place.

I'm pretty happy if I see something like: chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal.  You get a meat followed with a meal and your protein and fat will be higher.

I am also OK with "by products" and "by product meals" as long as I can identify the species from which said by products came from.  No poultry or animal by products as the quality then becomes rather sketchy in my opinion.

Grains - I'm totally OK with grains.  A funny thing, some grain-included foods are actually higher quality than a lot of the grain-free varieties.  Another reason I always start with fat and protein concentration before looking at ingredients. A lot of grain-frees won't actually reach 30% protein and 15% fat. Unless I have a known reason to avoid grains, I simply don't.  In fact, I use barley, quinoa or oatmeal in my home-made raw diet for my guys. I also will use rice on occasion.

Starches - even the grain-free diets must contain substantial (usually in the area of about 40%) starch to maintain the quality of the kibble itself.  So, they use potatoes, fractions of potatoes, peas, fractions of peas and tapioca.  Of those, peas are my favorite.  I prefer peas over potatoes because of the starch type and glycemic index.  The starch in potatoes is extremely digestible and has a high glycemic index. If I asked you if you should eat peas daily or potatoes daily, you'd probably know eating potatoes on a daily basis isn't your best choice...it's not for dogs either (although I'd gladly eat potatoes every day...I LOVE THEM).  There are fewer options that only use peas as the starch source; however, more petfood companies are utilizing them more extensively.

A note about plant proteins such as soybean meal and corn gluten meal - I avoid those.  I will not deny they are definitely proteins but I don't believe they are the quality for carnivores or have the appropriate amino acids for carnivores that animal proteins or egg proteins  have.

Hope that makes your decision making process a bit easier!

Warning - Don't Eat That!

"Warning - Feeding these dog foods to your dog could be hazardous to his health"...when I saw this statement on a piece of my mail today, I had an internal dialogue.

Maybe that statement should have been on all the fudge, bottles of wine, gravy and mashed potatoes, cookies, pumpkin pie, and margaritas that I consumed in excess over the past two weeks? I laughed and pondered the thought for a moment then giggled and said...nope, wouldn't have helped one tiny bit. I would have enjoyed all those things in excess regardless of any silly warning statement provided.  Why? Because I LOVE and ENJOY those foods (and drinks). Key words there: ENJOY & LOVE...and consumed in the last 2 weeks, not ALL THE TIME.

So here it goes, I'm sure many of you will be shocked and dismayed to find out that on occasion, I commit the most horrible of dog-mom sins...I let my dogs indulge on crap food or treats.  I even indulge Mr. Keegan in a few M&M's every now and then.  They are to him what margaritas are to me...God's gift to the taste buds.  I've always said the best thing about having a Ph.D in nutrition is the ability to justify eating ANYTHING!

What I've never been able to justify is how did it come to be that we decided there were "certain" ways we should feed our dogs and certain foods that we should or shouldn't feed our dogs? My favorites are the statements like "you can't feed raw and kibble at the same time" and "dogs are carnivores and should only have meat" and "by-products are crap", "you should never give your dogs bones" and "you can't feed raw eggs to dogs" and "raw is the only way to go if you want a healthy dog" of course the list goes on and on. 

When did we figure there was a "right" and "wrong" way to feed an animal that evolved with us? This is where I struggle.  We know that the "right" way for a human to eat is to eat a variety of foods including proteins, fruits and vegetables, whole grains and limit processing as much as possible.  Does it not make sense that dogs should eat that way as well? The only difference I see is that the dog is anatomically a carnivore and has a very short digestive tract compared to ours.  Dogs do need more animal protein but shouldn't be fed ONLY meat.  An "only meat" diet may be the natural history for the African Hunting Dog but certainly not that of the dog. 

When we consume a healthy and varied diet the majority of time, guess what happens when we over indulge during the holidays? NOTHING...isn't it beautiful?  I just love that! Truly nothing.  The more balanced our guts are, the greater the ability to re-balance when we decide to pig out on cookies and candy.  I have watched the same thing with my dogs.  My dogs have an extremely varied diet from day to day.  They are fed raw, kibble, cooked meat, dehydrated, canned, commercial raw frozen, and sometimes I even mix them all up at once.  I also have chickens and the dogs do eat raw eggs (and cooked eggs) regularly.

Are there products out there that our dogs should not be fed as a regular and major component of their diets? Of course.  I can't imagine what my health would be like if I ate pumpkin pie and drank margaritas every day.  Nor could I imagine what my gut would be like if I only ate grilled chicken and rice every day.  It certainly wouldn't be strong enough to allow me the enjoyment of indulging during the holidays without some pain and discomfort involved. Both scenarios are dangerous for the human and canine gut alike.

I challenge you to consider the natural history of the animal you are feeding and think about what actually does make sense for you and for your pet.  Just because your training partner feeds raw, doesn't mean that your choice to feed kibble is wrong.  Both of you can have healthy animals if you provide them the right balance and variety to support an optimal environment in the gut. 

Choline

My new obsession is dietary choline.  Choline is classified with other vitamins; however, doesn't quite act like other vitamins and can really cause problems in formulations due to stability (or lack thereof).  It is currently giving me gray hairs in supplements for large felids and Fishing cats. 


Fishing Cat  (Photo by Cheryl Morris)

I find choline so intriguing because it is extremely complicated.  Not only do mammals synthesize it, but it interacts with several other nutrients such as B12, folate and methionine.  In other words, their status will impact the status of choline and vice versa.  Choline is synthesized from the two amino acids serine and methionine through a reaction dependent on S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe). The later may be a compound you have seen on supplements, particularly for joint health.

A deficiency of choline will result in fatty liver and renal hemorrhage, along with potential cognitive loss or deficiencies in learning. Additionally, choline deficiency also has been documented to promote spontaneous development of cancer of the liver.  In other words, a deficiency of choline is an ugly thing but it's a difficult one to asses because folate, B12, and methionine status also should be considered.  Another compound called betaine and dietary methionine can actually replace some dietary choline in the diet. That said, a combination of high dietary methionine along with deficient choline likely results in elevated concentrations of plasma homocysteine, that in humans is a risk factor for vascular diseases.  To say the least, choline is a complicated and fascinating nutrient.

Unprocessed and whole foods contain some choline.  This is certainly one of those compounds that makes me happy I feed raw and makes me appreciate differences among species.  When it comes to total choline concentrations, the best sources include beef liver (418 mg/100 g), lecithin (300 mg/100 g), chicken liver (290 mg/100 g) and eggs (251 mg/100 g).  When it comes to muscle meats only, pork is the protein with the highest concentrations (>100 mg/100 g) compared with other proteins (Zeisel et al., Journal of Nutrition, 2003). The requirements for dogs and cats are set at approximately 1,700 and 2,500 mg per Kg of diet on a dry matter basis, or more simply...approximately 15 - 20 mg per pound of body weight for dogs and 20 - 30 mg per pound of body weight for cats.  A typical egg is going to contain about 174 mg of choline (assuming it is 60 grams). Since my 35 Lb border collie eats 2 eggs daily, well over half of his choline requirement is coming from eggs.  It is unlikely that raw diets including eggs and liver in the formulation will be deficient in choline.

There is indication in literature that perhaps choline requirements increase during exercise. Of course this hasn't been studied as it relates to agility dogs.  Additionally, choline concentrations aren't documented in relation to raw meats typically fed to pets and carnivores.  I've been on the fence about studying concentrations of choline in various meats and ingredients we typically use for carnivores, but it looks like we may head down that road.  Somehow I always find questions that need answered regarding our sport dogs and raw diets...not to mention the exotic carnivores I continue to work with.

Carbohydrates 2: Dietary Fibers

Dietary fibers in my opinion are the most important carbohydrates to consider in diet formulations for animals, particularly for our pets.

Fiber often gets labeled as "filler" although some people refer to all carbohydrates in pet foods as fillers and that's just silly (especially to those of you reading this blog).  Now, if you are feeding a food like Ol Roy (don't tell me if you are!), yes, you are feeding way too carbohydrate and your dog (or cat) will have the fecal output to show for it.

First off, dietary fiber is not a single or simple group of compounds.  In fact, they are extremely complex and diverse carbohydrates with diverse physical and chemical properties.  Structurally, some fibers are soluble and some are insoluble.  Some are viscous and have very high water holding capacity, while others are non-viscous.  Some are fermentable in the bowel and others are not. Lastly, they can be combinations of the above.  So, you can have soluble - viscous - fermentable fibers for example (those are my favorites), or you can have something like psyllium (Metamucil), which is actually a very soluble-viscous-non fermentable fiber.

The frustrating issue for me is that the label and analytics involved, don't necessarily tell you about those properties.  If you look on a label of food (for you) at the grocery store, you will see that perhaps it breaks down the fiber into Soluble and Insoluble, but often gives you the Total Dietary Fiber (TDF) amount.  On an herbivore diet such as for cows or horses, the label will likely (hopefully) include ADF (acid-detergent fiber) and NDF (neutral-detergent fiber).  The values of TDF, ADF and NDF and obtained through totally different analyses in a lab.  On our petfoods, we will see a value called "Crude Fiber" which also is a totally different analysis for fiber.  Unfortunately, crude fiber is a completely worthless value to use.  The assay destroys all of the soluble fibers and many insoluble fibers and only recovers portions of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin (totally insoluble, non viscous, non fermentable).  Therefore, a petfood might have a crude fiber value of 2.5% on the label but in reality, may have TDF values closer to 10% or even 20% depending on the ingredients used.

"Shadow"

Ideally, I want fibers on the ingredient list that will provide some soluble characteristics.  Soluble - viscous - fermentable fibers can alter gastric emptying and transit time (this can be good and bad), aid in management of pH along the G.I tract, provide volatile fatty acids for energy to the cells lining the gut, and aid in the management of blood lipids and glucose. These fibers can be very good in appropriate concentrations.  In addition, many of these fibers provide prebiotic properties and help maintain optimal microflora populations that provide a strong basis for overall health and immunity.

Many folks like to use canned pumpkin in diets.  Canned pumpkin contains about 30% TDF.  That fiber is about 20% soluble and 80% insoluble; therefore, it does provide a nice blend.   Due to the high TDF concentration and the blend of soluble to insoluble, pumpkin is an ingredient that I can use effectively across a huge range of species including dogs and cats, bears, elephants and primates.

My dog's raw diet does contain grain (and quite often pumpkin).  I use oats and barley predominately at 10% of the the diet (as-fed).  Oats and barley contain 30 and 12% TDF, respectively.  Corn and wheat actually contain about 19 and 17% TDF while rice contains less than 2% (white rice).  Barley has the highest percentage of soluble fiber, consisting of 30% of the total TDF.  This gives barely some very viscous qualities or thickening properties.  Oats on the other hand only have about 10% of the TDF as soluble; therefore, combined, I get a very nice blend of fiber qualities in my diet.  Corn, wheat and rice contain 18, 14, and 20% of the TDF as soluble.  Rice has such a low TDF value overall, I tend to not use it much, especially because it also has a very high glycemic index.  Corn and wheat are definitely options for those animals that tolerate them.  I will use fresh corn in my diet because an additional 15 - 20% (as fed) will consist of  fresh fruits, greens and vegetables.  If you are wondering, the breakdown looks like this:

55 - 60% muscle meat
10 - 15% organ meat (mostly liver and heart)
15 - 20% Greens, vegetables, fruit (seasonal)
10% grain
I supplement with eggshells for calcium and feed raw meaty bones 2-3 times week.

No doubt, fibers have personality!!! I love them!

Carbohydrates 1 = Sugars and Starches

Next to "grains", sugars and starches are likely the biggest culprits of "anti-carb" propaganda in relation to petfoods.

Sugars are typically referred to as mono and di-saccharides and common examples  include glucose, galactose, fructose, sucrose (table sugar), lactose (milk sugar), and maltose.  They are typically included in foods to increase palatability, change viscous properties, alter texture, and/or provide color (browning reactions).  Honey is an ingredient in many of my recipes, specifically because of its balanced concentration of gluocse and fructose.  It provides a sweet taste that many dogs appreciate (or at least my Keegan thinks it's awesome).  Interestingly, I often hear performance dog handlers indicate that honey makes their dogs sluggish.  I do believe this is similar to some of the dogs that collapse during exercise (specific genetic diseases excluded).  Fructose metabolism is a bit more complicated than glucose metabolism.  It will either get used for energy or converted directly to fat (this is why high fructose corn syrup is so "fattening" for us humans if we don't use it for energy).  Therefore, in our performance dogs, if they have a high glucose demand that gluconeogenesis is not maintaining, then yes, honey may not be the best option and more rapidly available carbohydrate sources are  optimal.

Keegan (Photo by: Marsha Kingsley)

Starches are interesting ingredients as well.  Starch in its basic definition is just a lot of glucose molecules joined together in one of two patterns, linear (amylose) or branched (amylopectin).  Amylopectin is more rapidly digested and thus, higher concentrations result in higher glycemic index.  Food sources vary in the ratio of these two forms; therefore, one type of grain or carb does not equal another...hence all the confusion.  For example, low amylose and high amylopectin in rice, make it rapidly digested but also give it a very high glycemic index.  It is often used as the "go to" for many diets because of its high digestibility. I tend to not use it so much because of its very high glycemic index.  Instead I use primarily barley and oats in my formulations, or when I'm looking at petfoods. I like the fact that both have nice amylose to amylopectin ratios and they each have additional cooling (barley) or heating (oats) properties (a topic for later discussion), and viscous fibrous properties (...more on that later as well).

I would really love to see some studies related to glycemic index of grain-free petfoods.  Most of these are made with potato starch, because a good deal of starch is needed for the extrusion process in order to hold the kibble together.  I'd like to see this because I suspect that many of the grain-free foods made with potato, will actually cause a higher glycemic index (this may be a good thing for those of you with dogs that are prone to collapse at trials or during intense exercise but may be a concern for overweight cats prone to diabetes).   Interestingly, some groups in Canada are studying the increased use of peas and pea starch in petfoods.  Like barley and oats, peas have some really awesome fiber characteristics as well and the resulting glycemic index is much lower than rice or potato. I love peas (for me and the dogs!)

My dogs are fed extremely varied diets included raw, home-cooked (quite literally the only thing I cook), kibble, canned, dehyrated and combinations of all of the above.  I am fortunate they don't have issues with grains or carbs; therefore,  I can and do provide varied sources.  In my raw and cooked diets, 30% of the diet is a carbohydrate mix that includes fruits, vegetables, greens, and grains (barley, oats) in equal proportions by weight. I do not include potatoes in my blend but will on occasion include corn (especially in the summer when I can buy it fresh). I bet you wondered if I'd say the "c" word.  Absolutely, I will use corn in moderation just like the rest of my carb sources.  I try to add at least 3-5  different fruits and vegetables in every batch (typically 2 weeks worth of food).  I do buy what is seasonal (I am an Animal Scientist after all, and "least cost formulations" are important to me).

If any of my dogs seemed to have issues at trials or during exercise with hypoglycemia or collapse, I would actually utilize some of the higher protein and fat (maintaining a 2:1 protein to fat ratio) diets that have rice or potato listed in the top 5 ingredients (many many options).  I would use these throughout trial weekends, along with my raw diet and if the dogs were agreeable, I'd use them as treats (perhaps make meatballs with ground up kibble and raw meat...a little honey added if Keegan were the chef) throughout trial weekends. This might take some trial and error to see what worked best but that would be my plan A (I don't come up with Plan B until I need it)!

Cheers!!!

Carbohydrates - totally misunderstood!

No other group of nutrients gets more grief than carbohydrates, especially in diets for carnivores.  Much of the misunderstanding is simply in the fact that carbohydrate compounds are lumped into one huge category and we don't have a specific requirement for them. Indeed, when you look through the NRC for Dogs and Cats, there is no requirement for carbs like there is for fats and proteins.  This leads people to believe that dogs and cats don't need them. I completely DISAGREE! In fact, I use carbohydrate blends all the time in raw formulations for carnivores and they are invaluable to me in most of my clinical formulations. Even our formulations for big cats at the zoo include some carbohydrate; however, we are very specific about the types and amounts.

Unfortunately, the term carbohydrate includes everything from sugars and starches to dietary fibers and prebiotics. Confusing? Absolutely.  Even dietary fiber isn't analyzed the same. The fiber included on the label of a pet food is what we call "Crude Fiber" and it means absolutely not one thing to a dog or a cat.  It's not even the value we see on human food products which is referred to as Total Fiber.  Oh yes, they are totally different analyses and give you completely different results.  There are even specific fiber assays that we use for herbivores that recover different fibrous compounds.

The crude fiber assay only recovers a very small fraction of  true fiber found in food as portions (not even all) of lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose (structural carbohydrates in plants).  Those fabulous soluble dietary fibers that we are  encouraged to consume and the wonderful long chain polysaccharides that act as prebiotics in the gut are destroyed in that assay; therefore, not included. So where do those get recovered in terms of pet food labeling? They don't. They wind up being lumped along with starch and sugar in the total carbohydrate calculation minus the Crude Fiber...or what we call Nitrogen Free Extract (NFE).

The calculation is based on subtracting out protein, fat, crude fiber and ash (total minerals) from the total dry matter in the diet and looks something like this: NFE = 100% - protein % - fat % - ash% (total minerals) - crude fiber %.  In other words, we are accounting for the minerals, fat, protein and the tiny bit of fiber; however, EVERYTHING else gets lumped into the "NFE" package including vitamins, starch, long chain polysaccharides, all soluble dietary fibers, most insoluble dietary fibers, FOS & MOS (prebiotics), and sugars...yes, the good the bad and the ugly all get lumped together.  I have come across many websites and blogs that refer to this NFE fraction as "carbohydrate" which is misleading.

It is frustrating to hear the misconceptions about carbohydrates because they have a purpose in pet foods.  For example, if you enjoy the convenience of a kibble pet food, then you are enjoying the benefits of starch because it must be there in substantial concentrations to hold the kibble together (including those grain-free foods).  Although there is no specific requirement for carbohydrates, they do provide benefit and provide nutrition.  That said, some types of carbohydrates are frequently overused in pet foods and that poses issues and concerns.

Over the summer I'll be writing a series on carbohydrates to hopefully answer some of your questions about their advantages, disadvantages and functions in foods. Hopefully, we'll also get to some vitamin issues as well (the group of nutrients I love to hate!).

By - Products

I enjoy reading several online articles, blogs, and Journals and even edit for a Journal.  Recently, one of my favorite authors made me a little crabby as it came to an article she wrote in reference to by-products and organ meats.  I will start by saying I agree with this author 90% of the time; however, this time, I found myself a bit irriated as what she wrote was very misleading.  Of course the defininitions of ingredients themselves are totally misleading which is partly to blame. 

Because I truly hate things taken out of context, I'm sharing the link of her article and the one she referenced.  Dr. Greg Aldrich wrote this one for Petfood Industry: http://www.petfoodindustry.com/Sub_Level_-_News/46921.html
In turn, Dr. Becker wrote this one: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/11/21/organ-meats.aspx

If you read them both, you will definitely understand who their respective audiences are.  Dr. Aldrich writes for the Industry and he has forgotten more information about petfood ingredients than most people know all together.  I consider him the leading expert without doubt when it comes to ingredients and I have saught his expertise numerous times. 

I struggled with Dr. Becker's article because I am very sensitive to the use of "by-products" and also to their bad name.  I have recently been working with a human meat company who is desperately wanting to increase the value of the animal they harvest by better utilizing the "parts" they don't use in the human product they make.  This accounts for approximately 40% of the weight of the animal. Not only do I appreciate that perspective from a financial standpoint, more importantly I appreciate that from a simple resource standpoint.  Our food supply on this planet is not without limit and determining ways to utilize as much of the animals and plants we harvest is absolutely a necessary part of our futures. 

I was taken on a tour of the processing plant about a year ago to see the entire process and the "parts" they were concerned about.  I watched from the time the animals were unloaded to the time everything was chilled and boxed.  Throughout the process, "parts" disappeared on a conveyor belt and I repeatedly asked "where is that going?".  The answer was always the same...to rendering.  These parts included trachea, organs, ears, and bones...all of which I wanted for our carnivores at the zoo. That day I had the plant manager box up samples of those "by-products" and when I delivered the boxes to our cat zoo-keepers, you would have thought it was Christmas morning. 

Since then, our lab analyzed over 27 different "by-products" for their nutrients and created a raw meat diet for zoo carnivores that contains more than 40% of these unwanted by-products.  In our fisrt feeding and digestibility trial with African wildcats, not only was it more palatable than our typical raw meat diet, the protein and fat were better digested.

The part of Dr. Becker's article that made me so crabby was in the below statement regarding rendered proteins. Not all rendered proteins are the same, the process is the same but what consitutes the raw product is very different.  There is a HUGE difference between something labeled as Chicken Meal vs. Chicken By-Product Meal vs. Poultry By-Product Meal vs. Meat and Bone Meal.  Dr. Becker basically lumped them all together as "rendered proteins" and that's not at all accurate and Dr. Aldrich would agree. 

Dr. Becker writes:
"The rendering process involves combining “raw product” sourced from meat slaughtering and processing plants; dead animals from farms, ranches, feedlots, marketing barns, animal shelters, and other facilities; and fats, grease, and other food waste from restaurants and stores.
The “raw product” mixture is cooked at high temperatures, the moisture is removed, and then it’s pulverized into a powdery material known as meat and bone meal. Along the way, most of the grease is skimmed away, and excess hair and large bone chips are removed from the powder. So while a given mix of rendered protein may contain organ meats (that were much more nutritious before being exposed to extremely high heat and other processing methods), it’s just as likely to contain bits and pieces of nasty items like beaks, feathers, feet, hooves, hair, tumors, and who knows what else."

She is absolutely correct if she is describing Meat and Bone Meal but certainly not meat by-products.

Here is the AAFCO definition of Meat By-Products = non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered animals. It includes, but is not limited to lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, fatty tissue, stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, feathers, hooves, teeth. "Meals" are the rendered versions of the above.

If you take that a step further for respective species such as beef by-products or chicken by-products then you narrow that definition more to just that species. 

In my opinion there is absolutely no room in my pet's diets for Meat and Bone Meal or any other meal for that matter where I cannot identify the species I'm feeding.  However, I have no issue with feeding "by-products" or "by-product meals" as long as I can identify the species from which they came. 

If you are interested in hearing Dr. Aldrich speak directly about ingredients, I encourage you to attend a free Webinar that he will be giving this Thursday, November 29, at 7 PM.  You can join me next Thursday for a free webinar on raw meat diets.  http://www.extension.org/pages/66260/free-canine-nutrition-webinars

Puppies and puppy foods

I have to admit that the transition to faculty at Iowa State University and teaching a course right off the bat have taken a toll on keeping up with blogging.  It's definitely enjoyable but I don't believe my students find diet formulation nearly as fun and entertaining as I do. 

To add to the drama in my life, in late September, I offered to foster a smooth coat border collie puppy from a rescue in MN. Middle of last month, I finally admitted that I was in love with the little worm and we told him he could stay with us forever.  His name is Ace.

Ace is my pal and has been our side kick at the recent agility trials.  Of course he has found these outings to be a blast and has developed some fantastic new agility friends.  In one of the romps last weekend, the conversation of puppy foods popped up.  This always is one of those areas that I believe likely to be the most frustrating for new puppy owners.  Not only are new owners bombarded with hundreds of diets, but they also are swarmed with opinions of well meaning breeders, friends, and other owners. 

With any growing animal, many factors play a role in the optimal development of that animal into a healthy, thriving adult, including diet and nutrition, genetics, structure, and overall health.  Often I find that many of the opinions that get translated to puppy owners come from people that fail to account for all the factors that affect our puppy's development.  Instead, nutrition and diet nearly always get blamed.  So, I decided to do some comparisons of foods this week. 

I chose 6 foods: Canidae (for all life stages), Orijen Puppy, Orijen Large Breed Puppy, Wellness Large Breed Puppy, Wellness Puppy, and Taste of the Wild Puppy.  In addition, I chose to use Ace as a model but also looked up some weights from my Toy Fox Terrier girls when they were 14 - 16 weeks old, and also selected to include a large breed puppy example. 

The first thing we have to address is energy requirements of our puppies and that is why I selected to use 3 very different puppies.  The energy requirement of a puppy over 14 weeks of age is set by some fancy mathematical equations that go way beyond inclusion in this blog. I made my students deal with the math this week and I don't think they liked me for it.  Long story short, we have to consider our puppy's current body weight and their estimated body weight as an adult. Based on these, I calculated the requirements for energy at 275, 1,000 and 1,400 Kcal daily for the Toy Fox Terrier, Ace, and the Large Breed Puppy (LBP), respectively. 

Now the fun begins.  All of the nutrient requirements that are established for dogs and puppies are relative to their individual energy requirements.  So, I can't just look at the amount in the book or on the bag and assume it's OK. I actually have to determine how much the puppy is actually going to need of that particular food and then calculate the amount of each nutrient supplied from it.

Once I met each puppy's requirement for energy, I looked at Calcium and Phosphorus.  This is where things get kind of ugly.  When we hear conversations such as "too much protein", or "too many calories" in regard to puppy foods, it's typically misunderstood why that is an issue.  Very calorically dense foods, require less intake...that makes sense...now multiply that lower intake by the nutrient content of the food and suddenly we are getting less nutrient.  This isn't as big an issue for the toy puppy that reaches adult body weight much quicker, as it is for the large breed puppy that takes longer to mature. That seems very reasonable until you consider the high quality products most of us are purchasing and then things get totally confusing because suddenly, protein is excessive in all of them.

The Canidae product supplied 33% more protein than the puppies needed but it fell short by 3 and 12%, respectively for Calcium and Phosphorus.  

Now, the 2 Orijen Products: the Large Breed Puppy product supplied over 155% of the LBP's protein requirement and more than 60% and 53% of the Calcium and Phosphorus requirements, respectively.  This holds true also for the other 2 puppies.  The Orijen Regular Puppy food is better but still supplies 120, 28 and 25% of the puppy's requirements for Protein, Calcium and Phosphorus, respectively.  Obviously, protein in these types of foods is not going to be an issue.  Oversupplementation is the issue.

The Wellness Large Breed puppy was only 67% over on Protein and 13.5% for both Calcium and Phosphorus.  I liked this a good deal because they were both balanced very well and not horribly excessive.  The Regular Wellness Puppy was similar in Protein, but was only 5% over on Calcium and Phosphorus for the LBP example. 

Lastly, Taste of the Wild Puppy was 75% over on Protein and 28% over on Calcium and 10% over on Phosphorus. 

What does all this mean? Well, first let's factor in how much of each food we'd have to feed our Large Breed puppy to meet those energy requirements: 353, 430, 350, 415, 385 and 400 grams per day of Canidae, Orijen LB, Orijen Puppy, Wellness LB, Wellness Puppy and TOW Puppy with daily costs of $0.96, $2.28, $1.87, $1.78, $1.52, and $1.58, respectively.  I am not saying at all that cost is the most important thing, the point is, the most expensive diets here both supply excessive amounts of nutrients and while I love Orijen for adult agility dogs, I would not feed either of those products to any of the puppy examples. 

Although Ace gets a raw diet that I formulate, he also gets Wellness Puppy and Taste of the Wild Puppy, which from these examples are definitely my favorite 2 choices from my selections for all 3 puppy types.  I would feed the Wellness LB product to any of the puppy examples, including the Toy; however, it's more expensive per day and I actually have to feed more of it to reach their energy requirements.

Obviously every food is different, and the energy requirements of every puppy are different.  Petfood companies are challenged with trying to find a happy medium to supply nutrients in a palatable, high quality product.  I have a handy little spreadsheet to calculate these numbers for me.  If you are feeding a puppy and want an estimate of their nutrient requirements along with how your selected food or foods stack up against your individual puppy's requirements, don't hesitate to contact me. 

Ace has been busy while I've blogged.   Enjoy them...they grow up too darn fast!!!!!

The Other Half of the Team

This Sunday I arrived at a trial site and realized rather quickly that I'd forgotten 2 things.  The first thing I noticed I forgot was my protein breakfast bar.  When I realized I forgot it, I simply said..."well, I'm still not hungry so will just wait until lunch...no biggie".  After walking the dogs and bringing them in, I then recognized I forgot the other item...the "magic agility water" for the dogs.  In reality there is no magic at all...it is simply water, a spoonful or so of chicken baby food and 1 teaspoon of L-glutamine powder.  This is a recipe I concocted a couple years ago after I almost lost Keegan to dehydration at an outdoor agility trial.

Needless to say my reaction to forgetting this necessary part of our trial day was mildly ridiculous.  I proceeded to beat myself up for at least 10 minutes, wondering how I could be so incredibly stupid.  After all, I'd made it up and had it ready, how could I have just left it in the fridge? "Idiot", I told myself.  It's amazing how horribly mean I can be to myself.  Our agility day continued wonderfully and we even made it home with blue ribbons, despite my stupidity at forgetting the water.

Later that afternoon I had an epiphany that resulted in the firing of myself as a Comparative Nutritionist...no fear, I did rehire myself (under probation).  What caused this epiphany was standing up and playing ball with Karma.  I'd been sitting at my desk for over an hour when Karma plopped a ball on my lap indicating it was time to take a break and go have some fun.  When I stood up I felt the crackles in my knees and winced at the pain in my lower back.  The pain subsided quickly as it usually does and we proceeded to go play ball.  As I watched my beloved girl race through the field to get her ball, often jumping for no other reason than to jump, I realized how mortified I'd be if I ever knew that any of my dogs were living with crackling joints or chronic pain.

That's when I fired myself on the spot!!!!

My dogs have scientifically formulated diets that precisely meet specific nutritional goals for each one.   I know they are getting the very best nutrition possible because it's important to me that my teammates are in top condition both physically and metabolically.  Then there's the other half of the team...Me! Yes, me, the one that drank a coke at the trial and enjoyed a friend's MACH cake, skipped breakfast, hadn't taken her fish oil, multivitamin, or calcium in over a month...me, the one that doesn't eat enough fruit, drink enough milk and certainly hasn't developed her abs to support the scoliosis in her back.  To say in that moment I was not impressed with myself was a drastic understatement.

How could I be so obsessed with my dog's nutrition and fitness but not my own? Did it not matter? How could it not, after all, now that I'm competing with 4 dogs, they might run 2 - 5 times a day but this half of the team has to now run 8 - 20 times a day. The only way my body can do that and sustain that is if I take care of it.

After this internal discussion with myself (and yet one more bout of self name-calling), I developed a new job description that did not take the human half for granted.  All species are created equal in my world of nutrition, and I certainly am one of those, deserving of excellent nutrition.  That means I can't skip my breakfast, fish oil, calcium, multivitamins, or my joint support (Ligaplex II, glucosamine + Boswellia).  I will focus more on developing my core strength to support my back, and physical fitness just like I expect in my dogs because if I truly want to excel and reach our competitive best as a team, I can't do it with only 1/2 the team being fit...both halves need to be at peak, both physically and nutritionally. Karma, Keegan, Leia and Shadow deserve the best nutritional care, and so do I!!!!

Joint Supplements

I feel like I should start this blog with "forgive me Father, for I have sinned, it has been almost 3 months since my last blog". I am sorry for not blogging...if only I could explain the level of intensity that has consumed my life for the past couple months. I will just say, WOW. Now that I'm past that drama, let's talk about joint supplements. This is one topic I am asked about frequently and I do believe my reply is always the same..."uggghhhh". The scientist in me struggles severely with research related to this topic. I read a recent article this week from the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Vandeweerd, et al., 2012) that did a really nice job of evaluating the nutraceutical research in dogs, cats, and horses. They started off with 67 published studies and after ruling out those that didn't have any connection with the subjects (relied on completely subjective reported opinions), in vitro studies (test tube), no evaluation of clinical signs of pain or locomotion (not sure what the heck they measured), and those that were not controlled, the researchers wound up with only 22 of the original 67. That is why I respond with "ugggghhhhh". If I had been included on that paper, I would have included the in vitro studies (14) because it's those studies that often tell us more about what is going on at the cellular and molecular level. Since our animal companions cannot tell us what hurts, at least knowing we may be eliminating some pain and inflammation is useful. So, I decided to basically review some of the big name products and specifically review what the main ingredients do. Glucosamine: This is the main ingredient in the vast majority of joint health supplements. I look for a dose between 10-20 mg per pound of body weight. So, for Karma, my little border collie (25 Lb), I want to make sure she is getting about 250 mg daily. Glucosamine is a natural compound, more specifically an amino sugar found in cartilage and in fact is in high concentrations in trachea. Chondroitin : This compound is a complex carbohydrate found in healthy cartilage that helps retain water. This compound has almost exclusively been researched in conjunction with glucosamine in animals; therefore, coming up with a specific dose is not feasible. Fish oil: This might surprise everyone; however, the research surrounding fish oil, in particular the 2 omega 3 fatty acids known as EPA and DHA have the most definitive benefits in regard to inflammation and joints. I typically suggest 1,000 mg for a 40 Lb dog. MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane): This is a cool compound! I kind of like it a lot because it's just useful. It is a natural compound found in most living tissue, both animal and plant and helps to reduce pressure in cells. This is one of those compounds whose efficacy in reducing symptoms is difficult to determine; however, in vitro studies at the molecular and cellular level do indicate it is useful for inflammatory conditions. You will see doses typically ranging from 10 - 30 mg per pound of body weight. Green Lipped Mussel: This ingredient contains a unique omega 3 fatty acid that prevents oxidative stress. Avocado and soybean unsaponifiables (one of the active ingredients found in Dasuquin): There are several good in vitro studies that indicate this compound actually can improve structural components of joint cartilage; however, there is no dose range for inclusion. There certainly are other ingredients that get included in joint supplements that are of value including Vitamins E and C, milk proteins (active ingredients in Duralactin), Cetyl myristoleate (active ingredient in Cetyl-M), and manganese. These compounds have either structural(manganese), anti-inflammatory or antioxidative properties. So, you may be guessing where I'm going here but when it comes to selecting a joint supplement, I want one that includes as much structural, antioxidative, and anti-inflammatory potential as possible. In my opinion the 3 best products that reach those goals are: Dasuquin, Synovi G3, and Glyco-Flex III. All 3 of those products contain ingredients that address all 3 concerns related to joints (structure, inflammation, and reduction of oxidation). I'd like to thank one of my interns this summer (Cam Bexten) for researching the commercial products and listing out all of their ingredients and doses. Without her, this blog post wouldn't have been written. Vandeweerd et al. 2012. Systematic review of efficacy of nutraceuticals to alleviate clinical signs of osteoarthritis. J. Vet. Intern. Med. 26: 448-456.

Palm Oil Crisis

I believe that most people are aware that our planet is strained with limited resources.  When you work in a zoo and you are faced with the tragic stories of endangered animals and their bleak futures, it sometimes is overwhelming to find ways to help them.  But sometimes, we can make some simple adjustments that truly do have a fantastic impact on our planet's endangered species.  One of those is regarding Orangutans and palm oil. 

You might not recognize how many consumer products contain palm oil.  It is a vegetable oil containing primariliy the saturated fatty acid known as palmitic acid.  It is characteristically red in color due to naturally occuring beta-carotene. 

The bad part about palm oil is the destruction of natural rain forest to plant palm oil plantations.  This destruction and loss of habitat has been the major factor in the vanishing populations of wild orangutans.  Of all the primates, these red heads are one of my favorites. They are extremely intelligent and all together comical.  Not long after we opened our new Orangutan exhibit,one of our female orangs pulled off pieces of her new exhibit at night and jammed them in the fire sprinklers, flooding the building.  Although our staff found it utterly frustrating to have to deal with the mess in the middle of the night, you couldn't help but appreciate her strength at dismantling the exhibit and crafting new tools.  They are simply amazing animals. 

I know my blogs are geared toward pets, and there is a point here I promise!!!  I am not one of those activists that says don't ever use palm oil, but I certainly believe there are places where we can all become stewards of our delicate planet and hopefully save some fragile wildlife.  All it takes is a little understanding and some decisions.  Because palm oil can be harvested from existing plantations, additional destruction is not necessary.  Therefore, we can use sustainable sources of palm oil.  The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil was formed in 2004 to promote the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders.  Companies can commit to this effort and become an RSPO member.  More information can be found at: http://www.rspo.org/ .

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo also has a great blog dedicated to the crisis and things that people can do.  In addition they have published a shopping list of items (including petfood companines) that are listed and considered sustainable. http://www.cmzoo.org/conservation/palmOilCrisis/ .  If you feed commercial foods, check the ingredients of your foods. Often palm oil is hidden in ingredients such as "retinyl palmitate".  In other words, many of the vitamin supplements used in feeds contain palm oil.  If they do contain palmitate items check to see if the companies are on this approved list or contact them and ask.  The more we spread the word about the fact that palm oil can be used sustainably to save orangutans, the better shot we have at saving them.

I want the very best for my dogs and myself, and I know those of you that read this blog do as well but I don't feel we can sacrifice more resources for that goal alone. We can have the best for our pets and still reduce our carbon footprints throughout our daily lives.

Raw Diet Research - FINALLY!!!

I have seriously failed at writing a blog post weekly.  I will try to do a better job of keeping the blog up to date. 

I posted on Facebook earlier this week, the following link from a publication that comes out to petfood manufacturers. http://www.petfoodindustry.com/Research_Notes/Extruded_vs__raw_vs__cooked_beef-based_diets_for_cats.html regarding one of our research studies that was published in the Journal of Animal Science this year.  I was thrilled to see our study reach those in the industry.  It's taken a good deal of time to get this particular study published and I figured there would be readers very interested in our results.

A couple pieces of background to put on the table first. This study was a collaborative effort with the University of Illinois (I hold an adjunct appointment there and work with many graduate students).  This study was one of several that a very talented graduate student worked on with us.  Much of her Masters and Ph.D research have focused on exotic cat nutrition; however, this was one that we felt was necessary to develop some much needed research in the field.  Secondly, it was in domestic cats.  Cats are a bit easier for us to conduct research on, especially the big exotic ones because they are housed individually and it's easy to collect samples.  Canid species are almost always housed in groups and it makes sample collection a bit more difficult.  In addition, since cats are true obligate carnivores, they serve as the best model to study raw diets (at least right now as raw diet research is truly in an infancy stage).  We have hopes to develop our efforts with canids but for now, we are focusing on cats.  So many questions about raw diets need answered and researched and it would take my entire career to barely scratch the surface. I can only hope that other researchers will join the ranks so we can get some much needed answers.

So, with that in mind, the objectives of this study were to determine differences in the digestibility, fecal characteristics, urine characteristics, and serum chemistry of 9 domestic cats fed 3 different diet treatments.  The dietary treatments were the raw beef-based diet that we feed to our cats at the zoo (Raw); the same diet but cooked (cooked) and a high quality grain-free kibble cat food (kibble). 

Table 1. Nutrient composition of the diet treatments (dry matter basis)
Nutrient                     Raw             Cooked                Kibble
Moisture, %                70.7              70.8                      5.7
Protein, %                   52.5              52.0                      57.0
Fat, %                         20.5              18.3                      17.4
Energy, kcal/g              5.0                4.7                        4.2

Table 2. Digestibility of the the treatment diets
Item                           Raw              Cooked               Kibble
Organic matter, %       90.5               88.5                     83.9
Protein, %                   93.3               92.9                     81.6
Fat, %                         95.5               95.3                     91.3
Energy, %                   91.5               89.8                      84.7

Table 3. Fecal characteristics
Item                           Raw              Cooked               Kibble
fecal output (g DM)     6.7                7.2                        13.0
Ammonia                     69.4              72.0                      190.4
total BCFA                  17.6              16.8                      43.7

In respect of blog length, I'm not including the urine measures or the blood metabolites as there were no major significant differences detected among the diet treatments and results were within reference ranges for cats.

OK, so what does that data tell us? Obviously the diets had similar nutrient compositions (Table 1) but the nutrients were digested different (Table 2).  Organic matter digestibility is a term that we nutritionists use to essentially look at the overall diet digestibility (taking into account all nutrients except minerals).  It's pretty obvious that the raw diet was better digested by the cats.  Although it was better digested than the cooked diet, those numbers did fail to reach statistical significance (were only about 2% different for the most part).  The scientists out there reading this will find that to be of important note.  That said,  the raw diet had nearly a 15% improvement in protein digestibility compared to the kibble.  This to me is one of the most important pieces as we consider protein quality.  We want the protein to be better digested. 

When looking at Table 3, there were some very important pieces there as well.  Fecal output measured as grams of dry matter, was lower in the cats fed raw and cooked.  This was likely due to the fact that the cats fed the kibble diet consumed significantly more dry matter than the cats on the raw or cooked diets.  More importantly, fecal ammonia and BCFA (branched chain fatty acids) were much lower in the cats fed either the raw or cooked diets compared with the kibble.  Ammonia and BCFA are putrefactive compounds produced during colonic fermentation of endogenously produced and non-absorbed amino acids.  This was likely a direct result of the lower digestibility of protein for the kibble diet (more amino acids and proteins reaching the colon for fermentation).  

Those of you that feed raw, are cheering (I can hear you).  We are following it up with another study that included raw, kibble, canned and whole prey in both domestic cats, and in African wildcats.  Those data are currently being analyzed and we hope to be presenting those data this summer.  While we can't completely translate this data to dogs, it's likely a pretty good chance we'd see similar results in other carnivore species including dogs.

K.R. Kerr, B.M. Vester Boler, C.L. Morris, K.J. Liu, and K.S. Swanson. 2012. Apparent total tract energy and macronutrient digestibility and fecal fermentative end-product concentrations of domestic cats fed extruded, raw beef-based, and cooked beef-based diets. Journal of Animal Science: 90: 515-522.  

What's better...ancestral or natural history?

The idea of ancestral diets is an interesting one for me.  I hear it when people say they want to feed raw diets..."I want to feed a more ancestral diet" and "dogs and cats are carnivores", and I see it all over the marketing of pet foods, particularly grain-free foods.  What does that mean to everyone?

In reality there are more than 260 mammal species listed under the order Carnivora.  Yes, that list includes the cat and the dog, and closest taxonomic ancestors to both, the European wildcat and the wolf.  However, it also includes otters, civets, seals, and bears.  That last category is one of my very favorites to discuss in terms of comparative nutrition because it includes the Giant panda.  Oh yes, indeed they are carnivores in every sense of the word.  Anatomically they have short digestive tracts and limited ability to ferment fiber...surprised? The difference is that panda's have evolved and adapted to their environment and have lower requirements for protein and energy compared to other carnivorous species.  If' you've ever seen panda poo, you've noticed that it looks just like panda food.  They must consume gigantic amounts of bamboo just to meet those low energy and protein requirements (also why they don't move a whole lot).  If I wanted to feed a panda like their other relatives (carnivores), I'd likely produce very fat pandas with metabolic issues.  While we could feed pandas the same diets we feed other bears, we certainly do not...they are fed primarily bamboo as most of you already guessed.  Why then do we constantly focus on wanting to feed dogs like wolves and cats like tigers?

When it comes to felids, I won't argue with anyone that chooses to feed a strictly raw meat or whole prey based diet.  Cats have not evolved to be anything other than obligate carnivores.  Their protein requirement is twice that of dogs and they require vitamins that are unique to the consumption of organ meats that other carnivores do not require in the same high concentrations (taurine, vitamins A, D, and niacin). 

Canids on the other hand are not obligate carnivores...except one species.  I love discussing canid species as their variation in diet and natural history is nothing short of amazing.  Consider the little bat eared fox that consumes almost exclusively insects, or the maned wolf whose diet during portions of the year is made up of nearly 70% plant material from a fruit in the same family as the tomato.  Then, consider the only obligate carnivore canid...the African hunting dog (pictured below thanks to Omaha Zoo keeper Emily Wiley). These incredibly beautiful canids have never been observed consuming anything other than meat.  Most people aren't surprised when I tell them that I can't feed these species the exact same diet at the zoo and indeed their captive diets are not at all similar.  Maned wolves in captivity thrive on a diet that most of you would consider tragically high in carbohydrates and grains.  I must consider each individual species' natural history when I formulate diets. 



So, why on Earth do we seem to forget to consider that in respect to the species that live in our homes? Now, don't take this wrong, I'm not by any means saying that you should feed your dogs a high carbohydrate diet.  I believe quite the contrary.  The dog evolved because of us and the food we consumed. They thrived and became what they are today because we fed them a huge variety of dietary ingredients just like we fed ourselves.  It wasn't until the last century or so that we started making highly processed specialized dog foods and then deciding that only one food was appropriate (that idea we can thank the petfood industry for).  I don't believe that one food is appropriate for pets and I feel we should provide them with variety that their natural history dictates.  I know I've said it before but my dogs would be hard pressed to recall their diet over the last week because of the variety.  I do feed rotated kibbles, canned foods, raw, fresh fruits and veggies, some grains (mostly oatmeal), eggs, and fish.  The beauty of this is the result that I can feed them just about anything and not have to worry about GI issues.  Sadly, our society has been so conditioned to only feed our pets one diet that we've prevented most of our pets from developing the ability to cope with the variety their natural history tells us they should have.   

So, is it really that we want to feed our pets an ancestral diet or is it more that we want to feed them a more natural diet based on their natural history? To me, that makes a whole lot more sense. 

Feeding the Seniors in the House

Sparky, he's the dog that started my addiction to agility and dog sports.  He's the one that learned how to play flyball when he didn't even think balls were all that cool.  He's my 13 year old Rat Terrier that moved with me from New Mexico, survived grad school, taught me how to train, saw me through a divorce, new career and a new marriage...he is my best friend.  I am faced everyday with the fact that he's getting older and he's definitely now considered a "senior" dog, something I know many of you reading this also face daily.

This week I've been putting the final touches on an invited manuscript summarizing a symposia I chaired in July at a National conference.  The symposia was about managing geriatric animals.  I thought it was a good topic and one that many people often ask me about.  What should I feed my senior animal?

The aging process can impact diet palatability and intake from physical changes that alter animal's senses, particularly taste and smell.  In addition, as animals reach geriatric age, physiological changes occur that can alter nutrient requirements.  Typically, energy requirements decrease; however, essential fatty acid and protein requirements often increase.  This, coupled with reductions in digestive efficiency, result in seniors requiring bioavailable and digestible diets based with very high quality ingredients.

There are as many opinions about feeding seniors as there are diets. Some say feed more protein, some say less, some say more fat, some say less fat.  As with humans, you must feed the animal and look at them each as individuals.  Not all seniors should be treated the same.  I suggest bloodwork annually to monitor kidney and liver function in senior animals.  This can really help catch conditions early enough that specialized diets can truly support before needing prescription medications.  If seniors are in great condition and there are no indications of health concerns, I am certainly not going to reduce or change the diet.  The only thing I will do is add a digestive enzyme such as Prozyme or Prozyme Plus. 

One of the other nutrients that I've spoken about extensively is water.  Add water to all kibble!  I'm even struggling at the zoo with the amount of water that is included (or not) in feeds we typically feed exotics.  Take for example, herbivores such as giraffe, zebra, antelope, horses, and cows (only because I've mentioned this very issue in carnivores and I'm hopefully driving home a point).  "Wild" diets consist of fresh plant materials that are 70% or more water.  We have for decades focused animal husbandry on concentrating those nutrients into dried forages such as hay and dried pelleted grains and rations.  I can almost with 100% certainty offer "browse" or fresh plant material to a sick or geriatric herbivore and have them eat.  It certainly makes me wonder why we'd consider feeding and managing our animals on "dry" diets when so much of their natural diet contains much larger concentrations of water.  So the bottomline here is that if you are using kibble diets, add water to them.  If you are worried about dental health then provide abrasives such as bones to chew on and brush teeth.  I have toy dogs that notoriously have crappy teeth so I feel I can have an opinion about this.  I will tell you that feeding kibble did not change their teeth but brushing and bones did. 

In conclusion, I feel that seniors need a high quality, very digestible food until biological markers indicate a concern that needs addressed nutritionally.  In addition to the added water, Sparky also is supplemented with fish oil, Prozyme Plus and Dasuquin.

Back to the idea of Nature versus Nurture

Happy New Year!
It has been too long since my last post but there were a few things that got in the way of my writing.  The AKC Agility Invitational and Christmas come to mind.  Prior to the trip out to Orlando for the Invitational, a few people emailed me the following link asking about my thoughts on the topic.  It's from Patricia McConnell's blog, The Other End of the Leash: http://www.theotherendoftheleash.com/your-dog-has-a-brain-in-his-gut

I always have enjoyed Patricia's writing and still do and was happy to see the topic surface on her blog.  After I read it, my initial reaction was "well, yes, of course emotions are linked to nutrition...how could they not be".  The reality is that nearly every biological system of the body is linked to the digestive tract in some way.  When it comes to the nervous system, one division of the nervous system in particular, the Enteric Nervous System (the topic of the referred to blog post) is responsible for control of the gastrointestinal tract of vertebrate species.  It is this system that automatically stimulates muscles and organs to start contracting (to move food through the gut) and secrete important digestive enzymes and hormones supporting metabolism.  In addition, dozens of neurotransmitters are active through this system.  Several of these neurotransmitters are indeed related to emotions and the one I'll refer to is serotonin (mostly because I feel people are familiar with it). 

Serotonin has been linked to behavior, including aggression, depression and hyperactivity, in many different species including rodents, dogs, humans and primates.  The research in this area is extensive and easy to find.  Biochemically, serotonin is derived from the metabolism of tryptophan, an essential amino acid found in proteins and chocolate (a reason why some of us find comfort in chocolate).  These types of complex interactions between and among nutrients and the nervous system  have given rise to the ideas of "cooling proteins" and "calming proteins".  Unfortunately, this is where research is lacking.  Although there is extensive research linking neurotransmitters to diet, there are many complex levels of these interactions.  The intuitive reaction that people have is to simply provide more dietary tryptophan by increasing protein or supplementing. However, it just isn't that simple.  In some animals, that simplistic idea may work but in others it won't. Why not?

Consumed dietary tryptophan must be converted to serotonin by an enzyme.  If there are reduced levels of this enzyme, then no amount of dietary supplementation of tryptophan can account for that.  In addition,  there are additional complexities in the fact that serotonin must be transported by  proteins (transporters) and the neural messaging is sent via proteins called receptors.   All of these proteins (enzymes, transporters, receptors) are all coded by very specific genes within  specific genomes.  Each of these genes I envision like volume dials.  Environmental factors (including diet) can turn them up (up-regulate) or turn them down (down-regulate)...hence the concept of Nature vs. Nurture?  My very favorite way of looking at this is the metaphor that genetics will load the gun, but environment pulls the trigger.  So in any animal that may have one or more of these genes down-regulated such that the result is less of the enzymes, transporters, or receptors, then serotonin's impact on the brain may be reduced.  These incredible complexities are why we have such conflicting data surrounding the issue of meat based diets on behavior.  Some studies show high protein diets are beneficial for animals with aggression, while others say high carbohydrate diets are better. 

So, what the heck does this all mean? Now that we know the genome of species including humans, dogs and cats, we can now begin to understand how particular nutrients are impacting specific genes of interest such as those involved in tryptophan and serotonin metabolism.  This area of research is known as nutrigenomics and is truly fascinating to me.  In other words, while we all have the same genome, our genetic expression varies.  The amount of tryptophan that my body needs may be vastly different from that of my husband.  We can begin to look more specifically at how individual nutrients are impacting each of these genes.  That's when we'll be able to determine what the real causes of behavior and temperament issues really are...is it a simple lack of dietary tryptophan (not likely) or is it a lack of an enzyme, a transporter, or a receptor.  If we can identify the issue correctly, then we might be able to figure out how to turn that dial back up or down.  It would make an enormous difference in how disease is diagnosed and treated. 

In Patricia McConnell's post, she indicated that probiotics might be useful for the ENS.  Sure! If you recall from my first blog about probiotics, I mentioned that I only use them when the systems are "off-balance".  Being off-balance may not manifest in loose stools and vomiting.  An unbalanced digestive system and enteric nervous system may indeed be observed through behavior problems, lethargy, appetite, etc... Can I say for sure that supplements or probiotics are going to help? No, I can't.  Because our animals (and us) are unique individuals, what works for one may not work for another.  Would I try it? Yes, I would.  Until we can unlock the mysteries of metabolism, there is some degree of anecdotal success that we must appreciate.  Recall, there are dozens of these neurotransmitters, metabolites, and hormones contributing to our overall biochemistry. I didn't even talk about stress hormones such as cortisol and how it impacts the ENS.  It is all of these complex unknowns  that make me appreciate the science of nutrition even more and why you will never hear me say there is "only one way" to feed you or your animals.  We simply don't know or understand them all yet.

Happy New Year!

Hydration supplements for working dogs

I honestly paid very little attention to the hydration products on the market until I was recently asked about them.  I am a stickler about water intake though. It is a key nutrient and one that I feel often gets left out when we are talking about other macronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats and carbohydrates.  Many of my clients have been told to add water if they feed kibble and in fact I feel everyone should.  Water is one of the main nutrient differences between raw meat diets and kibble diets, including grain-free.  Whole prey and raw diets contain approximately 70% water while kibble contains only about 10% (yes, kibble does contain some moisture).  To me it's no wonder why we see kidney problems in cats when they are fed kibble diets their entire lives.  So, those that feed kibble, add a little water to it when you feed.

When I looked up the ingredients on the main products that consumers have access to, I was surprised to see all of them contained maltodextrin as their main ingredient.  One of them was very clever and actually "named" their sugar "glucose polymers".  One of the company websites even stated directly that "maltodextrin is rapidly absorbed without an insulin release...".  Let's stop there for a second.  First off, maltodextrin is nothing more than chains of D-glucose units of variable lengths produced from the hydrolysis of starch typically from corn, rice or potatoes.  The company is absolutely correct in their statement that maltodextrin is rapidly digested and absorbed.  All you need to do is look on the labels of many enteral formulas and you'll see maltodextrin added.  The problem I have is the statement that maltodextrin does not produce an insulin release.  Comments like those floating around the internet frustrate me.  Maltodextrin indeed produces an insulin response just like other sugars in fact it has a higher glycemic index than table sugar, honey, or fructose.  I would caution anyone that may have a dog with sensitivities to gluten being that maltodextrins can pose issues for those suffering from Celiac disease.  So why start off with a simple carbohydrate as the main ingredient in these formulas?

That answer is based on muscle glycogen recovery research in various animal models including dogs.  Dogs involved in high intensity, short duration exercise such as agility or flyball obtain most of their energy from muscle stores through anaerobic metabolism (Cline and Reynolds, 2005; Rovira et al., 2007). So, these products are likely better for muscle recovery rather than "loading" per se, and indeed they indicate that with their product information.  Muscle glycogen synthesis post-exercise after depletion occurs in 2 distinct phases.  An initial short phase that does not require insulin and lasts 30 - 60 minutes after exercise.  The 2nd phase may last several hours after exercise and is insulin dependent.  When amino acids and proteins are added to maltodextrin solutions, there is an enhanced insulin response and stimulation of protein anabolism (synthesis).  This response is significantly lower when carbohydrate only solutions are used (Jentjens and Jeukendrup, 2003). 

The four products I reviewed include: Animal Naturals K9 Go Dog, CPN Power Boost Advanced Rehydration and Energy, CPN Vertex Canine Essentials, and Glyco-Gen Shake. As I did with grain-free products I'm only going to look at the top ingredients in each product. 

K9 Go Dogs: Glucose polymers, resistant starch, medium chain triglycerides, beef fat, glutamine, leucine
CPN Power Boost: Maltodextrin, whey protein concentrate, canola oil, medium chain triglyceride, glutamine, lactobacillus
CPN Vertex: Maltodextrin, whole dried egg, whey protein concentrate, poultry liver hydrosylate, canola oil, olive oil
Glyco-Gen Shake: Maltodextrin, whey protein, vanilla

The protein and fat concentration of K9 Go Dog, Power Boost and Vertex are 6 and 9%, 8 and 11% and 24 and 24%, respectively.  The fat sources used are very different and range from highly saturated fatty acids (beef fat), monounsaturated fatty acids (canola and olive), medium chain triglycerides (MCT), and omega 3 fatty acids (flaxseed oil).  When it comes to dogs (and other carnivores), their efficiency at utilizing fat sources is tremendous.  There is little data to support one type over the other; however, I would hypothesize that the beef fat used in K9 Go Dog would make it more palatable than the others but that might be the only advantage (in my opinion).  I do like the use of  MCT's as they are often digested and absorbed easier than other fats.  There are some cases where MCT's have been associated with diarrhea; however, for the vast majority of dogs (and humans) they are digested very well.

Protein sources are primarily whey protein, egg, or free amino acids.  All are suitable and highly digestible sources of proteins for this purpose.  The amino acid glutamine is listed both for K9 Go Dog and Power Boost.  Glutamine is a non-essential amino acid; however, may become conditionally essential particularly after exercise and during periods of protein turnover.  It is also a preferred fuel for cells in the gut. 

As the ingredient lists continue the products vary in their additions of probiotics (lactobacillus), branched chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, valine), alfalfa, algae, and ginseng to name a few.  None of the additional ingredients pose any issues or concerns for me, in fact they all likely contribute some nutrition.

A price analysis indicates that per Tablespoon serving (approximately 20 grams) the cost for K9 Go Dog, Power Boost, Vertex, and Glyco-Gen Shake are $0.88, $0.46, $0.40 and $0.63, respectively. 

Based on the purpose of replenishing glycogen stores and rehydration after exercise, ingredient lists, and cost, I would choose to use CPN Power Boost.  Although I think the Vertex product has a lot to offer in the ingredient list and certainly nothing that would harm, I feel it's just too high in fat and protein to be used as a "rehydration" or recovery product.  The product information indicates that it could be used as a daily conditioning supplement and that might be a better purpose for it.  It likely would boil down to which product my dogs liked better between K9 Go Dog and Power Boost. 

I actually don't use any of these products but I do "rehydrate".  I use a mixture of meat-based baby food, honey, and some glutamine mixed with water.  I'm sure the inclusion of honey might stimulate more discussion and this post has already gotten long so I'll leave that for further discussion.  The thought process; however, is along the lines of these products and my little Keegan loves it.