How To Pick The Right Food For Your Pet!

A comprehensive guide to picking the right food for your pet.

- Dr Liang Xutian

Food. It’s a basic necessity for survival and also listed as one of the five freedoms* that every pet owner must uphold.

While feeding our pets may seem simple enough, it poses a conundrum for many pet owners. Typical questions asked include the best diet (home-made versus commercially produced, raw, grain-free or vegetarian), how often diets should be changed, how much, and how many times to feed our four-legged friends.

Life Stages & Breed Differences

Dogs go through five life stages: Puppy, young adult, mature adult, senior and end of life. Cats go through four life stages: Kitten, young adult, mature adult and senior.

A puppy and a kitten must receive diets appropriate for growth until they reach skeletal maturity. This means either a commercial diet for puppies or kittens or a home-prepared diet that a board-certified veterinary nutritionist has specially formulated – not a random recipe sourced from the internet.

This diet should be fed up to one year for cats and small and medium-sized dogs and 15-24 months for large and giant breeds.

Different growth diets also exist for regular and large-breed dogs. Large-breed growth diets are lower in calcium and less energy dense. This reduces the risk of overfeeding as rapid growth is not suitable for bone development and joint health.

Contrary to common belief, more calcium is not better for a growing dog as excess calcium can cause deficiencies in other nutrients like phosphorus. Calcium and phosphorus need to work together in a tight ratio for healthy bones and joints.