VMDiva

I am generally not a fan of home-cooked diets for pets because, too often, I have seen pet owners fail to provide a balanced diet. Now, I’m not talking about the folks who do their research, provide a variety of nutrients, and add supplements. I am talking about the owners who report their precious Fluffy just won’t eat anything but roast chicken and green beans. Merely adding a veterinary or human multivitamin to a diet does not make it balanced as those products are labeled for use in addition to an already balanced diet.

The dangers of an unbalanced diet are multiple. Nutrient deficiencies can result in anemia, skin issues, gastrointestinal issues, nerve conduction problems, and immunosuppression among many other medical conditions. It is crucial that pet owners who want to make food for Fluffy do it well. Many of the home-cooked diet recipes that came out from companies like Hill’s Pet Nutrition about 10 years ago have since been deemed unbalanced and are no longer recommended although you can still find recipes circulating the web. A Google search yields pages and pages of scientific, non-scientific, and opinionated recommendations on what to feed pets. With all this information, it can be difficult for pet owners to know which recommendations to follow.

As a general practitioner, formulating a diet is something I could do with the guide of a nutrition book and many calculations but is beyond my comfort zone. When faced with folks who have questions on how to provide a diet for their pets, I state the easiest way to achieve a balanced diet is to feed a balanced commercial food. If the owner finds this undesirable, I talk about the other two options: Consult a veterinary nutritionist or use a veterinary nutritional website to find a diet that fits the pet’s needs.

Owners can search the American College of Veterinary Nutrition to find a veterinary nutritionist. If that seems like too much work then they should check out these two websites below. I like both of these sites because they personalize diets on an individual pet basis.

PetDIETS.com was developed by a veterinary nutritionist and can provide specific diets for healthy and sick pets. These nutritionists can recommend a home-made diet, a commercial diet, or both depending on the pet’s nutritional needs.

BalanceIT.com allows pet owners to choose the protein and carbohydrate sources they wish to feed their pets and creates a supplement based on a recipes the owner purchases. This is great for folks with pets with GI sensitivities or skin issues who have already been feeding an unbalanced diet. It allows them to continue feeding their current diet while adding supplements to make it balanced. I really love this one.