The first form of feeding practice that is very common is raw feeding. Owners provide their companion animals with a diet of raw food made up of raw bones, raw meat, and offal mixed with vegetables, fruits, nuts, oils and seeds. With this homemade diet a fundamental concern rises that weather all required nutrients are provided in right amount & proportions for healthy body function or not. Normally, dogs at least require 37 essential nutrients than cats that require 41. In a study 95 raw food ration samples were analyzed with 60% found to have major dietary imbalances while rest 40% with minor imbalances or we can say balanced. It is technical to fulfill the nutritional requirements of your pet. For that FEDIAF has comprehensive data review of NRC values for dogs, cats & rabbits. It provides the guidelines for feeding recommendations that are approximate values per day & must be adapted to suit your pets’ requirements & external influences. These guidelines are acknowledged by all veterinary nutritionist all over Europe as they act as reference document in pet nutrition. FEDIAF aims to provide the pet food manufacturing industry a practical confirmation about the basic levels of nutrients required in dog & cat food for healthy animals. With food industries following these guidelines are commercially providing wide range of pet food that pet owners can choose to provide their pets required nutrition & the one that suits best to their taste. There are dry, semi-moist, combination or canned foods. Owners’ consideration for any quality prepare food is based upon circumstances like pet’s activity level, life stage (puppy/kitten or adult), reduction cycle, pet’s preferences of taste, life style & of course cost. There is no specific right way to select as long as their nutritional demands are fulfilled. Mixing of different foods is another common practice among owners. Given next are the analytical nutritional and compositional analysis of few commercially available foods. It is also advised to owners to look the statement about nutritional completeness on packaging themselves.
Royal canin is considered as best pet food that provides complete & balanced diet, ensuring safety & convenience, but it is not cost friendly & is expensive. Royal canin (mother & baby cat) food provides 34% protein, 25% fat, 7.4% crude ash, 1.9%CF with Vitamin A, D3, E, Fe, I, Cu, Mn, Zn, Se as feed additives. Protein sources are poultry protein, animal fats, maize flour, rice, vegetable protein isolate, vegetable fibers, yeast, yeast extracts, marigold extracts, beet pulp, soya oil, FOS & fish oil.
Royal canin (Persian) has 30% protein, 22% fat content, 4.7% CF, 7.4% crude ash with vitamin A, D3,Fe, I, Cu, Mg, Zn & Se as feed additives. The composition of this feed includes poultry protein, animal fats, vegetable protein isolate, rice, maize flour, vegetable fibers, hydrolyzed animal proteins, maize gluten, wheat flour, maize, yeasts, minerals, chicory pulp, psylium husks, FOS, soya oil, fish oil & seeds.
MERA finest fit is a dry feed comes with 34% protein, 14% fat content, 4% raw fiber, 7.5% crude ash, 1.25% calcium along with Vitamin A, D3 E, and C, as feed additives. For protein poultry dried protein, poultry meat, poultry fat, corn gluten, rice, beet pulp, linseed, liver hydrolysate are used. This feed provides ME 15.5MJ/Kg as per FEDIAF recommendations.
MERA exklusiv (classic cat) is a dry feed that has 32% protein, 14.5% fat, 4% raw fiber, 7% crude ash with Vitamin A, D3, E, taurine, Cu, Zn, Se, Fe, Mn, I as feed additives. The composition includes meat & animal derivatives, cereals, vegetable derivatives, oils & fats, seeds, minerals, eggs & egg derivatives, yeast.
Nutrican Adultis a cat food formula with savory chicken & duct meat. It has analytical constituents as CP 33%, Fat content 15%, CF 2.5%, crude ash 6.7% with Vitamin A, D3, E, taurine, biotin, Fe, Mn, Cu, I, Se, L-lysine, DL-methionine as feed additives. It provides a total of 3800 kcal/kg. Food composition includes chicken meat meal, dried chicken, chicken fat, rice, corn, brewer’s yeast, natural fiber, dried duck meat, and hydrolysed chicken liver, herring oil, dried algae, MOS probiotic & yucca. Chicken protein provides excellent digestibility, while algae & probiotics provide strong immunity. Herring oil & biotin is for shiny coat.
Nutricanpremium dog food is also a high quality chicken formula with great digestibility. It has 30% CP, 3% CF, 15% fat, 10% moisture & ME 3900kcal/kg with Vitamin A, D3, E, L-lysine, Mn, I, Se, Zn, as feed additives. These additives are EU approved antioxidants. Nutrican composition includes chicken meat meal, dried chicken, rice, corn, chicken fat, dried apples as prebiotics, dried algae, herring oil, brewer’s yeast, hydrolysed cartilages, and hydrolysed chicken liver. Nutrican also provides its customers with feeding chart according to age with excepted weight gains of pets which owners can follow while feeding. This helps to avoid overfeeding as timing is managed well, since obesity is one of the biggest public health challenges of current century, not only in humans but also in animals. Obesity & overweight have significant impact on the average life expectancy of dogs & cats. Surveys show that owners are insignificantly knowledgeable of their companion animal getting overweight. They are often not aware of required proportion sizes of food for their pets. What instead should be done is to remove irrelevant table scraps, deduct any additional feeding from daily ration & some exercise activities.
Meow is commercially available most notorious pet food that is cheap but several issues come in handy with it. It has a poor quality protein & preservatives. Pet’s complaints of GIT issues, low health gain & hair loss are common. It also observed that UTI plaque chances increase and these plaques serve as nidus for bacterial infection. But this choice of selecting food type is a personal matter. To ensure pet is early consuming the food palatability is significant consideration. Uneaten meal proves no nutritional value. If you are providing your pet with sufficiently concentrated diet it should be easily digested, and stool will be well formed – easy cleaning. With all this make sure your pet has 24/7 availability to water especially if it is dry food. For further advice about feeding your pet you can consult your veterinarian.
