Alternative Pet Foods

Question 1

What is “diet drift” and in what type of diets do you usually see it in?

Answer 1

Diet drift is when the nutrient change happens when stored for extended periods of time, or when owners change up the diet ingredients because they get bored of the recipe. Seen in homemade foods.

Question 2

What issue is typically seen first with homemade foods?

Answer 2

vitamin deficiency.

Question 3

What are some problems with homemade foods?

Answer 3

they are inadequate in nutrients, proteins, vitamins, and minerals.

Question 4

What are some forms of raw food diets?

Answer 4

refrigerated, freeze dried, and frozen.

Question 5

Cats on raw diets are usually deficient in what?

Answer 5

taurine.

Question 6

Why should you stay away from combination raw food diets?

Answer 6

Because these can cause rickets due to too much phosphorous and not enough Ca2+.

Question 7

What are combination raw food diets?

Answer 7

commercial grain and/or supplement mix that’s meant to be fed in combo with raw meat.

Question 8

What is one of the purported benefits of raw foods?

Answer 8

enhanced digestion due to the presence of naturally occurring enzymes found in raw foods.

Question 9

What are some potential problems associated with raw diets?

Answer 9

teeth fractures, nutritional imbalances, foreign bodies (bones splintering), pathogen contamination (salmonella, campylobacter, etc.), passing of pathogens to humans

Question 10

Are carbohydrates needed for adult dogs?

Answer 10

No.