Marion Nestle & Malden Nesheim: "Feed Your Pet Right"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-05-12/marion-nestle-malden-nesheim-feed-your-pet-right
A behind-the-scenes look at America's seventeen-billion-dollar pet food industry and what you need to know about the nutritional needs of your dog or cat.
Guests
Marion Nestle
professor nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University
previous books include "Food Politics", "Safe Food", and "What to Eat"
Malden Nesheim
professor emeritus of nutritional sciences, Cornell University
former president, American Institute of Nutrition
Comments
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"Natural" pet food is all well and good, but very expensive. I feed my dog Purina "Little Bites" dry dog food, which is what I can afford. I trust Purina dog foods. I love my dog and he is very healthy, but I am limited to what I can buy. And, please don't tell me I can't afford to have a dog!
My dachshunds like veggies & fruits...is that recommendable?
thanks,
aicha
Our vet warned against dogs eating the cat food. Her comment was that dogs are omnivores and cats carnivores, and the higher protein content of cat food can cause pancreatitis in dogs. Is this correct?
I feed my golden retriever Natural Balance. From what I've learned from store associates and pet specialists, better quality products do not contain fillers which wouldn't eat normally. What would be interesting to know is now that dogs are domesticated, should they be eating the same as what they would in the wild or is it increasingly necessary to feed them carbohydrates? Natural Balance has several blends but never has corn product in it.
what did wild dogs or their predecessors (wolves) eat presuming it did not come out of a can? Could obesity be due to the fillers? .
I use to buy food from my vet until the only brand he carried was organic and $75 for an 18 lb. bag. With two dogs and a decline in income, is it bad for my dogs to eat a mass produced name brand as opposed to a "high end" brand?
What do you think about "enhancing" your middle aged dogs dry food with human food. What would be healthy choices for enhancement?
Thanks!
The statement that such a large amount of the cattle being processed is thrown away is absurd. Every part of the animal is a commodity and is used. If not for food then for other products such as rendered fats or fertilizer. The guest is using hyperbole to get her point across.
One of my cats got very sick from the melamine poisoned cat food. This happened about 3 weeks before the first news reports about Menu Foods in Canada.
This answered our questions about "what happened?" to make our kitty so sick that he needed 10 days of expensive vet hospitalization to heal his kidneys. My family was very upset and we literally turned our house upside down looking for something that our cat was eating or getting into. (He's an indoor cat, so we know he was not poisoned inside the house). And all along it was the food I was purchasing and giving him, thinking I was buying him the best!
Unfortunately, I didn't have any of the cans left once they announced the recall with the specific batch numbers, so I could not make a claim for the almost $1800 it cost me.
I was absolutely horrified to learn about the melamine incident and why it happened. The lack of pure food and drug laws in places like China is why that situation -- and others more horrifying like the poisoned baby milk in China of a few years ago -- happen again and again.
I'm curious about Science Diet. I have an older dog 10 yrs old and feed her dry solely - any thoughts??
Do you have a diet recommendation for a dog that has an issue with struvite crystals? I have used "prescription" canned food and organic canned food, but the issue keeps happening.
Thanks!
Because cats are obligate carnivores, I will not feed anything that has grain filler, especially corn. I feed my cats a raw, home-made food made from whole chickens (including bones and skin,) egg yolks, and chicken liver which is enhanced with taurine, salmon oil, and "half salt" (potassium and sodium salt.) I grind the chicken twice and the liver once, mix everything together, package it in daily portions, and freeze it.
My cats, who came to me semi-feral and unhealthy, thrive on this raw diet.
My cats had been fed dry Meow Mix, which has a lot of filler. I switched them immediately to a canned food called Pet Guard, which is among the better canned foods. They ate so ravenously that they made involuntary gobbling noises as they bolted their food. Minkie had swollen eyes (her third eyelids were half closed) and a digestive condition where she left streaky trails of feces and blood on the bed. After many tests, the vet was able to prove this condition wasn't a parasite but was otherwise unable to find a cause. Roswell was very underweight and his coat was rough.
After I switched these cats to the raw home-made no filler diet, both cats have become healthy, with shiny coats and clear eyes (yes, Minkie too.) They both have a normal weight and no longer gobble their food. I feed measured portions and sometimes they eat some now and some later. Thankfully Minkie no longer has her mysterious digestive problem. One of the added benefits of a raw diet is that their feces have no odor, so cleaning out the box is even more pleasant.
Making cat food was something of a lifestyle change for me. Home made food is much cheaper than canned PetGuard but it does take time...for my two cats I make a double recipe every two weeks, which takes two hours. My recipe came from Feline Future, which has used it with a controlled group of cats for many years. I am unaffiliated with Feline Future.
I woud like to know from your guests if giving raw meat to dogs is okay. I have a 22 lb miniature Schnauzer who will eat anything and someone recommended the raw meat diet, would like to know if that is okay.
Question: If manufacturers refused access, did the authors pursue a FOIA request as related to FDA oversight -- in order to gain information for their book?
Read the label on any commercial pet food, including Science Diet. I fed it for years to some cats who are no longer with me. The cat kibble has a very high percentage of corn. Now that I am more knowledgeable about feline nutrition, I would never feed a cat or dog a kibble, especially one with corn and grain fillers.
Please address the issue that the way ingredients are listed may not reflect the actual amount of ingredients, by weight, in the pet food. Foods listed as Beef, Chicken, lamb, etc. may be listed first.. however, those are measured prior to dehydration. After the meat products are dehydrated, they may no longer be the first ingredient, by weight or amount.
Also, cornmeal is used in a lot of pet foods, some considered very high quality, yet cornmeal is not well digested, at least by dogs. Is the presence of cornmeal in dog foods something we should be avoiding?
Finally, in the raw diet, whole pieces of chicken, including bones, is fed. I have issues with this, even though the bones are not considered "brittle" I just can't get past the possibility that fowl bones can be sharp and a serious problem. What is the truth here?
Thank you,
Suestc
Are dogs carnivores? why feed them carbohydrates?
I tried soo many different types of cat food, both perscription and nonperscription, for my adopted kitty and either she vomited or had diarrhea. The vets that I saw had given up and wanted to do exploratory surgery and I said no to this. Finally in a last ditch effort I tried a raw food diet and it has been a complete godsend. I used a powder from feline future and then I grind up raw chicken and chicken livers using an attachment on my kitchenaid. My kitty is now super healthy and a complete fluff ball with a coat that shines. I love having control over the quality and standard of the ingredients that I feed my kitty and dont think I will ever feed a cat store "bought" food again.
My female cat had digestive problems, skin allergies and was obese. I tried dozens of food types with venison, duck, green peas, etc, until I stopped feeding her dry food of any kind. Since then the problems went away and she lost 3 pounds. That tells me that the ingredients in dry food are harmful, fattening and end costing a lot in vet bills.
I also tried making cat food myself, following recipes given by the vet., but all 3 cats refused to eat it.
Question: what is the irresistible taste additive present in commercial cat food?
I work at an animal hospital that offers Acupuncture, Chinese Medicine, and Food therapy, as well as traditional western medicine. After the melamine in pet foods alerts, a lot of our clients were interested in cooking for their pets instead of purchasing pre-made cat or dog foods. Our doctors were able to guide them in the right direction of nutrition for their pets, placing importance on providing the proper percentage of proteins, vegetables, etc.
Due the holisitic nature of our practice, approximately half of our clients cook for their pets instead of feeding commercial foods. If anyone out there is considering cooking for their pets, I would recommend they contact their veterinarian.
Dogs are omnivores like humans. If you're interested in feed raw, google the BARF (used to stand for Bones And Raw Food but now stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) diet for dogs. I have a friend who feeds it and her dog is incredibly healthy. My friend says it's cheaper than what she used to feed too! The bones from chicken are indeed not brittle when raw, so my friend's dog gets raw chicken as part of her diet.
Cats are carnivores, but that doesn't mean that they should only eat meat. They need the calcium from the bones, the guts, (especially heart and liver,) the fat, etc. In other words, their food needs the same ingredients that their prey has in the wild. When we feed raw, we are simulating the nutritional elements of typical prey, e.g. rodents, birds, etc. That's why the raw diet I feed grinds up the whole chicken.
I used to work on the pet food business for a large company and I know one difference between pet food is the quality of the ingredients. I was on the manufacturing floor for dry dog food and it was immaculate. Additionally, our company used to reject grains and other ingredients because they weren't up to quality. I was shocked to hear that some of those ingredients went to be put into human food.
While I no longer work on this business, I know based on what I've seen and doing cost analysis, etc. that there is no way a 40-lb bag of dog food should cost $10. The old saying is you are what you eat and I don't doubt your pet will have problems with really cheap food.
Regina
Ohio
Don't forget that avocados are a no-no for cats and dogs.
My experience is yes Raw is great - look up BARF ( Biologically Acceptable Raw Food) even UNCOOKED chicken bones and all is great it cleans the teeth too!!!
I had two comments. One, I understand that corn is NOT digestible by dogs yet many commercial dog foods contain corn as the main ingredient. Can dogs digest corn? Two, I had a dobie who developed kidney strain from the high concentration of protein in our cat's food, which she habitually stole. She had to go on a prescription dog food for the rest of her life. Is that not a concern, over indulgence in protein?
Thanks!
New member, Sophia Locklear-Jensen, Roan Mountain, TN
During these hard times for families and the elderly, is there any added concern about adults and children eating dog and cat food?
look at Fruitables Pet Food
It is important to note that home-made cat food must contain taurine. All cat foods contain taurine because if cats don't get it they go blind. This actually happened early in the days of making commercial cat food. So don't just start tossing meat scraps at your indoor cat and think they're getting all the nutrition they need.
While there may be other recipes that are equally good, the recipe for raw cat food on the Feline Future web site has the longest track record of any that I know. Again, I am unaffiliated with Feline Future. But they were pioneers in this area and know their stuff.
I fed a pureed version of their raw recipe to my cat Motley when she had a stomach tube after a surgery and she thrived. I could never get her to take the raw diet after she recovered because she was quite old (and ultimately lived to the age of 22 after having beaten intestinal lymphoma.) Motley's experience is what gave me the determination to get my young new cats, Minkie and Roswell, onto a raw diet as soon as possible.
What's the best food not just for adults but for old dogs? What am I looking for at the dog's food package?
Humans are now being told to add more fiber to their diets. At the same time dog foods are becoming lower in fiber. Is this healthy for dogs?
I just joined the show. Has anybody asked about euthanized pets in commercial pet food?