Most commercial pet diets in the United States are adequate to sustain life and normal good health to the average pet.
But there are advantages to spending a little extra money and a little extra effort in providing a premium diet for your pet.
Some of the nicer advantages include less gas, less stool volume, less body odor, and because the better foods contain less filler and less poorly digestible grains and protein sources, your pet will eat less volume making the price difference not as big as it first appears.
Some of the more important advantages include healthier skin, coats, circulation, kidney and heart. The better diets contain better ingredients as well as healthy supplements such as anti-oxidants, omega fatty acids, pro-biotics, and enzymes.
Feeding a superior diet is part of providing good care. The back bone of any good preventive medicine program for pets as well as humans include:
-Regular wellness exams and medical care
-Vaccinations and parasite control
-Lab work and radiographs to detect potential problems early
-Exercise and fun
-And a good diet
This page is about providing a good diet for your pet.
Over the last 25 or so years, I have examined tens of thousands of pets. During these exams, I discuss the pet's diet with the owners.
Here are my recommendations:
For most kittens
as well as pregnant or nursing cats
Hill's Science Diet Kitten Formula:
The Hill's company does a lot of research and spends a lot of effort in developing and offering the healthiest diets. Their kitten formula has appropriate levels of clinically proven antioxidants to quickly build healthy cognitive and immune function. This diet has added vitamin C and E to improve the immune system.
It promotes proper brain and eye development with added DHA from high quality fish oil.
It promotes gentle, healthy digestion with the proper balance of high quality ingredients including gentle fibers to ensure availability of key nutrients and proteins for the healthy development of your kitten.
Also contains added taurine and essential amino-acids for strong heart and enhanced vision development.
This diet has ideal levels of high quality lean protein for kittens in their first year of life.
Science diet for kittens is available in dry or canned (I recommend feeding both), and results in super healthy kittens that don't get too fat. Another nice benefit of feeding Science diet for cats is less stool odor.
For most cats
Hill's Science Diet Feline Maintenace
Available in regular and low calorie versions as well as formulas for hair ball control and cats with skin problems.
Advantages include super health due high quality ingredients designed to be easily digestible and added taurine, reduced phosphorus, and added, high quality anti-oxidants and omega fatty acids.
Comes in canned and dry. I recommend feeding a little of both.
For Most Puppies
Hill's® Science Diet® Puppy Healthy Development:
As with their kitten diets, Hill's as formulated an ideal diet that provides precisely balanced nutrition to build immunity and enhance mobility for puppies. It is enriched with DHA from high quality fish oil and made with high quality ingredients that provide an ideal combination of nutrients, clinically proven antioxidants and vital fatty acids to give your puppy the best start in life.
For young and middle aged adult dogs
Eukanuba Naturally Wild Salmon & Rice:
I don't know of a better diet for glowing skin, flexible joints, a strong heart and circulation, and over all general health. These diets are expensive but contain ideal, super high quality ingredients: Salmon, Brewers Rice, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Potato, Ground Whole Grain Barley, Chicken Meal, Fish Meal (source of fish oil), Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Egg Product, Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Flavor, Brewers Dried Yeast, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Beta-Carotene, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Inositol, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Choline Chloride, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate), DL-Methionine, Rosemary Extract
Eukanuba created North Atlantic Salmon & Rice formula, a natural dog food with vitamins and minerals featuring 100% Salmon as the #1 ingredient - no meat by-products or corn. Instead, Eukanuba adds amino acids and vitamin E, plus rice as a healthy carbohydrate source that is easy to digest.
100% Real salmon provides an excellent source of protein as well as vitamin-rich fish oil. That's why it's the #1 ingredient. 100% Nutrition, 0% Filler
Healthy Carbohydrates: Rice is a highly digestible grain and quality source of carbohydrates that helps maintain healthy energy levels.
Antioxidants: Made with a unique antioxidant blend including vitamin E to help dogs stay healthy and live long lives.
Natural Fish Oil: Natural fish oil provides omega-3 fatty acids for healthy skin and coat. These nutrients also help support the immune system and nervous system.
Eukanuba Naturally Wild Venison & Potato
Venison is extremely lean and heart healthy. And good for skin allergies. Another diet that's likely to be ideal for most dogs.
Venison, Potato, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Brewers Rice, Ground Whole Grain Barley, Chicken Meal, Fish Meal, Dried Egg Product, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Beet Pulp, Potassium Chloride, Chicken Flavor, Brewers Dried Yeast, Fish Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Salt, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Beta-Carotene, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Inositol, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Choline Chloride, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate), DL-Methionine, Calcium Carbonate, Rosemary Extract
For Older Pets we recommend the diets described to your left or on our pages about Senior Pet Care
For Pets with various health problems we recommend the therapeutic diets below:
Click on and of the links below to go to the therapeutic diets we recommend the most because we have found them to work well:
There are lots of good brands of pet foods available most pets will be satisfied and remain healthy on any of them.
But some pet diets are superior to others and result in healthier coats, skin, heart, circulation, and so forth.
And some pet diets are especially well designed for pets in their different stages of life such as the growing stages, middle age, and old age.
This page is about the diets we think are best for kittens, puppies, and young adult, healthy cats and dogs.
On other pages are the diets we recommend for:
Links to our pages about the other products we recommend at the FoxNest Veterinary Hospital:
Revolution Frontline Plus Comfortis Vectra3D Promeris CapStar
Program 6 Month Injection for Cats Sentinel KnockOut House
KnockOut Premise Advantage Multi PrevenTic Collars
Revolution Advantage Multi TriHeart Plus
ProHeart 6 month injection
Inteceptor Sentinel
Panacur ProFender Pyrantel-50mg Revolution Advantage Multi
Inteceptor Sentinel
TriHeart Plus
And The Very Best Products Available For:
ZymoxHC FoxNest Ear Cleaner Mometamax Acrexx MalOtic
Phytosphingosine Hydroxyzine Tris8 Duralactin OFA's
HypoAllergenic Diets
Phytosphingosine FoxNest Medicated Shampoo Relief OFA's Zymox
FoxNest OatMeal Shampoo Hydroxyzine The Furminator Exotic Diets Hylyt Shampoo Genesis Spray BioGroom Natural Scented Shampoos MaloKet
Zymox VBG Cream Nolvasan Malotic DermaGel Bag Balm
Fly Repellent Vet Wrap
Biotene MaxiGuard Oral Gel Greenies TD OraVet Kits Gum Vaccine
ProPectalin DigestRite DiaRobe CatLax DiaBac Pancrazyme
GastriCalm K-Pectin
Duralactin Dasaquin SynoviFlex ChondroFlex for Cats Rimadyl Adequan
Tramadol AntiOxUltra
Special Diets Duralactin AntiOxUltra OFA's
Reconcile/Prozac DAP Collars & Plug-Ins Elimiodor Forbid
OFA's AntiOx SAM-e CranVet MultiVitamins PetTinic Milk Replacer
Bottles & Nipples Slentrol Reducing Diet LeanTreats
Prescription Therapy Diets
Urine Off The Equilizer Eliminodor Pet Candles ThioTrol Skunk
The Furminator Shed Guard OFA's Phytosphingosine
AllerPet for Humans MicroChips Pet Insurance Pet Candles Bag Balm
Dog Appeasing Pheromone Feliway Spray PetGuard
Did you know that cats are especially prone to heart disease.
Thanks once again, and may the peace of the Lord be with you,
Roger Ross, DVM
P.S. On my
AnimalPetDoctor
website about veterinary medicine, I've written several pages about the history of veterinary medicine you may find interesting.
