By Yvonne McGehee, from the April 2006 Newsletter

The last issue left us leading into another point: no one knows it all when it comes to pet nutrition, not a large pet food manufacturer, and not a home food preparer. This is why even the NRC requirements are subject to change, and why commercially made pet foods change. Examples: the amino acid taurine was lacking in commercial foods for cats, resulting in blindness, until the problem was corrected and enough taurine was added. L-carnitine content in dog foods is currently being examined, because there is evidence that canine cardiomyopathy can be due to lack of carnitine in the diet.

Recent studies, done by adding Omega-3 fatty acids to commercial foods, have shown a significant increase in the immune response of puppies to vaccines; this means by implication that commercial foods have thus far been lacking in this area. All of this new knowledge illustrates how the phrase "complete and balanced" is somewhat of an illusion.

Certainly, imbalance can happen, and feeding a dog properly and well involves time and thought to avoid mistakes. But, to think that some sort of perfect balance is achieved by commercial manufacturers, and that you cannot possibly achieve this state of purported perfection in a homemade food for your dog, is simply not true. Forewarned is forearmed; any diet, whether made at home or in a huge plant, may not be appropriate for all dogs, and the more you learn, the better off your canine companion will be. Next issue, we will carry on with a few books to avoid.

Yvonne McGehee has been breeding elegant borzoi dogs for the past 30 years. She feeds them a fresh food diet. See them at http://personal.palouse.net/valeska.

Copyright: Copyright on articles and recipes are jointly held by the Moscow Food Co-op and the respective authors, except were otherwise noted.

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