UPDATED JAN 27: Comment Received.
By Dr. I Elizabeth Borgmann.

Quite seriously, who wouldn’t be confused about what food to feed their pet? There are about 250,000 different types of food. Each month there are 450 different brands of food hitting the marketplace. Most won’t survive. Each year consumers spend over 11 billion dollars on pet food. What is good? What is ok? Which should you stay away from? Should you feed a home made diet? Or should you feed a commercial diet? How do you sort through the advertising? How do you read those pet food labels?

Each day I see and feel the confusion of clients trying to do the best for their pets. I also remember back to my pre-veterinary days when I made some poor dietary choices for my pets. I was working for the National Research Council in Gene Technology. I had a Masters Degree in Genetics. And in spite of my education I made poor dietary choices for my dogs. How can the average consumer wade through the plethora of information and end up with a decent diet for their pets? Is it luck?

It is not only about nutrition. Food is emotional. Food is guttural (pun intended). We live in cultures that reward with food, comfort with food, and generally obsess over food. Food is not strictly about nutrition. There is a conflict between nutritional science and cultural habits. Add to this the influence of trends and fads in nutrition and health. Consider the new disease ‘orthorexia’ – the desperate attempt to eat correctly but often in a misguided manner. The trends and fads observed on the human nutritional side will quickly overflow onto pet nutrition. Which companies are responding to consumer concerns and which are playing on consumer fears?
Where do consumers learn about pet nutrition?

They learn on the web, in the pet store, from books and in the veterinary hospital. Who do you trust? Read carefully and closely on the web. Most individuals who use the web are becoming familiar with the pitfalls of the internet. The pet store clerks are sincere and dedicated but are they overly influenced by the pet food representatives? Do they have the training necessary to sort through the marketing? Are the books you are reading based on scientific study or personal experience?

Is your veterinarian too busy or too embarrassed to discuss pet nutrition? In the fear of seeming too pushy veterinarians will often shy away from specific pet food recommendations. Ask them specifically which foods are their main choices! After all, they see the ill pets on a daily basis. Though their frame of reference may not be scientifically correct, their clinically perceptions may be more than adequate. Most veterinarians have been trained in basic sciences before they pursued their veterinary training. They are cynical by nature.

In an attempt to guide you through this quagmire, the next set of articles will delve into more details about nutrient requirements and the contents of diets (and how to read those labels); marketing strategies to get you to buy foods; pet food research; and the use of specialty diets (including home cooked diets). We expect to hear lots of feedback from our readers! Just how emotional is the question of diet?

Dr. Borgmann has been practicing in the Fraser Valley for over 8 years and can be reached at the Whatcom Road Veterinary Clinic