Diet and Nutrition for Cats and Dogs

At Broadway Veterinary Hospital, we strongly believe that what your pet eats can have a huge impact on his or her health. 

"He that takes medicine and neglects diet, wastes the skill of the physician."
-Chinese proverb

 Did you know?

  • Kidney diseaA dog ready for dinnerse, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, joint and skin problems, liver issues, and cancer are some of the conditions that can often be improved with diet.
     
  • Pets do not need a lot of variety in their diet. For some pets this can actually cause gastrointestinal upset.
     
  • Many diets can now help maintain your pet's dental health, which can help prevent many health problems
     
  • Many diets say that they meet or exceed the nutritional requirements set by the National Research Council, but this doesn't tell the whole story: 
     
  • The quality of the ingredients and the ability for your pet to absorb them is not addressed.
    • Nutrient excesses can be just as harmful as deficiencies.
    • Pets have differing nutritional needs. Feeding a geriatric pet and a puppy the same diet could be potentially harmful.
    • The source and quality of ingredients can vary from batch to batch.
    • A diet made from motor oil, boot leather, vitamins and minerals could also meet the NRC's requirements.  
    • Without a feeding trial, it is impossible to know what the long-term effects of a diet will be. 
       
  • Digestibility is also a very important factor to consider when choosing a diet for your pet.
    • Some brands of pet food are not very digestible, causing the pet to eat more. As owners, we may think that the pet likes the food more, when the pet is simply needing to eat more to meet his or her basic caloric needs.  
         A cat finding snacks 


          "Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food." - Hippocrates

           

          Not all diets are created equal. To help make your job easier, in our Nutrition Center and in our Online Store, we only carry diets that have been proven, through well-conducted feeding trials, to meet all of the claims they put on their labels.  All of the diets we carry are easily digestible, have a fixed formula of high-quality ingredients, and are designed specifically for your pet's life stage. Below are links to learn more about some of the different diets we carrry.

           

           

        Diet Transitions:

        Resources:

        • MeowSpace (R) - This revoluntionary new product can help you if you have cats who need different diets. It can also help prevent an overweight cats from eating another's food.
        • Visit Royal Canin's web site to learn about your pet's nutritional needs and the Royal Canin diets.

        • Hill's Science Diet

        • Purina

        • Eukanuba