Your Own Pet Nutritionist Geet Rao,
Spreading Awareness about Healthy Pets
Nutrition is an inevitable aspect of pet care. So, here’s your own pet nutritionist, Geet Rao, answering your most frequently asked queries. She is a Clinical Pet Nutritionist certified by Academy of Natural Health Sciences, New Jersey, currently pursuing doctoral studies in Pet Nutrition.
She has been practising as a pet nutritionist since six years and has also designed foods for some leading pet food companies in India.
Feel free to send in your queries about your pet’s health and we will answer back your queries here in our Q&A column!
Looking forward to serve your pets for their better health!
I am confused what to feed my dog – packaged or fresh food that is available now?
Packaged or fresh food – Fresh food is anyday better than packaged food. Fresh good is less processed, retains life in the ingredients and the ingredients are what they are claimed to be. When you talk about packaged food, today packaged food for pets is available on both dry kibble as well home cooked style. If you are a pet parent with paucity of time, then you can go for fresh dog food companies who package the product and deliver it to you in its fresh form.
However, kibble might be required in case of certain fussy eaters.
My dog’s hair fall too much, my friend suggested to change pet food. Does food have bearing on skin or hair?
Yes. Food definitely has a bearing on skin and /or coat of the dog. There could be a number of ways change of pet food can help. Firstly, in eliminating an ingredient that could be causing skin allergy to your dog. Secondly, sometimes your dog is not able to digest proteins, in that case you need to get a food with hydroluzed protein (partially digested).
In case your dog is currently on home made food or food which is not balanced, get a diet consultation or a food which provides all the necessary nutrients. Apart from food change, certain supplements like amino acid supplement, omega 3 supplement and in certain cases Hemp oil, may help.
What should I feed my dog to reduce his weight?
To reduce weight, it is not really what that matters, it is ‘how much’ that matters. Obese dogs are to be fed around 30% less calories while adding fibre to keep them satiated.
If going for kibbles, get an obesity diet. If going for fresh retort packed options, provide 20% less poetion meant for a dog of your dog’s weight. In order to keep him feeling full, you can additionally feed pumpkin puree or apple sauce.
Every few months my dog stop eating food and I have to change his food. Is it normal?
Your dog could be a fussy eater. For fussy eaters, you have to identify at least 6 meal options. If you feed your dog twice a day, feed any two options in one day and other two options the next day. In this way, do not repeat a flavour / same meal option until the 4th day. This will keep your dog liking the flavours and not get bored of them easily. Mostly Fussy eaters need non veg flavours and it will be hard to keep them veg.
