Features

An Answer For Alex: Raw Food and Tight Regulation

Written by Glenn Lewis van Strydom
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:52 AM
Alex at the window, two weeks after her diabetes remission. My story begins when we moved to Amsterdam from South Africa in 1995 and brought our three cats with us. Alex, short for Alexandria, and her brother Orlando had been rescued from the animal shelter in December 1994. Byron had been rescued as an abandoned feral kitten in December 1993. I got their expensive scientific diet from the vet and ensured that was all that they ever ate. By 2005, Byron looked decidedly underweight and Alex was looking like she was eating all his food. Orlando had fur that made him look like a dandelion in a stiff breeze. We had real concerns about Byron and Alex, but we were told that 13 was old for Byron and that the Senior Light Version of the food we had been feeding him was what we actually needed for Alex. We thought that our blindly accepted veterinary advice would resolve Alex's weight. We tried to accept that the inevitable was just around the corner for Byron.
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Adoption: What Should We Feed Our New Kitten?

Written by Robin A.F. Olson
Friday, January 08, 2010 01:56 PM
What should we feed our new kitten? I hear this question many times during the course of a year. I am a volunteer foster mom for The Animal Center, a non-profit animal rescue group in Newtown, CT. One of my passions is finding great homes for socialized feral kittens and friendly strays. Each time a new family comes to meet my fosters, sooner or later they ask me what to feed them. I try to keep my answer short. They don't want a long lecture on nutrition while an eight-week old kitten is
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A Brief History of Commercial Pet Food

Written by Margaret Gates
Monday, September 28, 2009 08:03 AM
How did we end up feeding corn to cats? Like most people I never really thought much about cat food. It came in cans and bags, and always had, right? After doing a little research, I found out that the whole idea of commercial cat food is relatively new; I just happened to have grown up when it was all in place, so of course for me, it had always been there. I remember as a child, opening a can of cat food for my cat and having him take one sniff and running away! Canned cat food almost always smelled awful to me
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Reading a Pet Food Ingredient Label

Written by Lisa A. Pierson, DVM
Thursday, April 23, 2009 02:33 PM
This is where it gets tough. The current labeling system for pet foods is seriously lacking in usable information. The "guaranteed analysis" numbers that you find on a can of food simply gives a wide range of the levels of water, protein, fat, etc. that are contained in the food. You can get a rough idea of what is in the food but, ideally, it should be mandatory to put the more accurate "as fed" values on the can. However, I do not see this happening anytime soon. This would be more along the lines of the information that we find on our own packaged foods.
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Mangiare Crudo in Italia (Raw Fed in Italy)

Written by Wendy Humphreys
Friday, January 08, 2010 12:53 PM
My fabulous rabbit suppliers in Albinelli market in Modena, Italy. "Mangiare Crudo in Italia" means "Raw Fed in Italy." I'm British and living in Italy. I've been here for four years, having moved with my Italian husband to escape the English climate. I make precious metal jewelry in a gorgeous workshop under the eaves upstairs, and do the odd translation from Italian into English. That's my proper job. My obsession however, is feeding cats properly. When we moved here, I had two cats, the elderly English
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Melamine to Frankenprey: A Documented Journey

Written by Tracy Dion
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 02:23 PM
Siblings Oliver, Meghan, Rachel and Allen eating at the table. As many of you know, there was a massive pet food recall due to melamine contamination in 2007. Hundreds of food brands were recalled and thousands of cats and dogs across the US died; many more are compromised for life. I was feeding some of the recalled and poisoned foods. Three of my four kittens pulled through — for which I remain eternally grateful — but I lost their brother, Oliver. Since then, I have been obsessed with all things
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