Why Purchase Pet Food from my Veterinarian?

Our role, like that of any profession, is changing. At one point we focused almost exclusively on the treatment of disease. Now, we have expanded our services and have also become committed to helping our clients prevent disease in their pets, improve the quality of pet?s lives, and increase your best friend's life span. The diets we choose to sell are extensively researched and monitored, incorporate unique ingredients, and are of exceptional quality. We see tremendous differences/improvements in pets fed these foods. Admittedly, there are hundreds of diets on the market and we can't know about them all. However, companies whose products we sell provide us with a wealth of nutritional information, and are accountable for the performance of their diets. The regular interactions you have with our hospital staff permit us to monitor and ensure your pet's optimal health and enables you to ask questions of animal health professionals. We believe nutrition can play a vital role in everything from improving skin and coat quality to managing kidney, liver and heart disease. Based on extensive work in the human field, we know that nutrition also plays a tremendous role in disease prevention and contributes to a longer, better quality life.

Regrettably, many companies and pet food retailers have relied on numerous common myths and appealing (albeit erroneous) marketing tactics to position their products as "... the same or better than, but much less expensive!". We want you to have better information upon which you can make informed choices regarding feeding your pet. Many of our clients are realizing that feeding their pets diets we recommend is a most effective and cost-efficient way to ensure their pet's optimal quality of life

Helpful Suggestions for Feeding your Kitten

Good feeding habits start as soon as you get your kitten! Your kitten's diet will influence his or her health status, development, appearance and attitude. How you feed your kitten will influence many behavior aspects. It is also important to prevent your kitten from gaining too much weight, which can predispose them to obesity later in life, and it's associated health problems. Following are some tips to get you off to a good start:

1. Choose your kitten's diet carefully!

There is excessive misinformation in the market regarding kitten foods. We know it's confusing, particularly with all the advertising and marketing efforts by competing companies. The old adage, "you get what you pay for", probably applies more to pet foods than in many other instances. We encourage you not to compare diets using the 'Guaranteed Analysis" on the label - it is a chemical analysis only that measures gross quantities of ingredient types - it tells you nothing about the quality or digestibility of the ingredients.

2. Avoid feeding your kitten "human food".

Establishing right from the start that "human food' is 'off-limits' will reduce begging and an increased opportunity for obesity. It also helps minimize the chance of cats becoming very picky eaters.

3. Familiarize yourself with- healthy treats.

We all like to treat our kittens. It helps us in socializing, training and just plain loving them. There are several healthy treat options now on the market. Ask us about home and packaged treats that would be suitable! Remember, many treats on the market have more calories than you would find in a 1/2 cup of kitten food!


4. Food is an excellent training tool!

Talk to us about training your kitten with regards to food rewards. It makes training easier and more positive for you and your kitten!

5. Change diets slowly

If you are changing your kitten's diet, mix the new food with the previous diet in small amounts the first day or two. Then the proportion of new diet can be gradually increased over a week or so until your kitten is completely on the new diet. This will reduce the likelihood of vomiting and diarrhea. Your kitten should make a formed stool. Please inform us if this is not the case. Also let us know how many times a day your kitten has a bowel movement. This information will help us assess the health status of your kitten and the quality of the food he/she is eating.

Milk

Many kittens cannot digest milk, and it ends up giving them diarrhea. This can also interfere with the absorption of nutrients from the intestinal tract.