Dog and Cat Nutrition
Vinay Pratap Singh1, Monika Karnani2, Manju3, Charu Roat4
Post Graduate Institute of Veterinary Education and Research (PGIVER)
NH-21, Agra Road, Jamdoli, Jaipur
1.MVSc Scholar, Department of Animal Nutrition, PGIVER, Jaipur
2.Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Nutrition, PGIVER, Jaipur
3.Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Nutrition, PGIVER, Jaipur
- MVSc Scholar, Department of Animal Nutrition, PGIVER, Jaipur
Introduction
Proteins, lipids, carbohydrates vitamins, and minerals are all part of a complete and well-balanced diet for dogs and cats. Water is also required for everyday activities and essential to life. Supporting optimal physical and physiological health, musculoskeletal development, optimal body weight and growth, improve immunity and body resistance, bright eyes, alertness and sound mental health, healthy skin, a glossy coat, small, firm stools and vitality are all the objectives of feeding that contribute to a complying with human-pet relationship.
Dog nutrition
When it comes to feeding it is crucial to remember that dogs are carnivorous and that their primary diet consists of raw meat and bones with the occasional addition of wild herbs and grasses to provide essential minerals and vitamins. Proper and appropriate feeding is important to keeping dogs active, healthy and fit.
Energy requirement: Average Metabolizable Energy requirement of mature dog is 132 kcal/kgW0.75 which increases to 188 and 470 kcal/kgW0·75 in pregnancy and lactation respectively. Female dogs with large litters may require 3 or more times the maintenance energy requirement. Small sized breed upto 9 kg require 60 percent less energy per kg of body weight than the dogs in the range of 10-35 kg. Further, large breed dogs weighing more than 35 kg need 30 percent lesser energy per kg of body weight. Young pups in early life require higher energy content in their diets for optimum growth and development.
Fat requirement: Fat has many roles in the body, such as providing energy and helping with the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. One of the most important roles is providing essential fatty acids (EFAs). EFAs help with inflammation at the cellular level and help dogs maintain healthy skin and coat quality.
Requirement per day
Maintenance 1.0g/kg body wt.
Growth 2.7g/kg body wt
Protein requirement: Proteins are important in the formation and maintenance of cartilage, tendons and ligaments. Protein in dog food also assists with muscle, skin, hair, nail and blood formation. When protein is broken down, it creates amino acids that are essential nutrients for dogs. Amino acids help create energy for dogs and sustain life.
Requirement per day
Maintenance 4.8 g/kg body wt.
Growth 9.6 g/kg body wt
Carbohydrate requirement: Carbohydrate is physiologically essential to the dog. However, it is not essential in the diet of dog (except for the lactating bitch) provided that the protein level is high enough to supply sufficient gluconeogenic amino acids (alanine) and lactate to allow the maintenance of plasma glucose. Not withstanding this, carbohydrates are a useful source of dietary energy, and cooked starch is generally readily digested by dogs. Cooking is necessary to break down starch granules. The dog in particular is well able to digest starch, although quantities greater than approximately 65% of the total diet should be avoided. It is acceptable for carbohydrate to provide 40-50% of the total energy in the diet.
Crude fibre requirement: The suggested quantity of crude fibre is between 2.5 and 5%, while some specific therapeutic diets (such as those for constipation or coprophagia) can have levels as high as 24%. Normal bowel function would probably be affected by levels below 2.5 percent. For optimal nutrition dog diets should contain between 3.5% and 6% fibre.
Vitamin requirement: Vitamins serve a wide range of functions in a dog’s body including DNA synthesis, bone growth, blood coagulation, efficient eye function and neurologic function.
Feeding of dogs: Milk, meat, eggs, liver, rice or wheat, soybeans, carrots, green vegetables and dog biscuits have to be included in a dog’s diet. Rice, chapattis, cooked meat and fruits and vegetables should be the main component of the meal. Fish, milk, eggs and curd compose the subsequent meal. Only two meals a day—one in the morning and one in the evening should be given to adult dogs. For correct feeding dog should be fed 5 percent of its body weight daily.
The following is the daily dietary requirement for dogs based on their body weight:
Body weight (kg) Total diet (g)
2.5 250
5 450
10 650
15 900
30 1550
Dog food types: Depending on how it is prepared, there are two types of dog food.
Homemade foods: These are meals that family members make at home and provide to their dogs either pure or with additional ingredients. Approximately 20–22% protein, 5–10% fat and 3.5–4.5 kcal ME/g of dry matter should be included in a well-balanced homemade meal. Compared to commercial pet food homemade food has several drawbacks such as an unbalanced diet, labour-intensive meal preparation and a higher risk of nutritional problems and deficiency symptoms.
Commercial Foods: Commercial dog foods are of four types:
1.Dry pet food: less than 12 percent moisture. The majority of dry foods have 18–27% CP, 15% fat and 35–50% carbohydrates. Dry food has a high energy content and dogs feel satisfied after consuming it. Dry food has the advantages of being less expensive than canned or soft-moist food and not required refrigeration for unused portions. In order to prevent periodontal disease, dry meals may also help massage the gums and teeth. Pet food is referred to as semi-dry food if it has 12–18% moisture.
2.Semi-moist dog food: It has between 18 and 35 percent moisture content. Animal products, fats and oils, soybean products, cellulose and vitamin and mineral supplements are used to prepared this.
3.Soft dry dog food: A modification of semi moist food which is known as soft dry foods is also available. It contains lower proportion of fresh meat and meat by products. A low pH which is about 4.2 acts as a preservative for such foods.
4.Canned dry foods: This type of food contains meat and meat products at varying levels. It has 74-78 % moisture content. Low level meat containing foods are similar in composition to dry foods to which water has been added before canning. Canned dog foods are commonly formulated to be nutritionally complete.
Cat Nutrition
Cats evolved to survive on a diet of meat and are highly specialized for hunting. Carbohydrates are not necessary for cat’s diet. Cats use protein (glucogenic amino acid, alanine) and fat (glycerol) to meet their metabolic needs for glucose. Cat’s short small intestine and less number of taste buds, which restrict them from tasting sweetness, are suited for a diet high in protein, fat and low in carbohydrates.
Energy requirement: Adult neutered cats have daily energy requirements that vary from 45 kcal to 80 kcal ME/kg body weight. Typical inactive cats require 45 kcal per day but active cats require 60-80 kcal per day per kilogram of body weight. Instead of carbohydrates cats can get all the nutrition and energy from protein and fat.
Protein requirement: Healthy adult cats require 4 gm of high biological value protein per kilogram of body weight per day which is more than most other species. Cats require more arginine and niacin in their diet. Arginine cannot be synthesized by cats. Additionally cats need to consume taurine, an α-amino acid found only in animal tissues, through their diet. In order to compensate for obligatory intestinal loss, cats are unable to produce adequate taurine from dietary precursors. For developing kittens optimal diets should have at least 24-28 percent ME as protein and for adult cats it should be at least 20%.
Fat requirement: For kittens to grow the recommended and minimal fat requirements are 8 and 15% respectively whereas for adult cats the recommendations are 5 and 14–20%. Cats are unable to effectively convert linoleic acid to arachidonic acid in contrast to dogs. As a result the cat’s diet has to include preformed linoleic acid (found in plant and animal fats), linolenic acid and arachidonic acid (found only in animal tissues).
Carbohydrate requirement: Cats do not have a known dietary requirement for carbohydrates since they can maintain blood glucose levels by converting glycerol and glucogenic amino acids to glucose. Because amino acid catabolic enzymes are constantly active cats are suited to diets that are high in protein and low in carbohydrates. In general a cat’s blood glucose levels will not be affected or an energy deficit will result from a lack of dietary carbohydrates. This is due to the reason that the body may use fat and protein for energy and protein and glycerol for the synthesis of glucose.
Mineral requirement: The body only contains 0.7% of minerals and too much of them might be harmful. However calcium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, magnesium, iron, copper, zinc and iodine are all essential to cat. they are necessary for tissue construction, enzyme cofactors and for the maintenance of acid-base equilibrium. In order to maintain bone and cellular integrity, the calcium:phosphorus ratio must be in between the permissible range of 0.5:1 and 2:1.
Vitamin requirement: When compared to those of dogs and other omnivores cats have particular vitamin demands. Many dietary water-soluble B vitamins including as pyridoxine, niacin and thiamin are needed in higher concentrations by cats. Vitamins A and D are more important to cats than E and K. Because cats lack the intestinal enzyme dioxygenase, they are unable to convert a-carotene to retinal, hence vitamin A which is naturally present in animal tissues must be provided in meals formulated for cats in its biologically active form.
Water requirement: As a general rule cats should drink 2.5 times as much water as they consume food each day. When given food that has 67-73 percent water cats may go for a prolonged amount of time without drinking water. but when the meal contains less than 63 percent water they become dehydrated. Exercise, lactation and higher ambient temperatures can all cause an increase in water requirements of two or three times a normal amount.
Cat foods: The cat’s food differs in water content, protein level, caloric density, palatability and digestibility.
Types of cat food
1.Dry food: Dry food has moisture content of 6-10%. It is the least expensive and because it is dry has the benefit of an abrasive action that keeps the gums and teeth healthy and clean. These foods can be stored out at all times and have a long shelf and bowl life. A well balanced diet for cat contains 34–38 percent protein and 19-22 percent fat.
- Semi or soft-moist foods:These foods have 23-40 percent moisture. Before feeding semi-moist foods it is important to carefully check the labels because most of them include a lot of preservatives. Additionally these foods can be given free of choice.
3.Canned food: Canned food contains about 68-70 percent moisture. Canned varieties are highly palatable to cats which can be helpful if your cat is a finicky eater. The disadvantages of this kind of foods are high cost and the odour.
Conclusion:
Dogs and cats have quite different nutritional needs; for example cats need more protein and have a higher fat tolerance than dogs. Breed, size, age, growth and weight, pregnancy and lactation, physiological state, degree of activity, exercise, health, stress level, biochemical individuality and environmental conditions all affect dietary needs. Being obligate carnivores cats cannot survive on a vegetarian diet without supplements because they are unable to synthesis a number of essential elements that are either in short supply or lacking from plant-based diets. This primarily applies to taurine, vitamin A (because pro-vitamin A cannot be converted to vitamin A) and specific fatty acids. The needs for development, pregnancy and lactation the necessities of production are greater than those required for maintenance.
