Making your own pet food

What's the best approach to making homemade pet food?
1. Talk to your veterinarian.
2. Know that preparing homemade pet food can be a time-intensive project.
3. Choose recipes that are good for your animal and that match her size and fitness requirements. Your vet can either provide you with suitable recipes or suggest appropriate outlets to get recipes from, says Joffe. "There are websites that are staffed by veterinary nutritionists who, for a fee, help you balance a diet for your pet." One example is www.balanceit.com.

What about raw pet food?
"A current fad that's getting a lot of play on the Internet is feeding raw food like chicken or fish to pets," says Joffe. "It's one of those areas with a lot more anecdotal information than research."

Proponents of this diet cite raw meat as the way wild animals in nature eat. The problem, says Joffe, is that wolves and coyotes are not like our domesticated pets. Literally members of our family, our pets eat in our kitchens, sleep in our beds and lick our kids' faces -- and so what our pets eat has implications for the whole family unit. At the same time, there is no scientific research to back claims that a raw food diet is nutritionally advantageous for your pet.

Also note that "raw foods can be very highly contaminated with bacteria like E. coli and salmonella, which may or may not make the dog sick," warns Joffe. "The bacteria can be passed in the animal's stool where it is then available for people to pick up. It's a public health accident waiting to happen," he says.

What's the bottom line in choosing the best pet food for your pet?
The bottom line in pet food is that the good-quality commercial pet food is probably still your best option.

"The companies that I recommend are the science-based companies," says Joffe. "They are companies that have research and development departments, they have nutritionists employed by them, and they constantly do research into pet nutrition and then alter their formulations based on what these new findings are."

Whether you opt for quality commercial pet food or homemade pet food, your veterinarian is the best person to contact to find the best options for your beloved pet.

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