4 Alternative Diets for Pets

• Alternative diets can include raw meat-based diets (RMBD) and home-prepared diets.
• It is important to understand the key facts about alternative diets.

Learning Objectives

• Explain the role of heat processing of pet foods.
• Assess the safety of RMBD for pets and owners.
• Evaluate the risks and benefits of RMBD and home-prepared diets.
• Recognize common nutritional imbalances associated with home-prepared diets.
• Describe how to select a high-quality dietary supplement/nutraceutical.

Reasons for Seeking Alternatives

• Some pet owners desire to prepare food.
• Some pet owners believe that alternative foods are more "Natural", "Organic", and/or "Holistic".
• The human-pet bond motivates some pet owners.
• Some pet owners may feed pet food alternatives due to palatability, or for diagnostic and therapeutic reasons.
• Preparing alternative pet food can give the owner a feeling of purpose.
• Some pet owners have a loss of trust in the pet food industry.

Types of Raw Meat Based Diets (RMBD)

• RMBD can be commercial or homemade.
• RMBD includes skeletal muscle, organs, and bone from mammals, poultry, and fish.
• Other RMBD ingredients may include unpasteurized milk and uncooked eggs.
• Treats such as bully sticks, rawhides, pig ears, liver treats, and marrow bones are considered RMBD.
• Commercial RMBD may be fresh, frozen, freeze-dried, fermented, or high-pressure pasteurized (HPP).

Reasons for Feeding Raw

• Evolutionary diet considerations motivate some pet owners.
• Perceived health benefits, including a "Cure-all", improved skin & coat, lean body condition, and dental health (bones) are also factors.

Dog vs Wolf

• Modern domestic dogs have adapted significantly from their wolf ancestors.

Order Carnivora

• The name "Carnivora" does not mean that a species has carnivorous feeding behavior.

Heat Processing

• Heat processing has its pros and cons for pet food.

Proponents of Raw on “Cooking”

• Raw foods retain their natural enzymatic activity.
• Enzymes improve digestibility and availability and decreases stress on the pancreas by restoring health.
• Exogenous enzymes are required.
• There is no evidence to support these claims for healthy pets.

Effects of Cooking - Negative

• Protein denaturation can occur.
• The digestibility of some amino acids (Lys, Met, Arg, Tau) will decrease.
• Maillard reaction products can be produced.

Effects of Cooking - Positive

• The digestibility of soluble carbohydrates and fats increases.
• Digestibility of some AA (lysine in wheat) increases.
• Bioavailability of protein increases through collagen breakdown.
• Trypsin inhibitors in soy are inactivated.

Nutritional Imbalances

• Nutritional imbalances are a risk in alternative pet diets.

RMBD for Dogs

• A study of 95 homemade RMBD for dogs found that 60% of the diets had major nutritional imbalances.
• 10% of the diets supplied <25% of the recommended allowance (RA) of calcium.
• Calcium:Phosphorus ratios were <0.6:1.
• Vitamin D was below the recommended allowance, as well.

Nutritional Secondary Hyperparathyroidism

• Nutritional history and differential diagnosis are essential for detecting the recipe deficiency of vitamin D and calcium.
• Rickets and Nutritional Secondary Hyperparathyroidism (NSHP) can be caused by deficiencies in vitamin D and calcium.

Management of Nutritional Deficiencies

• Nutritional deficiencies can be treated with commercial balanced foods.

Vegan Diets for Dogs and Cats

• Special attention should be paid for cats on vegan diets.
• Cats cannot be vegan.

Special Consideration for Cats

• Some owners prefer this diet for their cats because they are vegetarians.
• Animal flesh is the only natural source of essential nutrients like Taurine, Arachidonic acid and Vitamin A (retinol).
• Studies show that vegetarian cat foods too low in multiple nutrients.
• Ingredient supplementation is inconsistent with the manufacturer info.

Home-Prepared Pet Foods

• Home-prepared pet foods can present specific challenges.

Homemade Diets Common Problems

• Problems with homemade diets can include issues with:
  • fat source
  • palatability
  • vegetable oil in cat food
  • garlic and onions causing Heinz body anemia
  • cod liver oil causing hypervitaminosis D, A
  • tuna consumption causing mercury poisoning
  • Choline, iodine, and zinc deficiencies

Homemade Recipe Components

• The recipe should include a protein source of animal origin
• A carbohydrate / fiber source is recommended with cooked cereal grain
• Fat source / essential fatty acids like animal fat & vegetable oil (EFA)
• Minerals, particularly calcium, from sources like bone meal, calcium carbonate, and dicalcium phosphate
• Other minerals and vitamins
• Human adult or canine/feline vit-min supplements are typically insufficient, iodized salt should be used.

'Diet drift' or 'Diet Darwinism'

• A human dietary trend does not always translate to the needs of domestic animals.

What is Missing in this Recipe?

• A 4 year old Cairn Terrier eats a home made diet. It is missing key components.
• The home-made daily recipe includes chicken breast (140 g), cottage cheese, low fat (19 g), rotini pasta (68 g), mixed vegetables (182 g), olive oil (1/2 teaspoon), flaxseeds, ground (1/2 teaspoon) and canine plus multi-vit/min (1 tablet).
• The supplement provides 75 mg Ca, 37.5 mg P, whereas daily requirements per NRC are Ca 473 mg, P 364 mg.

Ca:P Ration

• An 4-year-old Cairn Terrier has a Ca : P = 0.26 ratio, which is below the appropriate ratio of 1:1 – 2:1.

Nutritional Imbalances Health Risks

• Garlic and onions can cause Heinz body anemia.
• Tuna and some fish oils can contain heavy metals (mercury).
• Raw Eggs can cause Avidin – biotin deficiency.
• Organ Meats, specifically liver, can cause hypervitaminosis A.
• Raw fish can cause thiaminase.

Dietary Hyperthyroidism in Dogs

• 12 dogs fed RMBD experienced elevated serum tT4.
• 6 of those dogs showed clinical signs of hypethyroidism.
• tT4 normalized when the diet was changed.

Reliable Sources for Recipes

• Board certified veterinary nutritionist (www.acvn.org)
• BalanceIT®
• Consult with online consulting websites that have access to Board certified veterinary nutritionists®

Safety for Pets and Their Owners

• It is important to consider safety for pets and their owners.

Salmonella Contamination

• Salmonella spp. has been found in raw food.
• Joffe et al found salmonella in 80% of raw chicken diets.
• Weese et al found salmonella in 20% of raw beef, lamb, quail, chicken, and ostrich diets.
• Strohmeyer et al found salmonella in 5.9% of raw meat samples.
• Morley et al found salmonella in 66% of fecal, food, and environmental specimens at a breeding facility.
• Lenz et al found salmonella in 5% of raw meat diets and 14% of raw meat-fed dogs.
• Finey et al found salmonella from raw canine diets resistant to ampicillin & tetracycline.

E. coli and Protozoa

• Strohmeyer et al found E. coli in 59.6% of samples from raw meat diets.
• Weese et al found E. coli in 64% of diets (O157 not detected).
• Lucas et al and Weese et al both found Protozoa – T. gondii and Cryptosporidium spp.

Cooking and Heat Processing

• Cooking or heat processing destroys most foodborne pathogens.

Freezing

• Freezing raw meat is not a way to kill pathogens.

Pathogens

• Freeze-drying or freezing does not eliminate pathogens.
• High-pressure pasteurization does not completely eliminate bacteria and viruses.
• Grinding is not a kill process for pathogens.
• Pathogen contamination has been found in 4-51% samples.

Salmonella Shedding

• Dogs exposed to Salmonella-contaminated food started to shed 1–7 days after consuming the contaminated meal.
• The total shedding days ranged from 1–11 days, with a mean of 3.9 days.

Environmental Contamination

• This is a concern when feeding RMBD.

Animal Health - Dental Disease

• Foxhounds fed raw diets exclusively had 100% gingival/periodontal lesions

• 50% tooth fractures

Animal Health - Foreign Bodies

• An overall incidence of bone foreign bodies is 47-100% of reported series.
• A study in 2007 showed, 48 / 60 (77%) of endoscopically viewed FB = bone.
• No indication of type of diet.

Risks & Perceived Benefits of RMBD

• Documented risks include nutritional imbalances, esophageal or GI obstruction / perforation (if bones included), bacterial / parasitic contamination, gastroenteritis (from bacterial contamination or high fat), sepsis, iatrogenic hyperthyroidism (if thyroid tissue included), zoonotic health risk, and dysbiosis of GI microbiome.
• Anecdoctal: Fractured teeth (if bones included).
• Documented benefits: increased digestibility and decreased fecal output.
• Anecdotal benefits: palatability, cleaner teeth from chewing bones, reduced stool volume, shiny coat and owner perception of more natural diet.

Conclusions

• Alternative diets are attractive.
• RMBD are highly digestible.
• Many recipes are not nutritionally adequate.
• Recipes are rarely tested before publication.
• There is a potential for pathogen contamination.
• Cleaning & disinfection doesn’t eliminate Salmonella from food bowls.

AVMA, FDA, CDC, ACVN position on RMBD

• FDA does not believe raw meat foods for animals are consistent with the goal of protecting the public from significant health risks, particularly when such products are brought into the home and/or used to feed domestic pets.
• Raw diets, especially raw meat diets, are not recommended because of the risk for salmonellosis and other infections that can affect pets and their owners.
• Advocates of raw diets claim benefits but proof for these purported benefits is currently restricted to testimonials
• No studies have examined differences in animals fed raw animal products to those fed any other type of diet with the exception of looking at the effects on digestibility.
• Typically raw meats are slightly more digestible than cooked meat.

FDA Report

• Of the 196 raw pet food samples analyzed, 15 were positive for Salmonella and 32 were positive for L. monocytogenes.