PET CARE Is your pet a fussy eater?

Is your pet a fussy eater?


Ask the vet
Esther Van Luipen

A few weeks ago I was watching an episode of ‘Super Nanny’. They were dealing with a nine-year-old boy who had been refusing to eat his dinner since he was about three years of age. The only thing he wanted to eat was custard creams – and that was all he ate for six years. Imagine all the damage that was done because of this! He must be chronically lacking in proteins, vitamins and minerals.
Unfortunately, a lot of pets are treated the same. They train their owners into giving them what they want to eat. A lot of people come to my clinic complaining about the fact that their dog won’t eat the food they are given and, for example, only want bits of cooked chicken or ham.
By giving your dog or cat only what he or she wants it will soon be lacking in essential building blocks for its body. I can’t stress enough how important it is to feed the right food to your pet. Young animals especially should be fed the right food for their body to get healthy and strong. When you give your pup the right food for the first year of its life you are guaranteed that it will get healthy bones and joints and will grow properly.
Every animal needs food that is custom-made for that species. For instance guinea pigs need vitamin C. They can’t make it themselves so they need to get it in their diet. Rabbits need lots of fibre. So amongst other things it is important that they eat a daily amount of hay.
When a sick parrot is brought in to me my first question is always ‘what are you feeding it?’ Most people give their parrot some kind of muesli, consisting of different kinds of grains and seeds and pellets. This food is a complete diet – as long as everything is eaten. The problem with a lot of animals is that they pick the nice bits out of it. Parrots can eat all the sunflower seeds and leave the rest of the food.
If you ate only potatoes, but no meat and no vegetables, you would soon become malnutritioned. The sad thing is that a lot of people start giving the parrot only sunflower seeds to make it happy. This means that the parrot is lacking in essential vitamins and minerals for such a long time, that by the time that it is brought to the vet the damage is irreversible and nothing can be done to save the bird.
My advice about food for all animals in general would be to feed it a super-premium quality food. Pet food nowadays is often marketed in a way that it is nice looking for the person that buys it. Trust me, the animal doesn’t mind what it looks like.
What is important is that the pellets or nuts are all the same size shape and colour. This way your parrot or cat can’t pick out the pieces that are best tasting for them. Don’t feed your animals leftovers, even though they seem to like it best. And stick with the diet. Train your animal into eating the food it should be eating, not what it wants to eat.
Every animal is different, so when you get a new animal get the right feeding information from your vet. Bring your pet into your vet to have it weighted and its health checked so you know exactly what and how much to feed to keep it healthy and strong.

Esther van Luipen is a veterinary surgeon in Claremorris Small Animal Practice. Feel free to contact her with any of your small-animal concerns on 094 9373955 or at living@mayonews.ie.