Which food should I choose for my dog or cat?
Everyone understands that there is a direct relationship between what we eat and our health. Healthy food contributes to good health and can help reduce the risk of certain diseases. The same applies to our pets: healthy, high-quality nutrition can help prevent many problems and can influence the animal’s overall health.
Dogs and cats are naturally true meat-eaters (carnivores). Healthy dog food should therefore, in our opinion, have a high meat content and be low in grains, or preferably completely grain-free. In addition to meat, dogs also need plant-based ingredients. In the wild, wolves therefore hunt animals that eat plants (graze). Once they have caught their prey, the entire animal (including the gastrointestinal tract) is eaten, meaning they also consume many plant-based nutrients. A dog’s digestive system can process this perfectly well, as dogs have relatively long intestines for a carnivore.
Cats have a greater need for high-quality animal proteins. They obtain these proteins mainly from muscle meat. Organ meat is not part of a cat’s natural diet. Both a cat’s teeth and digestive system are fully adapted to its carnivorous lifestyle. A dog can theoretically live on cat food, but a cat cannot survive on dog food alone. Unlike a cat, a dog’s body can produce Taurine itself. To produce this substance, a dog needs high-quality proteins (meat). Because a cat’s body cannot produce Taurine itself, it is necessary to add Taurine to our cat food. Taurine is generally not added to dog food (because the body can produce it itself from methionine and cystine). If you were to feed a cat dog food, the animal would develop a taurine deficiency, which could cause all kinds of unpleasant health problems.
In our opinion, artificial fragrances, colorants, or flavorings have no place in healthy food for either cats or dogs. The same applies to artificial preservatives: they also have no place in high-quality food for dogs or cats.
Comparing dog kibble
Some people choose to make their own dog or cat food. If you choose to do this, it is important to ensure that all essential nutrients are added to the food in the correct quantities and proportions. You therefore need to know what you are doing to prevent your dog or cat from lacking important nutrients in its daily meals. For most owners, it is much easier to choose our ready-to-serve Riverwood products. All our recipes are complete and balanced and contain all the essential nutrients your pet needs for a healthy life. This way, you can be sure that your dog is not missing anything.
There are now many pet food brands on the market, and the differences in quality between these brands are considerable. The first thing that stands out is the difference in price. High-quality food may initially seem more expensive than lower-quality food. By using inexpensive ingredients such as grains or a low meat content, food can be produced more cheaply and therefore sold at a lower price. The disadvantage of inexpensive dog food is its lower nutritional value. In practice, this means that you need much more kibble from a low-cost food to meet the required daily nutritional value. High-quality food such as Riverwood may have a higher price, but in daily use it certainly does not necessarily have to be more expensive than an inexpensive product. By using high-quality ingredients, Riverwood is much more digestible, meaning that far more nutrients are absorbed by the body and less undigested food is excreted. This also results in considerably less waste. Compared with inexpensive food, you also need to feed your dog less each day while still providing all the essential nutrients. As a result, one package lasts longer, and a price comparison based on the required daily portion suddenly looks very different.
Of course, the nutritional needs of our pets vary greatly. The daily amount depends largely on the species, breed, age, living conditions, and level of activity. For example, an active adult Irish Wolfhound has very different nutritional needs from a friendly domestic cat that would rather sleep all day. On the back of our packaging (and on the product pages in our shop), you will find feeding tables showing the recommended daily amounts of our food for your pet. These recommendations are based on averages and vary for each animal depending, for example, on its level of activity.
The taste of the food is also important, of course. What one dog enjoys, another may leave untouched. Tastes differ, just as they do among people. Sometimes it is simply a matter of trying different foods to find out which one suits your dog or cat best.
When you want to switch to a new food, it is important not to do so all at once, but gradually. Changing food too quickly can cause digestive problems. We recommend switching to the new food over approximately ten days as follows. On the first day, give your pet 90% of the ‘old’ brand and 10% Riverwood. On the second day, the ratio becomes 80% old brand and 20% Riverwood, followed by 70–30, 60–40, and so on until your dog’s daily diet consists of 100% Riverwood.
We recommend not changing food too often. Variety is far less important to animals than it is to people. A pet can eat our products perfectly well over a long period, so varying its diet is generally unnecessary.
Dry food or wet food: which is better?
Whether you give your pet wet food (also known as canned food) or dry food depends on your personal preference. Both options have their own advantages. Of course, you do not have to choose specifically between dry food and wet food; you can also combine the two very well.
Dry food consists of kibble from which almost all the water has been removed during preparation. The moisture content of dry food is below 10%. Its major advantage is that the products have a much longer shelf life than wet food once the packaging has been opened.
A major advantage of wet food, for both dogs and cats, is that it contains so much water. This is particularly useful when fluid intake needs to be encouraged, for example in dogs and cats with bladder problems or kidney issues. Without needing to drink much extra, they still take in more moisture.
