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Feeding and NutritionIt is essential to feed pets a good, balanced and appropriate diet. A good diet will provide your pet with the best start in life, take it through adulthood and help prevent age related disease when geriatric.
Whilst it is possible to produce a balanced home prepared diet it is very difficult to do so correctly without the risk of deficiencies or excesses of vital ingredients. Fortunately these days several companies produce excellent proprietary diets. The best of these are ‘fixed formula’ foods where the diet is made to a recipe and does not vary from batch to batch.
The dietary requirements of pets are usually based around their energy, protein and mineral requirements and vary with growth, age and other factors such as pregnancy, lactation, disease and exercise. Most of the good pet food companies now produce “Life Stages” (Puppy, Junior, Adult, Working, Senior) to satisfy these requirements.
A complete pelleted food, such as Super Rabbit Excel, is recommended for feeding rabbits and small mammals in order to prevent selective feeding. Good quality hay and water should also be provided at all times.
All pets are prone to gaining weight and the hospital is able to offer advice on feeding to prevent weight gain and to help pets to loose weight. As in people, excessive weight in dogs and cats can predispose them to diabetes, liver disease and arthritis. Rabbits should not be allowed to become overweight as this can prevent them being able to groom themselves adequately as well as leading to medical problems.
The shop area at the hospital sells a range of diets for dogs and cats as well as for rabbits, guinea pigs and other small pets.
The Hospital also stocks a range of ‘prescription diets’ that are specially formulated to support dogs and cats in times of illness and disease and are an important part of our treatment of chronic diseases. back to Pet Healthcare |
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