Introductory to Animal Classification

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Well eat when we wake up!
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• I. Nutrient Intake and Terminology
• A. Its importance in Companion animals to
  determine nutrient per unit of dry matter.
  
• 1. Remember companion animal food is dry or
  canned
  
• 2. Example Dry food might contain 20 protein
  and 9 water.
  
• Thats 91 DM
• And 20/91 x 100 is 22 protein
• 3. Or in canned food there might be 5 protein
  and 77 water.
  
• Thats 23 DM
• And 5/23 x 100 is 22 protein
• 4. The only way to compare foods is on a dry
  matter basis
  
• B. Second is Palatability and Acceptability
• A. Palatability is determined by taste
  differences.
  
• B. Acceptability is if it meets the nutritional
  requirements.

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• C. Not only the animals acceptability, but the
  food must be acceptable to the owner.
  
• D. With this in mind, look at the differences in
  nutrition for the companion animal.
  
• II. Nutrients
• A. Carbohydrates
• 1. Must be fed as starches for their simple
  stomach.
  
• 2. Most plant sources of CHOs have been heated
  or toasted to improve palatability and
  availability.
  
• B. Fats
• 1. Major fatty acid required are the omega 3
  family or the PUFAs.
  

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• 2. PUFA are important in maintaining
• A. plasma cell membranes
• B. cell membrane integrity, fluidity and
  permeability
  
• C. have roles in inflammation and immune
  regulation
  
• D. and there are three essential fatty acids
  linoleic (6), linolenic (3), oleic (9)

3. Inadequate dietary fats results in
1. Poor growth 2. Dry scaling skin 3. Hair loss
4. Weight loss 5. Infertility 6.
Unthriftiness
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• 4. Most dog dry foods contain 5 to 10 fat.
  Increase this to 15 20 in gestation,
  lactation or performance
  
• 5. Dogs need linoleic acid and cats need linoleic
  and arachidonic both are from animal plant
  origins.
  
• 6. Poultry main source, but beef, corn oil,
  soybean oil, and safflower oil are also used.
  Fish oils rich in Omega 3s.
  
• 7. Dogs are more efficient at digesting fats than
  cat.
  
• C. Protein
• 1. There are 22 amino acids of which 10 are
  essential
  
• 2. Cats especially need Taurine an amino acid
  used for nerve integrity, reproduction, retinal
  functions and myocardium function. Taurine is not
  incorporated into proteins, but is a free AA.
  Found in meat and fish products.
• 3. Protein important in growth, gestation,
  lactation and aging.

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• 4. Protein is the major cost of the companion
  animal diet. Animal by-products and soybean
  meal most common sources.
  
• Protein should make up 25 to 40 of the DM of the
  diet.
  
• 6. Cat foods usually incorporate high quality
  protein products. Fish meal is one which is 60
  to 72 protein. This contain the essential AA
  and FA.

D. Vitamins 1. Vitamin A. A. Cats lack the deoxy
genase enzyme to convert carotene to vitamin A.
B. Vitamin A is necessary for fetal development
in cats deficiency results in cleft palate.
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• C. Too high levels of Vitamin A results in
  toxicity in cats. Result is exostosis.
  
• 2. Vitamin D
• A. Dogs and cats like the sun
• 3. Vitamin E
• A. First recognized as a problem in 1953.
• B. Kittens eating canned fish (mainly red tuna)
  developed steatitis or yellow fat disease.

4. Vitamin K A. A necessary supplement for dogs
which have ingested rat poisons.
5. Water soluble vitamins Most B-complex are requ
ired in diet Dogs and cat can synthesis vitamin C
from glucose not a dietary essential
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Yellow Fat Disease or Pansteatitis
Steatitis is caused by feeding a diet high in
unsaturated fatty acids and deficient in vitamin
E. Oily fish, especially red tuna are the cause
of this condition.  Vitamin E acts as an antiox
idant unfortunately, tuna is an very poor
source of Vitamin E. Therefore the overabundance
of unsaturated fatty acids (which also oxidize
and destroy Vitamin E), combined with the
deficiency of Vitamin E, causes damage to body
fat, which results in a painful inflammatory
response.
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• E. Minerals
• 1. Major mineral problems are
• A. Calcium and phosphorus levels 1.21 to 1.41
  ideal
  
• B. The other problems is copper. In some breeds
  of dogs, they cant mobilize copper from the
  liver resulting in hepatitis, cirrhosis, liver
  failure, and decrease life span.
• III. Nutrient requirements for Dogs and Cats
• A. Recommendations by the NRC and AAFCO
• Assoc of American Feed Control Officials
• 1. The latest recommendations came out in 2005
• 2. Minimum and maximums are listed
• 3. Listed are the MDR (Minimum Daily
  Requirements)
  
• B. Water
• 1. Rule of thumb is adult dogs and cats require
  1 oz of water per pound of body weight

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Copper Requirements in Dogs
Copper is necessary for a number of body
processes including the formation of collagen,
bone and connective tissue, the absorption of
iron, the development and maturation of red blood
cells, the function as an antioxidant, and the
development of pigment in hair.
Copper is found in liver, fish, whole grains, and
legumes. Most quality commercial dog foods are
supplemented with copper to assure adequate
intake.
Copper is absorbed in the stomach and small
intestine, and stored in the liver, kidneys, and
brain.
Copper toxicity can result in some dogs.
Bedlington Terriers and West Highland White
Terriers have been shown to have a hereditary
disorder, which causes copper to accumulate in
the liver and results in inflammation of the
liver (hepatitis). Doberman Pinschers can also
develop hepatitis. The typical symptoms of toxic
levels of copper in the liver include lethargy,
vomiting, jaundice, and weight loss.
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• C. Energy requirements
• 1. Second most critical nutritional need
• 2. Net energy

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• 3. Calculating energy requirements include the
  maintenance energy requirements (MER) and any
  additional energy required for the level of work.
  
• 4. For dogs the MER in metabolizable kcal/day is
  equal to 270Wtkg 0.75 and for cats MER is equal
  to 1.470Wtkg 0.75
  
• 5. Basing energy requirements on MER takes into
  consideration - size and activity level.
  
• A. Inactivity is 0.8 x MER
• B. Last trimester 1.1-1.3 x MER
• C. Growth in large breed dogs 1.6 x MER
• D. There are tables to give this information
• 6. Most dog and cat foods have had the MER
  determined and the amount of energy contained in
  their food formula. Start there and then
  determine if the dog or cat need more or less.
• 7. Most dogs need 2.5 of their body weight in
  dietary dry matter for maintenance. A working
  dog may need 5.

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• D. Protein requirements for maintenance
• 1. Adult dogs need 18 protein
• 2. Growing dogs need 22 protein
• 3. Adult cats 23 protein
• 4. Growing cats 26 protein
• 5. Do not feed dog food to cat or cat food to
  dogs why?
  
• E. Practical feeding of dogs and cats
• 1.Available pet foods are divided into popular,
  premium, private label, generic foods or home
  made.
  
• 2. Popular foods are the large corporations foods
  and provide moderate to high quality nutrients
  for maintenance and work. Most are designed for
  taste appeal
• 3. Premium brands found in many pet stores and
  veterinarian offices have different formulas
  for growth, maintenance, work, senior, lite,
  allergy special, lactation, gestation, and etc.

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• 4. Watch private label and store brands for AAFCO
  approval. Many private diets are used for show
  dogs and cat.
  
• 5. Generic dog food dermatosis is a common
  syndrome resulting from inadequate balancing of
  nutrients.
  
• 6. Foods come in dry and canned.
• A. Dry is 10-12 moisture, semidry at 25-35
  moisture or soft at 27-32 moisture.
  
• B. Dry also comes in kibbles, biscuits, pellets,
  or extruded. Kibbled is the process of baking
  the food in sheets and breaking it up.
  
• C. The best feeding method is time-restricted.

I bought my wife a new dishwasher this last
weekend. Knives are a little hard on it!
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• G. Common problems in feeding dogs and cats
• 1. Feeding cat food to dogs and dog food to cats
• Dogs dont need the extra energy and protein of
  cat foods.
  
• Cats need a food that produces an acidic urine to
  prevent FLUTD (Feline lower urinary tract
  disease)
  
• Cats also cant
• Convert carotene to vitamin A
• Convert cystine to taurine
• Efficiently convert tryptophan to niacin
• Change linoleic acid to arachidonic acid
• Utilize protein as efficiently as dogs

So its a definite NO-NO
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• 2. Feeding sugar, it can be addictive to dogs and
  cats
  
• 3. Failure to drink water. Cats do not like
  stale unclean water.
  
• 4. pH level of the urine should be monitored in
  cats. Especially on vegetarian diets.
  
• H. Xenobiotic concerns
• 1. Chemical compounds foreign to the animal
• 2. Include drugs, insecticides, carcinogens,
  etc.
  
• 3. Chocolate and cocoa would be one in dogs.
  Cat??
  
• 4. Cats cannot detoxify certain food additives
  like benzoic acid and propylene glycol (dogs can
  detoxify, cats cant) Propylene glycol is a
  preservative.
• 5. Ethylene glycol antifreeze three
  tablespoons will kill a dog and two a cat.
  Kidney failure.