Diet

Having the right diet is important for the health of your pet. Diets need to be balanced and not allow your pet to become fat. Remember that a good supply of water is essential for the health of your pet.

Dog diet
Cat diet
Rabbit diet
Exotic diets
Bird diets

Dog diet

There are hundreds of diets commercially available for dogs. Thus a trip to a pet shop selling a wide range of foods can be a daunting experience.

Every dog is an individual and their nutritional requirements will vary. If you need help deciding what food to feed please ask one of the vets or nurses.

There are different foods available for different life stages (puppy, neutered male, neutered female, older dog) and we have samples of various foods that might suit your dog.

We now have foods for specific breeds, designed to help the needs of these breeds. These breed specific include Labrador, German Shepherd and Westie.

We also have foods for dogs with sensitive bowels and older dogs that suffer from arthritis.

Up to 60% of dogs are overweight and the surgery has foods that help to trim the inches.

There are even foods that can reduce tartar accumulation on the teeth.

Please talk to a vet or nurse about which food your dog should be on.



Cat Diet

There are many diets commercially available for cats. It is therefore quite confusing trying to decide what is best for your cat.

Each cat is an individual and so their nutritional requirements will vary. If you need help deciding what food to feed please ask one of the vets or nurses.
There are different foods available for different life stages (kitten, neutered male, neutered female, senior cat).

We have foods available for cats with sensitive bowels.

Obesity is a big problem with modern cats; the surgery has various diets to help with this problem.

Modern diets can also cause problems in cats, particularly with bladder disease. Some dried diets predispose cats to this condition and we are here to advise you.

There are foods that help to clean teeth.

Cats do not usually drink enough. Consider the use of filtered water, rain water and a small indoor fountain, as cats like moving water.

Please talk to a vet or nurse about which food your cat should be on.
 

Rabbit diet

A good diet is essential for the health of rabbits; the wrong diet can lead to dental disease with abscesses (which are difficult to treat in rabbits), conjunctivitis, cystitis and diarrhoea.

Rabbits are designed to eat grass. Grass is a hard food to digest as it is full of cellulose, which is hard to break down. They have teeth that keep growing in order for them to chew grass for a long time. If they are fed on a lot of proprietry “rabbit foods” then the teeth are not worn down enough. The teeth then grow against each other and dental disease, often with abscesses, develops. The rabbits digestive system is designed to digest grass and the wrong diet will then cause diarrhoea.Messy bottoms then lead to rabbits being attacked by flies, who then lay eggs around the bottom; these eggs turn into maggots, which eat the flesh of the rabbit. If you have a rabbit with a messy bottom then improving the diet can help in some cases; a product called Rearguard (Novartis)can be applied regularly to the bottom and this kills maggots.

The great thing about grass is that it is an important source of water for rabbits.There is a severe form of cystitis that rabbits get caused by a lack of water. Good quality hay is a good diet, but obviously there is less water. Good quality hay is available for purchase from our shop in the waiting room.

Grass and hay should form at least 80% of rabbits’ diet. The remaining 20% can be pelleted food, such as Burgess Supa Excel. Dried rabbit mix should be avoided as rabbits pick & choose what they eat from the mixture, often resulting in an imbalance.

Too much fresh food, such as lettuce and greens, can cause diarrhoea.

Feeding too much food can lead to obesity, which we commonly see. We do free weight checks at our nurse clinics.

 Exotic diets

The key to good health in your exotic pet lies mainly in the correct husbandry and diet offered to the animal.

Each species has very specific dietary requirements, and sadly when sold many people are misled about the correct and balanced diet for their animal. Tortoises and herbivorous reptiles in particular are often fed totally inappropriately leading to disease for the animal, as are many of the smaller mammals.

If you would like some advice regaridng the diet you are offering your exotic pet then please telephone the surgery for an appointment . If you are a registered client we also offer a free nurses clinic for this purpose.

Bird Diets

Of all the dietary problems we see, birds are the main sufferers. Many cage birds are fed on seed, and are often addicted to sunflower seed which is wholly inappropriate and certainly lacking in the 32 essential nutrients required in the diet.

Dietary imbalances cause problems with feather quality, behavioural issues, beak and claw overgrowth and general ill health. In a lot of cases the dietary imbalances we see have become life threatening.

There are excellent bird diets out there which provide a balanced diet, we recommend Harrisons. However it can be difficult to switch a bird to a new diet as they are naturally suspicious of anything new. We will sometimes use a " stepping stone" diet called Tidymix for birds which are particulalry difficult to switch. This encourages them to try new things.

 Please make an appointment to see our exotics nurse Jo who will be more than happy to help you if you would like to start feeding your bird more appropriately.