Welcome to my channel. My name is Dr. Rea and I am a small animal general practitioner. I started this page because everyday people tell me how much they always wanted to be a veterinarian growing up. This channel allows me to share some of the interesting things I come across in my daily practice as well as answer some of your most common questions. I love the science of veterinary medicine and the unpredictable nature of our cases. Please know that this page is meant for education and entertainment, and is not intended to diagnose or treat your pets. Go see your family vet for that!
Hi Dr. Rea! Can you please review Pup Above? Also do you have content on flea/heartworm medications? I'm trying to decide for my pup. Concerns with potential side effects of chemical meds
These are excellent options for the price! I feed my cats HSD Perfect Weight and the calcium is higher than all of these options at 1.01% DMB. This is very interesting. I should say the HSD PW phosphorus is lower at 0.76% DMB. But the numbers are not far off from IAMS. This is an excellent budget option in my opinion.
@AnimalDocRea I understand your position. I am just as confused as to what to feed mine. I see that Pro Plan has more nutritional value per kcal than one. There are hundreds of brands and combinations of prominent sources. I have a 110 lb dog that has had gastro issues since puppyhood. He is a finicky eater and has bad gas issues, not to mention loose stool issues. He started on chi Ken and rice, and I would be up every 2 hours for him to evacuate. I have tried a fish sourced food and he would not eat it. I have him on a large breed lamb and rice, which he does not enjoy. The stool is almost tolerable. He is coming up on 2 years old and I would like to get him off of large breed puppy food. I don't know if chicken, or corn or even some by-product is the issue. My resources are not as great as yours but I would like to do my best towards him. Thank you for responding.
EDIT: you are provided nutrient content for each recipe tailored to your dog. I just checked. It’s right there when selecting the recipe. This review is seriously lacking. You only actually reached out to their team once and it was about the cooking temperatures. Which by the way, DRIED form of cooking chicken safely can vary within range of 140-165. From what you showed, you did not reach out to them about any of your other concerns and so it did not give them a chance to provide clarification on them. You flagged them for what you believed was a poor statement claiming their diet was the same for puppy and adult, but then you refused to do the quiz that would determine their breed, age, weight, activity level, and any health issues. Which one would assume would be to tailor their diet to those stats….you also didn’t bother to check and see if you entered in a puppy age and weight if the results changed to confirm your claim. You only checked adult. What I got from this? You didn’t actually do your due diligence, and the only concern that was “factual” was the nutrients content? But if you research nutrient levels, for example phosphorous levels - it says it can vary depending on their age, breed and activity levels. Your criteria didn’t seem to keep that in mind at all. Results from other vet pages state a larger adult dog can have up to about 1% phosphorous, again give or take depending on their specifics. Bad take. I wouldn’t pay attention to any of your reviews when it comes down to FACTS.
Hi Dr. Rea! These food videos are really helpful, so I wanted to thank you! Both of my pups are very picky eaters and I also cook some of their food in an Instant Pot so I am trying to find a good kibble that can be one of their daily meals. Anyways, they are just finishing a bag of Open Farm "Rawmix" per your review I will stop buying that, I just went to their website and the "Fresh & Gently Cooked" is $12.99 per lb (or $10.81 per lb if I buy 16lbs at a time) and per the feeding chart I would need to spend $43.24 per day to feed both dogs! If only I could afford that!
I wouldn’t recommend feeding different t foods like you suggest. Just pick a balanced diet and stay simple without variation. The picky eater is a learned trait. Also make sure you are having g any home cooked meals formulated by a nutritious specifically for your pet or visit balanceit.com otherwise you most likely are doing more damage than good. Just had a client this week I’ve been councilin g for years this very thing and now I’m having to deal with a “picky eater” that is in kidney failure and she has no clue what nutrient levels she is feeding in her home cooked diet
I had my dog on Open Farm Salmon, Ancient Grains formula, he immediately had soft, mushy poops and terrible smelling gas..i then tried him on Open Farm, Beef, same problem.. I now have him on Hills Science, 1-6 and with some added probiotics..he seems to be doing better now, his poops are firming up again 🙂
You have to use dry matter basis for this evaluation. Never use the guaranteed analysis. If you aren’t sure what j mean by that, please watch the videos on my foundations to pet food playlist. Without understanding the basics you won’t be able to follow the review videos. But to answer your question you need to selected extended nutrient profile link and use the DMB column.
I keep getting ads for Wild Earth Pets, who have created a vegan cat wet food called Unicorn Pate. They have added taurine to the food, and the article linked in their Instagram bio references a study done on cats fed meat vs vegan. Is it possible obligate carnivores can get their nutrition from plants? Can dogs be vegan?
Obligate carnivore only means the body cannot synthesize taurine, that term has been so badly manipulated by social media….do yes, if taurine is added to a diet then it can be vegan
I've noticed more and more dog food is labeled as All Life Stages/Adult. Recently, I did a count and found, by brand that 7 out of 10 all were leaning to All Life Stage - ( Lucy, ANP, Blue Buffalo, Open Farm, Nutrisource, Fromm, Victor., to name a few... which is very frustrating. I want my levels of calcium, and Phosphorus to be low but within the Ca-to-P ratio limits of 1.2 to 1.4., with a good dose of Vitamin D to aid in calcium absorption. So annoyed.
I wish you would talk more about 1) calcium-to -phosphorus ratio 2) Vitamin D. Adhering without compromise to absolute numbers of calcium is in error since calcium is....."The amount of true calcium absorption may range from 25 to 90%, depending upon calcium status, calcium form or intake (Nap and Hazewinkel,1994). SO a little extra won't hurt. THe Merck Manual and the NRC do allow for a tolerance of 30%. Example, a low number of calcium and Ph let's say .95 and .50 give us a ratio of 1.9, very high ratio causing an imbalance of the two minerals working together. Additionally, Vitamin D from the , Small Animal Clinical Nutrition, page 113.,"No matter where absorption takes place, vitamin D is the most important regulator of calcium absorption (Birge and Avioli, 1990). Renal handling of calcium is also modulated by PTH and calcitonin but not as much as by vitamin D." I find it funny that you talk about calcium and phosphorus but never talk about Vitamin D which is extremely important in calcium regulation, whether that calcium is low or high. Calcium-to-Phosphorus ratio..."For all practical purposes, however, if a food were formulated to meet or slightly exceed an animal’s requirement for calcium and phosphorus, it would by default provide an optimal calcium-phosphorus ratio. Also you never discuss the bioavailability of the calcium or phosphorus. As a doctor you know that not 100% of these minerals are absorbed into an animal's system depending from what source they come....."Furthermore, the ratio can differ markedly with the form and availability of the calcium and phosphorus supplied in the diet." ( SACN, p.114.) I understand you want to keep within the guidelines and there is no argument from me. Lower calcium and phosphorus is good for the kidneys but also keeping that within the optimal ratio is a total win. Hard to do, yes, balancing act, very much so.
It’s because this is an introductory level educational channel. I have linked the text for those that wish for more detail but it’s just not the focus here. I want to teach the basics to a population of people that have a varied and unknown (to me) knowledge base so I’ve chosen to keep it simple.
I’ve not reviewed that diet, but you can do your own analysis by comparing any diet on a dry matter basis to the standards described in this video and many of the others on this channel
Kathryn Heigl’s Badlands ranch dog food ads are blowing up my you tube. Could you review this food. She makes all kinds of claims for longevity of dogs eating this food and spreads a lot of misinformation when she does her commercial showing her in a pet store looking at foods. My opinion: I love her as an actress but she needs to stay in her lane
I have actually had many requests, but I can’t get them to send me the information I need. If you can get the dry matter basis values then I’ll do it but I’m not going to hound them anymore
This is the summary…just look at the chart at the very end if you don’t want to see how we came about the numbers. Also maybe check your playback speed, video should be 40 minutes or as I often suggest, watch in 2x speed=20 minutes. Hope that helps.
Could you please do a food review on Orijen Six Fish? I saw you already have the cat food but would really like to see your thoughts on the dog version. Thank you for providing such helpful information! All dogs in my household eat Royal Canin or Purina products.
Great video! Could you do a video on the myth that non-holistic GP vets know nothing about nutrition? So many pet influencers are encouraging people to not trust their vet/be dishonest to their vet.
This!!! Thanks for doing this video. You know when the whole Purina scandal happened back in January I was terrified because of course I just had added our very first puppy to our family AND I was feeding him Purina. Well I bought into the frantic ignorantly and switched him over to Open Farm Salmon. After watching your knowledge on the nutrition and the Petfood puzzle guys videos I learned SO much! I was so angry because open Farm seem to be the best fit because everything was so transparent. Everything was so healthy and sourced, blah blah blah blah blah blah… yet I was so surprised the mineral content in their food and the fact that they didn’t have a specific food that my puppy could have… just an “all life stages” he’s(intolerance to chicken). I moved him back to the Purina and he’s done amazing on it with no problems at all… a nice healthy muscular English bulldog 😅. Would you believe I actually asked open Farm about their nutrition and mineral levels in particular and the vet book you always refer to…on their Instagram and they replied to me. Just that they had done so much research and that they were fully confident in their food being a great fit for dogs. Never once did they address the excess of minerals and how that could affect our animals livers…which I asked them specifically about And I also asked them about why all life stages. I just got Crickets 🦗. Thank you so much for sharing all your knowledge You truly have been such a huge blessing in my life and our little Lilac Tri English Bulldogs. ❤❤❤ keep up the good work. You are making a difference.❤
Do novel protein diets still work for pets with allergies? Or is it better to use a hydrolyzed protein diet? I’m just curious as I am considering getting one for my cat as he’s suffering from allergies.
Only the prescription ones diagnostic for food trial but they are less successful than the hydrolyzed so most vet donr use them anymore. Plus to many pet food companies use all the novel Proteins so most pets have already been exposed also ruining the food trial
@@AnimalDocRea Would you ever consider doing a video on hydrolyzed diets? There’s not much information on them and I’d like to learn more about how they work. I know it’s sort of a niche video as these diets are only available from our Vet. But so many pets suffer from allergies and skin conditions and it might be helpful for others.
Dr. Rea, I’d love to learn about these diets as I have an itchy kitty with allergies. The next steps with my Vet is a feeding trial for 8-12 weeks on a hydrolyzed protein diet. But to be fair I don’t know much about them and I’d love to learn more about how they work.
Hi dr Rea. Love your education. Learning lots ! You did a video on a new zeland food ((ziwi…I think ) it scored high on your rating system…because it was feeding trialed/ not raw/grain +…but the calcium and phosphorus were in excess ++. Would it not make sense to eliminate the feeding trial/ not raw (as you don’t evaluate raw foods anyways)and then include the vitamin E levels which I feel is an important criteria in choosing a dog food. I was disappointed that this particular food rated high…despite having excess minerals for an adult dog. Just a thought..
Thank you for such a great video. Have you ever come across Dr. Tim's in your research. 7 years ago I chose this over Victor because my dog preferred it. Now, at 14 years old, My Alaskan Malamute eats Dr. Tim's Kenesis for seniors along with a topping of chicken or meat.
When I first got my dog he was on NutriSource Performance, switched to Carna4, then Open Farm, tried switching to Royal Canin Golden Retriever based on your vids and some others, within days my dog was itching like crazy transitioned him back to Open Farm and the itching has all but stopped, any thoughts on this? I want to give him the best but I couldn’t believe how fast he started itching and how fast he stopped
Not sure, all products are OTC so not processed in a way that would constitute a food trial or elimination diet. A true food allergy would take 8 weeks minimum to see any itch resolve. With that in mind, IF it was a food allergy it would have been to whatever food you were feeding 8-12 weeks prior. That’s assuming you were giving nothing else by mouth including treats or even preventions. When doing a food trial for allergies it’s best to have this done in conjunction with a vet so they can make sure the focal is done properly or else the results are not diagnostic. Foods cannot be changed any sooner than 8 weeks and then after a suspect is confirmed a challenge is then performed. There is a very specific pattern that must be followed. Statistically it’s more likely your pet suffered a FAD, Atopy, or contact dermatitis, mild skin infection that self resolved ( example, was contracting/inhaling a blooming plant that was no longer blooming).Food allergy is <5% of all allergies statistically so I never start there with my patients. I go for the most likley first.
I don’t doubt you at all, but it was like a one week transition into mega scratching, ears, sides by elbows, paw licking, biting hind quarters, and one week transition back and by like the 4th day it decreased and now completely back to normal…I feel like I’ve done hundreds of hours of research on dog nutrition and still don’t know anything confidently besides longevity is best indicated by keeping dogs lean, maintaining good dental health and minimizing stress, otherwise it’s a crap shoot…I def would like to just trust the science behind hills, royal and purina, I know they invest a lot of money, but my brain can’t help but liken it to the science behind corn fructose syrup being as safe as sugar, if that makes any sense to anyone besides me haha
Thank you for this, I have spent alot of time looking at adult foods and had used your charts to help, what I am finding is that Phosphorous and Calcium and usually a bit higher than recommended but I also know you say just a bit over can make a big difference. I also noticed they use Min amounts so it's difficult to figure out actual protein amounts. Thank you for providing us with the tools to make better choices :)
Sounds like you have learned a lot, great job! You can always call a company for a typical analysis on a dry matter basis, they should be able to tell you and if not….probably best to move on.
As always, great video! I was browsing Walmart and saw that the "famous" Dr. Pol has jumped on the bandwagon and created his own dog food. It would be very interesting to see where that falls into nutrient content. Of course, it could have been out for a while and I'm just now seeing it LOL!
Uh…just did a peak and it’s all life stages so we all know what that means. Likley the food was made and formulated and they got Dr. Poll to just put his name on it. I will take a deeper look but I’m skeptical
@StarkK9Academy it’s a puppy food. If you need more explanation check out this video. All life stages is a big 🚩 What the Pet Food Industry Doesn't Want You To Know (All Life Stages) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MbpPNqBzPMA.html
Openfarm dry food are ALL fishmeal-heavy. Dry fishmeal is always 2nd main ingredient which makes up the most of it's protein/fat profile because of 1st is fresh wet meat. Avoid them if your pet doesn't do well with fish. I failed to switch to the OF puppy food (8/10 highest score in this video) and went back to his old food. I suspect the high fish content caused my puppy's upset stomach.
I owe you an apology. On an older video-I want to say it was for Purina-I had commented about how you don't know anything and that corn was a filler, blah, blah, blah. I (bold and underlined!) was the one who didn't know anything. I did discover I had fallen into the marketing tricks and the singular voices of Dr. Judy and Dr. Becker (and similar). I have changed my dog's food SO.MANY.TIMES trying to find the best for her. From expensive "high end" kibble, raw (which oddly, she won't even eat anymore, go figure!) and freeze dried foods. She was on Open Farm rotating the proteins every 3rd bag for about 18 months. She is now on Science Diet Pollock & Insect (because I'm a HUGE supporter of soldier fly larva as protein for animals). A brand I would have talked S*** about about 2 months ago and would have said I would NEVER (although I still DO hate how almost all of their adult dog foods are chicken) feed. I have learned a lot from you and the Pet Food Puzzle Guy since my previous comment (which I have deleted) and I am TRULY sorry.
That’s ok, you were just doing Your best with the information you were given at the time. Where you the one that I was trying to teach about food hypersensitivity model in dogs? If anything it was a good reminder for me to make sure the literature hadn’t changed and re-research the matter. I’m glad you got it sorted out now. If you haven’t yet, check out my soldier fly larvae video, I’m also a fan!
Hey, we all should be so humble and willing to admit we are wrong. Great lesson for all of us. Grateful to be part of it. We sure love our furry friends!
I fell onto the "holistic" marketing too constantly switching between brands of raw freezebdried or expensive kibble. I got sick of it and switched to PPP sensitive lamb and oat and no issues. I decided I'd rather spend my money on doing things with my dogs rather than going broke feeding them
I leave medical management of disease up to the attending veterinarian because there are a lot of factors that go into a diet recommendation. In general for pancreatitis cases low fat and consistency are key. Sometimes even prescription levels of low fat.
@@AnimalDocRea it does seem to be that Ollie is within fat parameters our vet prefers for our little girl, Chloe. So we will give that a try. Thanks for your videos. So helpful.
Great question. It depends on the cause. Many times in my experience it’s due to underlying dental disease so get in for some full mouth intra-oral rads. That’s the first step for me for sure!
Hi doctor Rea, love your informative videos. I got on your channel because I follow Glenn the Food Puzzle Guy. I have a question about all those Supplements that are out there for dogs. I’m feeding Hills and if it’s a nutritionally balanced diet is it really necessary to give more supplements. I’m talking about more Omega 3s like Fishoil and Glucosamine like Cosequin. My dog is two but I heard you should start with that stuff early so they don’t have joint issues later. My last dog had a lot of joint issues later in life. I don’t want that again with my new puppy. But do these supplements really work and if they do when do you start giving them? Before they have issues or when the issues start?Or is it all marketing and money making like a lot of the food that’s out there?
Yes they can help if started early. No they do not help if started after the problem starts. The type matters though so you have to pick one with an NASC seal. I personally have never put my pets on any other oral supplement as the foods I pick have enough, but that’s just me. I know lots of people like to give extra.
