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Feeding is the first act of care you carry out for your animal every day. Twice a day, sometimes three times, you decide what will nourish its body, support its immune system, keep its coat in good condition and fuel its energy. That daily gesture has turned into automatic routine, and yet it deserves your full attention and understanding.
What a dog and a cat each need
Dogs and cats do not have the same nutritional needs at all, and that distinction is crucial to grasp. The dog is an opportunistic omnivore: its diet can and should include good-quality animal protein, but also vegetables, digestible cereals and even fruit in moderate amounts. The cat, by contrast, is a strict carnivore by nature: animal protein has to make up the bulk of its daily diet.
In practice, this fundamental difference means that food formulated for a dog is never suitable for a cat, and the other way round. The cat has a vital need for taurine, an essential amino acid it cannot synthesise itself and which is generally absent from, or too scarce in, most dog foods. A chronic taurine deficiency can cause serious heart problems, dilated cardiomyopathy in particular, and irreversible eye disorders in the cat.
The essential macronutrients
- Protein: 25-30% of the ration for an adult dog, 30-40% for a cat. Always favour good-quality animal protein you can identify as the first ingredient
- Fat: 10-15% for a dog, 15-20% for a cat. A concentrated source of energy, and the essential carrier of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K
- Carbohydrate: useful in moderate amounts for a dog, which can metabolise it; barely necessary for a cat, and potentially problematic in excess
- Fibre: essential for regular, healthy digestion, between 2 and 5% of the ration depending on individual needs
Matching food to age
The puppy and the kitten
Growth is a period of exceptionally intense nutritional demand. A young animal needs significantly more good-quality protein, calcium and phosphorus than an adult to build its skeleton and develop muscle. Food formulated specifically for growth is absolutely essential until adulthood — around 12 months for small dog breeds, 18-24 months for large, slow-growing ones.
The healthy adult
A good-quality complete food formulated for adults is plenty for most healthy dogs and cats. Follow the feeding amounts given on the packet closely as a starting point, then adjust to how much exercise your animal actually gets, to its tendency to gain or lose weight, and to its own metabolism. A sofa dog that gets two short walks a day has nothing like the calorie needs of a working or sporting dog.
The senior
From 7-8 years in the large breeds and 10-12 years in the small ones, nutritional needs shift noticeably. Senior foods carry fewer calories, to head off the weight gain that comes with slowing down, and are enriched with protective antioxidants and with nutrients that support ageing joints, such as glucosamine and chondroitin. A change of food should always be gradual, spread over 7-10 days at the very least.
My nutrition tip: the best food for your animal is the one it digests perfectly well day after day, the one that keeps its weight stable and ideal, its coat glossy and soft, its stools well formed and its energy steady and suited to its age. Do not change a diet that works simply because another brand is fashionable or running a tempting offer.
Dry food, wet food or home-cooked?
Every way of feeding has its own advantages and its own limits. Premium dry food offers a guaranteed nutritional balance, easy long-term storage, a manageable daily cost and a benefit for dental hygiene through the mechanical action of chewing. Wet food provides more moisture, which is particularly valuable for the cat, since it naturally drinks little and is prone to urinary problems. A home-cooked ration gives you complete, transparent control over the ingredients, but it calls for solid nutritional knowledge if deficiencies and imbalances are to be avoided.
The BARF diet — biologically appropriate raw food — appeals to a growing number of owners who want something more natural. It can genuinely suit some healthy animals, but it carries real bacteriological risks, salmonella among them, and demands careful veterinary supervision as well as impeccable hygiene in preparation and storage.
Common feeding mistakes
Some well-meant habits end up doing real harm to your animal's health:
- Handing over table scraps on a regular basis: often too fatty, too salty, and potentially toxic where ingredients such as onion, garlic, chocolate or grapes are involved
- Constantly changing the food for the sake of variety: an animal has no need for culinary variety, and frequent changes upset its digestion and its gut flora
- Routinely leaving treats out of the daily calorie count: they should never go beyond 10% of the total ration
- Overlooking the quality and freshness of the water: clean, fresh water, changed regularly, matters just as much as the food itself
Food and overall wellbeing
A genuinely suitable diet has a direct, measurable influence on the quality of your animal's sleep, the steadiness of its behaviour, its resistance to infection and how long it lives. A well-fed animal sleeps better and more deeply, is more even-tempered and, statistically, lives longer in active good health.
Food is a daily investment in the long-term health of your companion. Take the time to read labels and ingredient lists properly, to understand what is actually in the food beyond the marketing, and to ask your vet whenever you are unsure. Your animal cannot choose what it eats: that responsibility sits with you, and it deserves your informed attention.