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READ BEFORE YOU FEED PET PORTAITS: Tuesday-Friday, April 1-4 and April 8-11, 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Larry W. Stone Photography. Free studio mini-session and a 5-by-7 portrait of your pet dog or cat, with one family member (if you wish), in exchange for a donation to the Greater Fredericksburg Area SPCA's new building. For appointment, call 540/287-7563. NUTRITION INFORMATION WEB SITES:

March 29, 2008 12:21 am

LOVING A GOOD dog is a magnificent obsession. How to best feed your dog is an ongoing challenge as you attempt to build a better dog who can live his best life.

Have you ever said, "If I only knew what was the best food for my dog, I would feed that food?" A book called "The Ultimate Pet Food Guide: Everything You Need To Know About Feeding Your Dog or Cat," by Liz Palika (lizpalika.com) will soothe your nutrition fears and educate you to feed your pet a healthy diet.

Palika explores 2007's contaminated pet food disaster that resulted in more than 6,000 sick pets; 3,000 pets died. Pets who suffered from food tainted with melamine, toxic additives and recalled corn and rice have raised the nutrition consciousness of all of us who previously had not closely studied food labels.

Discover how food affects our dogs' "body condition and state of health, immune system, disease development and recovery, energy, and behavior." Instead of making feeding choices based solely on convenience or economy, Palika shares pet nutrition information that is based on dog food research facts and analysis.

Better foods

When you read labels searching for clean, organic, whole foods for your dog and offer him a new food that may be more expensive than a generic, cheaply formulated food, don't be surprised if the look on his face tells you he approves of higher quality kibble.

Are you spoiling your dog? No. Palika discusses food palatability, explaining that "appealing foods trigger more and better digestive enzymes and digestive juices. Gastric pre-digestion is an important part of optimal nutrition."

Palika points out "old dogs can have problems absorbing nutrients" and need a "nutrient rich diet with nutrients easier to digest." She suggests: "Yogurt helps an aging body digest proteins more efficiently; a 'green' food supplement may boost nutritional values for the older dog."

Two "green foods" cited in Palika's text are Springtime Inc.'s "Tonic Blend" and Trinatural 's "Missing Link." Palika quotes Joan Weiskopf, author of "Pet Food Nation," explaining "the key to optimal protein in the geriatric pet's diet is to feed more easily digested proteins."

Digestive upsets and diseases of all kinds are explored in "The Ultimate Pet Food Guide." Learning to troubleshoot what your dog ate before a bout of vomiting or diarrhea began will interest every dog mom or dog dad who has nursed a dog through digestive upheaval.

Palika urges: "After bouts of vomiting, let the digestive tract settle! Don't offer your pet food for several hours. Offer plentiful, clean water."

The horror of bloat and gastric torsion lurks in the list of worries for all dog lovers. Palika advises feed "a high quality diet. Skip all low quality foods that produce gasses, especially soy. Feed more than once a day. Refrain from strenuous exercise for at least an hour or two after eating."

Not-so-good foods

A pet nutrition book must have a chapter on all the things a pet should not eat, and this book nicely fulfills its "do not eat" requirement. Several hotline and Internet resources are provided for readers to explore to protect their dog from ingested dangers.

Palika defines "good leftovers" versus "bad leftovers." Many foods we humans hate to throw away because we want to love our dogs with food are the very things dogs should not have: turkey leftovers, chicken skins and the fat off a juicy steak, for example.

Haul a bag of your dog's food up toward your bifocals. Learn which of the "22 needed amino acids" your dog's body is able to make from food and which amino acids you must make sure are added to his food.

The amino acids that must be added to a good food are "Arginine, Histadine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Phenylalanine-tyrosice, Threonine, Tryptophan, Valine, and Methionine- cystine."

Palika's primer on reading labels teaches that not everything that has a big chemical name is bad for your pet's best nutrition. Just because an ingredient has five syllables does not mean that ingredient is bad.

For example, the very necessary amino acid methionine may sound a wee bit like the dreaded Chinese plastic scare word "melamine." Some difficult-to-pronounce ingredients may be very healthy additions to look for in a premium food.

"The Ultimate Pet Food Guide" brims with lists of symptoms and complaints that dogs suffer because the food they eat is either not the best food for their nutritional needs, or is causing allergic reactions that are specific to your dog. Careful attention to your dog's skin, itchy ears, dull coat or saliva-stained paws may lead you to answers in the food bowl.

What about raw food diets? Palika analyzes popular diets that the owner either feeds raw, or adds purchased ingredients to a raw food base. She points out: "Dogs were domesticated approximately 15,000 years ago. That means that there have been 3,000-7,500 generations of dogs preceding the dog in your home today. Dog food production has complicated cleanliness issues and dangers of salmonella and e coli contamination. Cooking meat greatly reduces these dangers."

Oodles of dog food recipes, facts and ingredients for whole, home-cooked meals, all backed up with references to leaders in home-cooked and raw food diets fill the pages of this great pet nutrition primer.

The mystery of the food bowl may still haunt you as you make decisions that prove your dog is what he eats, but knowledge is power. What wouldn't we give for power to do our very best by the dogs who devote their lives to our desires? Read this book. Maximize your dog's nutritional health. Stand back while the dog you love loves the food in his bowl.

Sarah A. Ferrell of Spotsylvania County, author of "Devoted to Dogs: How to Be Your Dog's Best Owner" (available through abrohamneal.com or Amazon.com) runs Dog Manners and Obedience. E-mail her in care of
Email: gwoolf@freelancestar.com.