Just because a pet food has fewer ingredients doesn’t mean it’s less nutritious. Clean and simple eating is gaining traction as a movement for people and their pets because it can be every bit as healthy and nutritious as “normal” eating. And when it comes to pets, these diets have a practical advantage because they may help bring pets relief from food allergies without compromising on nutrition.
The Advantages of a Simple Diet
Dogs and cats can be allergic to ingredients such as certain proteins, dyes or other additives. While some food allergies can result in digestive tract issues like as vomiting and/or diarrhea, most pets show signs of food allergies by itching, licking or chewing on their skin.
Allergies can be annoying and hard to diagnose. Pets with food allergies may scratch their skin, develop secondary skin and ear infections, drag their behinds across the living room floor and even lick or chew bald patches in their skin. Although parasites and allergies to pollens, dust mites and other environmental factors can cause similar signs, changing to a limited-ingredient diet could help bring relief to your pet, because the small amount of ingredients can help rule out certain things that could be causing the trouble.
The idea behind a simple diet is to limit the number of ingredients that could potentially cause the pet’s immune system to react. Take Taste of the Wild PREY Formulas, for example. Each formula contains four key ingredients or less. That includes an animal protein source such as turkey, trout or Angus beef, and lentils, tomato pomace and sunflower oil.
The Clean Eating Movement
People are realizing the health benefits of eating natural, whole foods that aren’t processed or refined. No wonder they’re searching for the same for their pets. The goal of many limited-ingredient diets is to get one step closer to eating clean by offering recipes with four ingredients or less for dogs and cats.
Complete and Balanced Diets for Pets
If the package for a limited ingredient diet claims it provides “complete and balanced” nutrition, you can believe it. Why? Because the pet food manufacturers can’t print that claim unless they have validated that they’ve met the Association of American Feed Control Officials’ (AAFCO) guidelines for nutritional adequacy.
Feeding your pet a nutritious food doesn’t have to be complicated. And neither does the food!
The information in this blog has been developed with our veterinarian and is designed to help educate pet parents. If you have questions or concerns about your pet's health or nutrition, please talk with your veterinarian.