Adult animals dietary advice I

• Feed the highest quality food you can afford. We would always recommend the veterinary standard diets, they contain the best quality ingredients and are formulated to be an exact match to your pets nutritonal needs, they are also not as expensive as you may think!
• Feed a majority dry diet, not only is dry food more practical than wet, as it can be left down without smelling or attracting flies, it is also far better for dental care.
• Always feed a diet which is suitable for the age and lifestyle of your pet. For example, animals who have been neutered will have a slower metabolic rate, so they may require less food or a low calorie diet. There are also now breed specific diets for both cats and dogs.
• Feed the correct amount! It sounds simple, but it is very easy to over feed your pet, they will not tell you! Always weigh out your pets food, and follow the manufacturers guidelines.
• Keep treats to a minimum. It is easy to hugely increase your pets calorie intake with too many treats, feed them sparingly, and only when your pet deserves them.
• Don't feed your pet table scraps. Again, this will increase the amount of calories your pet has, and also encourages bad habits of begging.
• Use chews to encourage dental health. There are various dental chews on the market, the denta-stix and rasks work very well. Clean teeth with help reduce doggy breath and dirty teeth can cause health problems, especially in later life.

• Dirty teeth and smelly breath are very common problems in pets. 80% of animals over the age of 3 will have some degree of dental disease
• Most of the premium veterinary diets, such as Hills, Proplan or RCW, are formulated with dental care in mind. So feeding these diets gives the added benefit of not always requiring additional dental care
• There are several diets on the market aimed at dental care, the biscuits are very fibrous, so when the animal bites they don't shatter, which means the teeth sink into the biscuit and are wiped down. Also, they tend to be large, or unusually shaped, so the teeth can bite into them.
• It is possible to feed the dental diets as your animals only food, but the kibbles can also be used as treats, just a few a day can really help to improve dental care.
• Special chews, powders or regular brushingcan also be usedto help keep teeth clean.

There are several diets on the market designed specifically to clean teeth	Specially shaped chews can really help to keep the teeth clean,	Brushing your pets teeth is also a really good way of keeping them clean

Hairballs

• Some cats, especially those with long coats such as Persians, are prone to vomiting hairballs from all the grooming they do.
• Hills Science Plan foods produce a diet designed to minimise the formation of hairballs, and help the fur to pass more easily along the guts.
• This is achieved by the diets having high levels of vegetable fibre. This helps sweep the hair though the guts, and prevents it from clumping together and being vomited back up.
• It is worth noting that when cats are itchy they don't scratch like dogs, they lick, and over grooming can also be a sign of stress. If your pet suddenly starts producing hairballs, it may be worth a trip to the vet to make sure nothing else is wrong before changing their diet.

Long haired cats can be prone to hairballs, but they can occur in any cat	Some veterinary diets are designed to help prevent hairball formation	If your cat suddenly starts producing hairballs, take them to the vet before changing the diet, fleas and stress can cause over grooming