There is a lot of controversial information out there about the correct diet for your canine or feline friend.

We often think our pets will become bored eating the same food day after day, or if we don't like the smell they won't want to eat it - often this isn't the case and especially not so when you see a whelping bitch chewing through and gulping down placentas after her pups have been born!

There's a great word called "anthropomorphism" that means WE give human feelings and "tastes" to our pets just because we feel a certain way or wouldn't want the same dog or cat biscuits every night.

Check out the food you are feeding, as you would for yourself, look at the labels - does it say it is "COMPLETE and BALANCED". It must have BOTH words, or inform you it has been AAFCO tested, which isn't the freezing works but an American feeding trial that tests that a dog or cat can survive in a healthy state appropriate to their age on a particular diet long term.

Nutrition companies spend billions of dollars every year on research and development into their foods and there are some fantastic foods now available.

Often people think it isn't economical to feed an all biscuit diet to their dog but if you do the sums - weigh out (no guess work here or you WILL waste money) the amount of food your dog would need in a day based on it's weight, you will find while the bag of dog biscuits is more expensive initially, you will save significant amounts of money on a daily basis. This food will have all the correct amounts of vitamins and minerals and because of its high-energy formulation they don't need heaps to satisfy their appetite. Your dog would have to eat much more dog roll in order to get the same energy levels.  Stools produced are often better and those body odours you blame your dog for often disappear when they are put onto a more complete and balanced diet.

For our geriatric pets, the diets are changed to a senior formulation which often has glucosamine added which is beneficial for joint function, antioxidants, and reduced levels of phosphorus and protein to help reduce the load on kidneys.

For puppies calories and protein are increased for rapid growth and calcium also for bone growth.  Often there is a "large" puppy formulation for those pups that will be >25kg adult weight and it has reduced energy levels so the pup doesn't grow too quickly and have joint problems. Calcium is certainly very important in a pups diet but do not feed TOO much; and do NOT supplement a puppy diet with bonegro as just as many problems happen with too much as not enough calcium.

So for whatever life stage you pet is at, there is a diet available - even sensitive skin and sensitive stomach diets for dogs and a popular one for cats is the hairball control formulas.

During summer an all biscuit diet is great for cats, so you don't have dried out, blow-flied meat and smelly jellymeat. Cats prefer to graze a little and often so all biscuit diet is perfect. Kitten, adult light and senior diets are available for your feline friends.

Overall, as a Veterinarian I would have to say we see fewer problems in pets being fed complete and balanced diets - they tend to live longer and generally are happier and healthier.