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"Although pet store foods may be marketed as "light" or "low calorie", they are simply lower in calories than the regular maintenance food of the same brand, and the food may still be very caloric."

Dr. Gary Arzem
Newmarket Veterinarian

It is important to choose a high quality food that is appropriate for your pet’s life stage, and special needs. At North Yonge Veterinary Hospital, we have a variety of veterinary diets to meet the needs of each of our patients. Nutritional consultations are provided by our staff of veterinarians in Newmarket. We can assess your pet’s current diet, and make diet recommendations to enhance your pet’s overall health.

Yes. A quality pet food is nutritionally balanced and complete. Since animals tend to eat to satisfy their caloric requirements, each serving needs to be nutritionally balanced. An imbalanced diet can have nutrient excesses as well as deficiencies. Often, lower grade pet foods are bulky, and animals may feel full before they have satisfied their nutritional requirements. Pet foods that are nutritionally imbalanced will result in poor growth, poor hair coats, excessive shedding, possible loose stools, excessive gas, and stress on bones and internal organs. A quality pet food is highly digestible. Digestibility refers to the percentage of food that is nutritionally available to the animal. A pet food with low digestibility will require that a pet eats a greater quantity of food, increasing the cost per serving, and resulting in greater stool production. Premium pet foods provide optimum nutrition to promote health, longevity, and performance.

Plump pets may benefit from our pet weight loss program. A veterinary team member can calculate your pet’s daily caloric requirement and provide feeding guidelines to help your pet achieve his/her weight loss goal. We will also select an appropriate calorie-reduced diet for your pet. Keep in mind that although pet store foods may be marketed as “light” or “low calorie”, they are simply lower in calories than the regular maintenance pet food of the same brand, and the food may still be very caloric.

Unfortunately, no. The label, which must meet the standards of the National Research Council, is a list of the minimum and sometimes maximum percentages of the nutrients (such as fats, proteins, ash, etc...) in a food. It is NOT a nutritional analysis, does NOT say the diet is nutritionally balanced, NOR that the ingredients are in a digestible form. Believe it or not, a pet food meeting NRC requirements could be made from shoe leather and motor oil with a vitamin/mineral supplement. At best, these labels are a crude guideline and cannot be used to compare pet foods.

Nutritional analysis and feeding trials are the only way to guarantee the quality of a food. All foods marketed by veterinarians are backed by scientific data and extensive feeding trials. For most lower grade food, this information is not available...and may not even exist! A premium high quality diet is:

• Nutritionally balanced
• Highly digestible = more nutritional value per serving = animals eat less = less residue/feces
• Consistent in quality
• Uses quality ingredients to provide palatability, not salt, sugar and fat
• Provides optimum nutrition for HEALTH.

Absolutely. We carry a complete line of prescription veterinary diets for pets with health problems ranging from sensitive stomachs… to diabetes…to allergies…to kidney or liver disease. Each prescription diet is formulated to meet the special nutritional needs associated with a particular medical condition. Prescription diets are only available on recommendation from your veterinarian. North Yonge Veterinary Hospital in Newmarket and its veterinarians recommend that dogs and cats be examined annually to ensure they are receiving their recommended daily nutritional requirements.

Please contact our Veterinary Clinic in Newmarket to schedule your pet’s examination. We have flexible appointment times to accommodate your schedule.