Section
Evidence over marketing, bowl by bowl.
26 articles
The Review
Fresh trays, dehydrated UnKibble and a vet-formulated promise. We assessed Spot & Tango on formulation, feeding trials, cost and the practical realities of a freezer full of dog dinners.
By Dr Elise Murphy, BVSc (Hons) · 12 min read
The Review
By Dr Elise Murphy, BVSc (Hons) · 9 min read
The Review
By Dr Elise Murphy, BVSc (Hons) · 10 min read
The Review
By Dr Elise Murphy, BVSc (Hons) · 9 min read
The Review
By Dr Elise Murphy, BVSc (Hons) · 8 min read
The Review
A 4-cup, 18/8 stainless bowl in YETI's black powder-coated shell, with a non-slip ring and a price that raises eyebrows. We assess it on the things that actually matter clinically: hygiene, stability and longevity.
By Dr Elise Murphy, BVSc (Hons) · 8 min read
Fundamentals
Pet food labels are legal documents, not marketing brochures, and reading them properly means ignoring the front panel entirely.
By Dr Mariana Oliveira, DVM, DACVN · 4 min read
Evidence Review
Since 2018 the FDA has investigated a cluster of dilated cardiomyopathy cases in dog breeds not typically predisposed to the disease, many of them eating grain-free, legume-rich diets.
By Dr Priya Raghunathan, BVMS · 4 min read
Evidence Review
Raw feeding sits at the centre of one of the most polarised debates in companion animal nutrition, with genuine benefits in palatability and digestibility set against well-documented risks of bacterial contamination and nutritional imbalance.
By Dr Priya Raghunathan, BVMS · 4 min read
Fundamentals
Most pet obesity begins not with treats but with a feeding guide followed too literally, because printed guides estimate for an average, intact, moderately active animal that rarely matches the pet in front of you.
By Dr Noor Haddad, DVM, DACVD · 4 min read
Clinical Diets
Chronic kidney disease cannot be reversed, but therapeutic renal diets have consistently been shown to extend survival time and quality of life in affected cats and dogs, largely through aggressive phosphorus restriction.
By Dr Thomas Nakamura, DVM · 4 min read
Clinical Diets
Diagnosing a genuine food allergy requires an elimination diet trial, and hydrolysed protein diets have become the gold standard tool for this because they break allergenic proteins down small enough to largely evade immune recognition.
By Dr Eleanor Murphy, BVSc · 4 min read
Supplements
Omega-3 fatty acids, specifically EPA and DHA derived from marine sources, are among the few supplements in veterinary medicine with genuinely robust evidence behind them across three seemingly unrelated systems: joints, skin and kidneys.
By Dr Thomas Nakamura, DVM · 4 min read
Supplements
The probiotic market for pets is large and largely unregulated, and independent testing has repeatedly found that many commercial products contain far fewer viable organisms than labelled, or strains that were never proven to survive gastric transit in the first place.
By Dr Samuel Adeyemi, DVM, DACVIM · 4 min read
Fundamentals
Studies analysing owner-formulated homemade diets, including recipes sourced from books and websites marketed as complete, have repeatedly found the overwhelming majority deficient in at least one essential nutrient, most commonly calcium, zinc, copper or specific vitamins.
By Dr Aisha Bello, BVetMed · 4 min read
Weight Management
Most pets that start a weight loss plan lose some weight in the first eight to twelve weeks, and most then plateau or regain it, because the initial calorie deficit was never adjusted as metabolism adapted to the new lower bodyweight.
By Dr Samuel Adeyemi, DVM, DACVIM · 4 min read
Life Stage
For decades, senior pet foods were formulated with reduced protein based on an outdated assumption that lower protein protects ageing kidneys, but current evidence shows the opposite is often true: healthy senior dogs and cats typically need more, not less, high-quality protein to counter age-related muscle loss.
By Dr Mariana Oliveira, DVM, DACVN · 4 min read
Life Stage
Large and giant breed puppies are uniquely vulnerable to developmental orthopaedic disease, and the single most important nutritional factor is not protein content but calcium intake and growth rate control, a fact that overturned decades of conventional advice about restricting protein in growing dogs.
By Dr Samuel Adeyemi, DVM, DACVIM · 4 min read
Life Stage
The debate between free-choice and measured meal feeding in kittens has real consequences that extend well into adulthood, since feeding patterns established in the first year strongly influence later obesity risk and can shape lifelong eating behaviour in a species prone to becoming overweight as adults.
By Dr Eleanor Murphy, BVSc · 4 min read
Safety
Household food toxicity in pets is not limited to the well-known chocolate and grapes; a genuine kitchen audit reveals a much longer list of items with distinct mechanisms of toxicity, several of which cause serious harm at surprisingly small doses relative to the pet's size.
By Dr Samuel Adeyemi, DVM, DACVIM · 4 min read
Clinical Diets
Prescription urinary diets work by directly manipulating the chemistry that determines whether minerals in urine remain dissolved or precipitate into crystals and stones, and the correct diet differs substantially depending on which type of crystal is involved, making an accurate diagnosis before diet selection absolutely essential.
By Dr Eleanor Murphy, BVSc · 4 min read
Fundamentals
Fibre is often treated as filler on pet food labels, yet different fibre types perform genuinely distinct physiological roles, from feeding colonic bacteria to slowing gastric emptying to bulking stool, and matching fibre type to the clinical problem at hand produces measurably better outcomes than a generic high-fibre diet.
By Dr Mariana Oliveira, DVM, DACVN · 4 min read
Fundamentals
Cats evolved from desert-dwelling ancestors with a naturally low thirst drive relative to their water needs, obtaining most moisture from prey rather than drinking, and this evolutionary quirk means many modern cats on dry food diets run in a state of mild chronic under-hydration that contributes meaningfully to urinary and kidney disease risk.
By Dr Noor Haddad, DVM, DACVD · 4 min read
Clinical Diets
Novel protein sources like kangaroo, venison, insect meal and ostrich have moved from niche curiosities to mainstream ingredients, driven partly by genuine value in food allergy management and partly by sustainability concerns, though the two motivations bring quite different evidence bases and practical considerations.
By Dr Rowan Kelly, BVSc, MVS · 4 min read
Supplements
Glucosamine and chondroitin supplements are among the most widely used products in veterinary practice, yet the clinical trial evidence supporting their efficacy in dogs and cats remains genuinely mixed, with several well-designed studies failing to show a significant benefit over placebo, a fact often left out of product marketing.
By Dr Ingrid Sorensen, BVSc, DipACVB · 4 min read
Weight Management
The commonly cited rule that treats should make up no more than ten percent of a pet's daily calorie intake is sound in principle but frequently misapplied in practice, since owners rarely calculate it against an actual calorie budget, making treats one of the most common hidden contributors to weight gain.
By Dr Thomas Nakamura, DVM · 4 min read