Dear Kara: Transitioning foods (Sponsored by Hill's Pet Nutrition)

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New pet owners often ask what food is best for their pet. Do you have a good, generic answer for healthy pets, both young and mature?

When counseling owners of puppies and kittens on the importance of nutrition, you should recommend a food that is nutritionally balanced for proper growth. A food without nutritional excesses or deficiencies will help avoid nutritionrelated health problems later in life. Hill's offers a complete line of Hill's® Science Diet® pet foods to meet pets' unique, nutritional needs and enrich their lives.

When counseling owners of pets that are older than 1 year, you should discuss the pet's nutritional needs based on age, lifestyle, and special needs. Whether the pet is pediatric or adult, I recommend taking a nutritional history and discussing nutrition each time the pet visits your hospital.

How soon can a puppy eat Hill's® Science Diet® Puppy pet foods? We are bottle-feeding a litter of 5-day-old, orphan puppies, and I wonder how soon we can switch them to a soft food.

Puppies typically begin to wean from their mother to a soft food around 3 to 4 weeks old. I recommend either a canned formula of Hill's® Science Diet® Puppy food or softening the dry formula with warm water. Remember, a gradual transition to new food is always crucial to acceptance. Transition pets over seven to 10 days to decrease the chance of gastrointestinal upset and to increase acceptance of the food by the pet. Be sure to calculate and write down the amount of new food to feed for owners who are transitioning their pets' food. Overfeeding, even at a young age, can lead to obesity.

Food for Thought

Proper feeding is crucial to the healthy development of puppies. Science Diet Puppy is formulated specifically for growing puppies. Feeding poor-quality foods of low digestibility may slow a pet's growth rate, cause poor muscle and bone development, and decrease resistance to disease.

How do you know when it's time to transition an adult dog or cat to mature food?

Cats and dogs are considered mature around 7 years old. Nutritionally, mature cats and dogs need lower levels of sodium and phosphorus for healthy hearts and kidneys and proper levels of amino acids to help promote healthy skin and shiny coats.

Mature dogs benefit from natural glucosamine and chondroitin to support healthy joints and cartilage. Large breed dogs, which age differently and move into their mature years around 5 years old, should receive increased levels of glucosamine. Hill's® Science Diet® Mature Adult pet food and Hill's® Science Diet® Mature Adult Large Breed pet food are nutritionally formulated for mature pets and include a clinically proven antioxidant combination that helps promote the pet's immune system for a long, healthy life. Added L-carnitine in the large breed formulation also helps to build and maintain lean muscle. Both come in dry (including Small Bites Canine) and canned formulations to suit a variety of tastes.

I'm not sure when to recommend Hill's® Science Diet® Oral Care pet food and when it's best to recommend Hill's® Prescription Diet® t/d® pet food. Is there a big difference?

One hundred percent of your patients require oral care, and a big component of this is dental homecare. One of the most effective means to dental homecare is a food that improves dental health. Following an examination by the veterinarian or periodontal therapy, a dental homecare regimen should be instituted, including one of the two foods you mentioned.

Both Hill's® Prescription Diet® t/d® and Hill's® Science Diet® Oral Care products provide plaque and calculus control that is based on a patented technology, which combines increased fiber content with a specific processing technique. This results in a larger kibble that maintains contact with the tooth surface as a pet chews.

Oral Care is clinically proven to reduce plaque, tartar, and stain, while t/d is clinically proven to reduce plaque, tarter, stain, and gingivitis and oral malodor in dogs. Oral Care is appropriately recommended for preventive periodontal maintenance in adult dogs and cats, and t/d is appropriately recommended in adult dogs and cats with plaque and tartar accumulation, early periodontal disease, and following professional periodontal care.

We have a number of clients that are health conscious and prefer a more "natural" product to feed their pets. Would Science Diet® Nature's Best® be a good recommendation?

Science Diet® Nature's Best® would be the perfect recommendation. It provides a great combination of the best ingredients and innovation in a formula that will help your pet stay healthy and live long. As members of the veterinary healthcare team, it is important that our nutritional recommendations are supported by science. Nature's Best is the first and only natural dog and cat food that is clinically proven to:

• Provide complete and balanced nutrition

• Maintain ideal body weight

• Maintain lean muscle and avoid excessbody fat and,

• Have antioxidants that maintain cellular health.

Nature's Best® contains fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and antioxidants without the artificial additives, preservatives, or fillers. It is available in Puppy, Kitten, and Adult formulations.

We have a 2-year-old pug, 'Snuffles,' as a client. The owner states that Snuffles has occasional diarrhea and vomits once in a while. We have performed many diagnostics and have him on Hill's® Prescription Diet® i/d® Canine pet food. Now we want to transition him to a wellness food. Do you have a recommendation for this pug?

What Snuffles needs is a gentle, great-tasting food that his sensitive stomach can accept and digest comfortably. He needs to transition to a mild formulation that contains high-quality protein and the appropriate mix of soluble and insoluble fiber to nourish the digestive tract and maintain overall intestinal health. A powerful combination of antioxidants to help keep the immune system healthy is also needed.

I would recommend Hill's® Science Diet® Sensitive Stomach for Snuffles, as this pet food formulation meets the above nutritional recommendations. Remember, a gradual transition to new food is always crucial to a pet's acceptance (seven to ten days). In Snuffles' case, given his sensitive stomach, the veterinary technician should make a follow-up call to see how the transition is going and to make sure the new food is being tolerated.

Kara M. Burns, MS, MEd, LVT Veterinary Technician Specialist Hill's Pet Nutrition

Kara M. Burns, MS, MEd, LVT

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