Reading Fat Content

[Loving my Oldies]

One of my dogs has had a very severe bout of pancreatitis. Luckily the morning I noticed she was off colour, I took her straight down to the vet and less than 24 hours later following the results of blood tests and nil food, she was on a drip for hydration, pain relief and antibiotics. It developed so quickly: one day she is 100% (although she may not have been, of course, just not showing it) and the next not a happy girl.

After I brought her home 4 days later, she was on i/d for a week (which luckily she loved - is she the only dog in the world to love i/d? ) and then more tests were taken. All is now well, but obviously I have to/will be strictly watching her diet from now on. She is allowed 15% fat in dry matter.

BUT . . . . all the different ways fat content is displayed. :D

Not less than

Not more than

Broken into various sorts of fat

Per serving

Per 100g

Crude Fat

Definitely doesn't make it easy for those of us trying to ensure we don't do the wrong thing.

My dogs get a mixture of raw and processed, the processed being a little bit of dry and a little bit of canned. For the dry I have been buying Optimum, but tonight when I went shopping, I looked for the first time at the fat content. It said NOT LESS THAN 14%. Well that could be anything from 14% upwards. I read a long time ago on this forum that people thought highly of Beneful, so I looked at that (the Healthy Weight packet) and as it said Crude Fat 7% I bought that.

Then I looked at the cans of mackerel in natural oil and that was even more convoluted. In a 425g can:

Fat per 100g:

Total 5.0g

Saturated 2.5g

Trans 0.0g

Polyunsaturated 1.0g (less than)

Monounsaturated 1.5g (less than)

I decided this would be okay if I drained all the fat off and they all loved it. As it was mixed with pasta cooked in home made chicken stock and strained through a thick fabric to remove as much fat as possible, they would have had less than 100g each.

Needless to say I am paranoid about making sure Jeune is okay, but I believe the labelling is designed to confuse.

[Athena GSD]

A simple solution would be to continue using the i/d.

If your dog likes it, it makes your life easier and you know the fat content is fine.