Pet feeding practices of dog and cat owners in the United States and Australia

摘要

Despite the perception that raw food and home-made diets are in widespread use, limited data are available to quantify the actual prevalence for use of such diets by pet owners. The primary objective of the study reported here was to determine what and how dog and cat owners feed their pets. A telephone survey involving a random sample of pet owners was used to ensure a population representative of the general population of pets and pet owners. Because regional differences may exist for the variables of interest, telephone surveys were conducted in five locations in the Unites States as well as one location in Australia between May and August 2004. The potential participants were selected from local telephone directories by use of a predetermined randomization process. A total of 635 dog owners and 469 cat owners in the US and Australia completed the survey. Results of the survey confirmed that veterinarians are the most common source of information about pet health, nutrition and other pet care for dog and cat owners. More than 90% of the pet dogs and cats were fed commercial foods for most of their diet, but noncommercial foods (such as table scraps, raw foods and home-prepared diets) comprised at least 25% of the diet for 17.3% of dogs and 6.3% of cats. Most of the pets receiving raw foods lived in Australia. Only 2.5% of the pets were fed a therapeutic diet. Results of this study can serve as a reminder that most pets, even those examined by primary-care veterinarians, are generally healthy. Therefore, veterinarians need to be prepared to provide nutritional advice for healthy pets as well as for pets that are ill.