When Laura isn’t busy helping us develop our new recipes at Green Pantry, she is also supporting pet parents and the wider pet industry with her specialist knowledge.
Laura, how did you get into this as a career?
I studied animal science with an accreditation in nutrition and my final year project was about the links between canine obesity, treat-giving and the canine-human bond. So, it’s fair to say that it’s always been a passion of mine which I was fortunate enough to continue with.
Pet Nutrition is a perfect combination of animals and science for me, with so much variety, innovation and creativity. I love it.
What are the most common issues or questions you see and deal with every day?
Common questions from pet parents usually involve helping to find a diet which is suitable for their dogs. Also dealing with upset digestion and generally demystifying pet nutrition and the pet food market to help owners understand and make choices for their dogs more easily.
It’s about helping owners select foods which are suitable and match their priorities, which then helps their dog stay healthy by providing appropriate nutrition to suit them.
People can identify whether food suits their dog by checking the following: dogs should be bright-eyed and energised with a shiny coat and healthy skin. They should not be itchy or have a dry, flaky coat. They should have good digestion and be calm. They should also be able to maintain their ideal healthy weight and not be carrying excess weight or struggling to put on weight.
- Know what your dog’s ideal weight/ Body Condition looks like. As the dog population becomes more overweight our perception of a normal or healthy size becomes skewed. We’re then more likely to accept overweight as normal. This is a disaster for dog health, so knowing what their healthy size looks like and maintaining that is important. This is not just weighing your dog on the scales. That is only one component as dogs are individuals and weight varies so much even within breeds. I recommend using a body conditioning scoring chart which is an objective and visual assessment too.
- Choose a complete and balanced diet. Balancing nutrition is tricky to do, and often unbalanced diets lead to deficiencies and toxicities. Feeding a complete and balanced diet helps to ensure that nutrients are being delivered in the right quantities to keep your dog healthy.
- Keep treats within 10% of the total diet to keep their whole diet in balance. It can be so easy and rewarding in the short term to overfeed our pets treats but it can be damaging in the wrong quantity.
- Enrichment is a great way to keep dogs engaged, entertained and calm. By using food in enrichment toys or creating your own games you get your dog’s brain working and it stops them getting bored. It’s also a great option to slow down their food intake throughout the day. Food fed in a bowl can be wolfed down quickly, meaning that there are long wait times between food. Enrichment could include throwing part of your dog’s dry food out into the garden for them to find. Investing in a LickiMat, or another food enrichment toy in which you spread foods onto means they have to use their tongue to eat it, helping dogs to focus and be calm.
- Variety is good. Where possible if you vary the foods which you feed your dog, even within the same brand, it helps to encourage diversity within the gut which is good for health.
How can getting the right food help? What should I be looking for to know if it is the right food?
The right food is important not only if your dog has a specific veterinary condition or allergy, but to ensure their healthy growth and development throughout their life.
A food should match your dog’s life stage, size and lifestyle, as well as their preferences. For instance, feeding a high energy food for young dogs to a senior dog is likely to lead to obesity, as they do not have the active lifestyle to match the food. Otherwise, such a small portion is needed that it can leave your dog hungry and looking for other things to eat.
Do you have your own dog?
I have a 4-year-old mixed-breed rescue dog from Romania – she is called Bo.
And finally, what would you be doing if you weren’t a pet nutritionist?
I would either be a vet or in zoology, but always working with animals as that is my passion!
