All pet owners would like to believe their pets are very unique and special. We think of them like our children. Pet food companies know this and try to profit from it by claiming each breed needs a special diet. That way, when the pet owner buys the special breed-specific diet, they can feel like they are doing the right and responsible thing. It’s kind of like buying a suit for a special friend. You can just go to the rack and buy one, or you can have a tailor custom fit one to your friend.

That all sounds good in theory. But the reality is, all breeds come from the same stock that in the wild eats essentially the same diet. That would be prey — including "4D" meals of the dead, dying, diseased, and disabled. Their health thrives on such foods.

Thus, the positioning of commercial diets as "breed specific" is done to create a marketing niche and has no basis in scientific fact. Even cats and dogs naturally eat the same foods. Yes, the feline has certain needs that exceed those of a canine (higher protein, taurine, vitamin A, etc.) but that would only be important if a food is formulated to achieve minimal nutritional levels. If the diet is varied and includes whole natural ingredients the animal would normally eat in the wild, such individual nutrient concerns vanish.

The proper goal for health, therefore, is to seek maximum optimal nutrition, not tailored diets that presume to know how to shuffle individual nutrients.