O cão idoso e a perspectiva da utilização de dietas não convencionais – revisão bibliográfica

Abstract

The Brazilian PET Industry has a great economic importance for the country, which reached, in 2020, the 7th place in the world ranking in revenues in this sector, with the segment "PET Food" representing about 75%. Part of the success of the sector and the improvement in the nutritional characteristics of petfood’ reflects in a better quality of life for animals and increased longevity.Although the senior dogs demands greater care due to the various changes that occur in it’s organism and it’s susceptibility to diseases, it was noticed, over the years, an increase in the life expectancy of these animals, mainly due to the assimilation of the importance of nutrition for the health of these animals. Furthermore, the so-called "Unconventional Diets", are the balanced homemade diets, which seek to approach the "natural", without the addition of preservatives or additives. Such diets have advantages, such as a better digestibility, palatability and quality of the feces, however, also have disadvantages, such as the greater time and financial investment and the pet owners to strictly follow the recipe. Thus, it was observed in the present review that balanced home diets proved to be a potential tool to be used in the nutritional management of some diseases related to aging and healthy senior dogs. However, it is necessary to fully collaborate with the pet owner in the first place to obtain satisfactory results.