There’s a lot of love going into my dinner

You’ve turned the bag over again. I move closer in case you’ve forgotten why we came to the cupboard.

The dog on the bag looks pleased

I expect I would too if someone put dinner in front of me.

You look past the picture and find what the food is meant to provide: whether it’s complete food for my stage of life, or something complementary to add to a meal. That delicious topper can’t automatically become my whole dinner.

If you can’t tell, you take a photograph of the label and ask about this exact formula. I wait beside you while you check who makes it, who formulates it and how they check its quality. Those answers tell you more than a lovely photograph of ingredients.

I can help with enthusiasm. Whether a food meets all my needs is something to work through with the right information and, where needed, my vet.

I may have already had breakfast

Someone else comes into the kitchen. I follow them to my bowl and look hopeful.

“Has Udo eaten?”

I leave that question to you.

A shared feeding routine helps more than my expression does. You measure my meals and count the little extras too. If we change foods, we check the calories and portions rather than assuming the same scoop holds the same dinner.

Complete wet food or dry food can work. What matters is that it suits me and is something you can afford, store properly and keep providing. We don’t need to change it because someone at the dog run has found a more impressive bag.

You keep the original packaging and batch details, even if you use a storage container. Opened wet food goes into the fridge as directed, and deliveries come in from the heat. Buying more at once only helps if we can keep it fresh and use it in time.

When the usual bowl needs another look

If I stop eating normally, lose or gain weight unexpectedly, or keep having an upset stomach, please ask the vet rather than trying one new dinner after another.

The words on the front can make choices sound simple. “Grain-free” doesn’t tell you that a food is healthier or suitable for an allergy. A meat ingredient listed first doesn’t tell you everything either. And if my vet has prescribed a diet, another bag with similar promises may not do the same job.

When a change is right for me, we can ask how to introduce it and what to watch for. I’d rather we found out than kept guessing from how quickly I lick the bowl.

You put the packet away and set my measured meal down. I begin eating while you make a small note for the next person who comes into the kitchen.

“Udo has had dinner.”

Thorough of you.