Composição nutricional dos alimentos oferecidos a cães e gatos, análise da digestibilidade, qualidade fecal, avaliação de rótulos e dos custos de alimentos premium, super-premium, dieta caseira e vegana para cães de diferentes portes.

Abstract

With the evolution of the domestication and humanization of dogs, food has also undergone agreat evolution with regard to its composition, manufacture and quality of ingredients. With this, the change in eating habits and in the coexistence of human beings with dogs has been causing new products, ingredients and forms of food to be developed in order to promote better health and longevity to pets and the quest to improve each this relationship makes the Market grow and develop more and more. Thus, the objective of this study was to identify the compositions of food for dogs and cats available in the literature, through a systematic review on the subject, and to evaluate the nutritional value and costs of processed foods from diferente commercial and of a homemade food for dogs of different sizes. In Chapter I, the objective was to analyze, through a systematic review of the literature, the new ingredients that are part of the composition of industrialized, homemade and vegan foods offered to small animals. The study was conducted following the recommendations of the PRISMA methodology (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) with identification of articles in the Web of Science, PubMed, ScienceDirect and Scopus databases. A total of 13,131 articles were found and, after applying the methodological criteria, 42 articles were still fully evaluated. It was concluded in this chapter that the market has been evolving and improving diets for pets, with the addition of new ingredients that promote better nutrition for pets. In Chapter II, the objective was to evaluate the digestibility, fecal quality, nutritional composition and cost analysis of premium, super-premium and homemade diet fed to dogs of different sizes. For that, eight adult dogs distributed in a 2x7 factorial system were used, with two breeds (Miniature Dachshund and Rottweiler) and seven foods: three premium (P), three super-premium (SP) and a homemade diet (DC). The apparent digestibility coefficients of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP) ether extract (EEA), gross energy (EB) were determined and the fecal score was determined using scores from 0 to 5, where 0 for liquid stools and 5 for well-formed but hard and dry stools. Analysis of variance was performed and the means were compared using the Tukey test, considering the significance level (P<0.05). It was concluded that the breeds presented similar digestion, the super-premium foods and homemade diet presented greater nutrient digestibility and the Rottweiler dogs produced proportionally more feces and worse fecal parameters and seem to be more sensitive to the composition of the diet, and when compared costs, homemade diets are more expensive than super-premium foods and these are more expensive than premium foods. In general, it can be concluded from this dissertation that with the changes in the creation of pets, the evolution of nutrology has been fundamental, developing increasingly better, more nutritious products that promote health and well-being to companion animals.