Home-prepared diets can be desired when dogs cannot eat commercial pet foods. Some studies in U.S.A. and Austria indicated that it is difficult to formulate nutritionally well-balanced home-prepared diets. However,no survey for nutritional evaluation of home-prepared foods has been performed in Japan. We collected 63 recipes for dogs at maintenance from the questionnaire received from dog owners and 145 recipes for dogs at maintenance from books about home-prepared diets for dog owners in Japan. We calculated nutrient concentrations of each recipe from the ingredients using Standard Tables of Food composition in Japan-2015- etc. Then, we evaluated sufficiency and excess of nutrients in the recipes using AAFCO dog food nutrient profiles（2016）as a reference. Most recipes satisfied crude protein and essential amino acids but shortage of calcium, the ratio of calcium to phosphorus, iron, copper, iodine, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, riboflavin and vitamin B12 was observed in many recipes. On the other hand, a part of recipes had excessive amount of calcium, phosphorus, iodine, selenium, vitamin A and vitamin D, and the ratio of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids and the ratio of calcium to phosphorus were also excess in a few recipes. For satisfying AAFCO dog food nutrient profiles（2016）, recipes should contain ingredients rich in the nutrients susceptible to insufficiency and pay attention to use ingredients high in nutrients susceptible to excess. When dog owners, veterinarians and petfood dietitians formulate the recipes of diets for dogs, they should know the nutrient contents in their dog foods.

Incretins such as glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide（GIP）and glucagon like peptide-1（GLP-1）were shown to exert their insulinotropic effects through a variety of mechanisms. In the presence of matched glucose concentrations, insulin secretion is greater following ingestion of glucose than following infusion of glucose. This was referred to as “the incretin effect”and GIP and GLP-1 are released by gut endocrine cells in response to a meal and regulate blood glucose levels by stimulating glucose-dependent insulin secretion. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of incretin secretion for glucose and insulin metabolism in healthy cats. In order to determine changes in incretin secretion with different nutritional composition （control, high-carbohydrate, high-fat, high-fiber）, different diets were fed in 5 healthy cats. We measured postprandial glucose, insulin, GIP and GLP-1 concentrations. No significant changes in mean glucose and insulin concentrations. Furthermore, GLP-1 concentration was not significantly difference in 4 type diets. Meanwhile, GIP secretion was increased in high-fat diet. Furthermore, GIP was increased in direct proportion to fat content of these diets. As the result of GIP secretion was increased in high- fat diet, similarly as with humans and rodents. However, GLP-1 was not consistent with human objects, and we suggest that cats have been different digestive tissue and feeding habit.

Managing cat diabetes mellitus recommended that diets with low carbohydrate content and protein content may be advantageous, the carbohydrate type of the diets in those studies were not well characterized. The purpose of this study was to the effects of carbohydrate sources（glucose, Glc; maltose, Mal; trehalose,Tre; cornstarch, Corn）on glucose metabolism in healthy cats. As a result, Glc and Mal diets were significant increase was observed in Glucose-AUC than Tre and Corn diet. Meanwhile, no significant changes in Insulin AUC of all diets. Furthermore, there was a significant increase in NEFA-AUC of Tre diet compared to Glc and Mal diets. In conclusion, these results indicate that carbohydrate might be useful as an energy source in healthy cats. Especially, the slow absorption carbohydrate as cornstarch was considered as an available to correct hyperglycemia in obese and diabetes cats.

In the diabetes cats, infectious diseases such as urinary tract infection and periodontal disease are frequently observed accompanying depression immunocompetence. Cats are more likely susceptible to stress-induced hyperglycemia and limited in hypoglycemic activity. Therefore, it is often very difficult to maintain glycemic control such as diabetes mellitus（DM）cats with these problems. This study used 3 cases of DM patient of our university teaching hospital. These cats have been suffered from chronic inflammations, and poorly-glycemic control due to stress. In order to achieve these objectives, we need to make good use of the learnings from each case and problems with hospitalized animals. We can give appropriate advice to care in their home after discharge. Moreover we need to consider each cat preference and stress inducers when we take care of hospitalized patients, and vet nurses provide them with comfortable environment as much as possible by increasing their satisfaction level and eliminating in hospitals.

We used African pygmy hedgehogs（1-year-9-months-old, 2 males and 3 females）which had been reared with free access to ferret food throughout the night periods. We first restricted their ferret-food feeding time to 20 minutes each evening over 4 weeks, and in next four weeks tried to feed them only hedgehog food. As a result of the restricted ferret-food feeding time, the hedgehogs showed a body weight decrease of from 5.2％to 16.4％. Some individuals, which had been classified as overweight, eventually attained a body weight within the normal range of hedgehogs. Although all the hedgehogs had an apparent high preference for ferret food, almost all the animals accepted the hedgehog food provided. Then, we changed the hedgehog-food feeding time, from restriction to 20 minutes to free access throughout the night periods over 4 weeks, and the hedgehogs showed no increase in body weight. It is suggested that feedingtime control and the use of the hedgehog food are effective means of controlling body weight in hedgehogs,which are often overweight.

Few reports have been published on the sensitivity to sweet and bitter tastes in herbivorous animals. This experiment was designed to test behavioral responses of Microtus arvalis（field voles）to the sweet taste of saccharin and the bitter taste of quinine. M. arvalis were subjected to drink aqueous 3.0 mM quinine solution and mixtures of 0.3, 1.0, 3.0, and 5.0 mM saccharin with 3.0 mM quinine by two-bottle choice tests. The amount of the aqueous 3.0 mM quinine solution consumed was significantly less than that of water,indicating an avoidance behavior for the bitter taste of quinine. The consumption of 0.3, 1.0, 3.0 and 5.0 mM saccharin mixed with 3.0 mM quinine tended to be less than that of the aqueous 3.0 mM quinine solution alone. The herbivorous animal M. arvalis might be unsuitable for behavioral response analyses to sweet tastes by mixing sweet and bitter substances like in mice.