Round 1 – Dry Dog Food.
Like most dog owners you see your best friend as a family member. And you want your pal to have the opportunity to live a long healthy life and that’s a worthy goal, one I share.
Despite the advertising claims, and the “complete & balanced” mantra, kibble or dry dog food generally is not optimal nutrition for dogs.
Why?
Just like any fast food, it’s devoid of any real nutritional value and in fact it’s what you would call dead food – it fills a gap but has practically zero nutritional value.
The pet nutrition industry is much like the human fast food industry, full of claims with no substance.
Imagine Being Your Dog?
Try to imagine being your dog, how would you feel about eating dry dog food day in and day out. Here’s just some of the following ingredients in your best dry dog food dinner:
- Meat meal – not really meat at all
- Soy – makes dog sick
- Corn – makes dogs sick
- Fillers – makes dogs sick
- By-products – hoof, horn, hair etc
- Artificial food colorings – E numbers
- Pesticides – makes dogs sick
- Preservatives – stop food going rancid
- Salt – masks taste and preserves food – leads to renal failure
- Sugar – masks taste and preserves food – makes dogs sick
The above list is just a sample of the more than 29 additives available to make dry dog foods and canned commercial pet food palatable enough for your dog to eat.
Now there’s a word – palatable. Palatability enhancers are another ingredient used simply to make the food industry waste used as pet food more palatable to your dog. These enhancers are synthetic chemicals produced in dog food factory labs which are then sprayed over the kibbles in an attempt to fool your dog into eating dry dog food with its tasty coating
If Your Dog Knew What Went Into Their Daily Meal Would They Eat It?
Your dog instinctively craves their natural diet for real health and well-being.
Open that sack of dry foul smelling kibble and ask yourself if it smells good and nutritious?
While your dog may well woof it down having been fooled by the scientists, is that any reason to continue feeding your dog junk nutrition-less pet food?
Common symptoms associated with regular consumption of commercial dry dog foods include:
- Diarrhea
- Increased flatulence
- Dull coat
- Intermittent vomiting
- Prolonged scratching
Human saliva breaks down food stuck in the teeth as part of the digestion process. Dog saliva doesn’t break down food stuck in the teeth, only once in the stomach does the digestion process begin.
The sludge stuck in your dog’s teeth from pieces of kibble sits there causing plaque build up until eventually calculus is formed, leading eventually to gingivitis and onto periodontal disease and a very grumpy unhappy dog that cannot tell you just how miserable she feels each day.
Periodontal disease is possibly the leading precursor to other diseases in dogs today. Bacteria formed on the teeth quickly move down into swollen gums and into the blood vessels that supply the teeth. From there the entire body is accessible including all the vital organs which include the skin.
In time this poisonous cycle will lead to immune system breakdown and devastating consequences for your dog. I have witnessed this time and time again.
Does Your Dog Pass the Dog Breath Test?
Because it’s such an important simple test to assess your dog’s health, I want you to take the dog breath test.
First, take a good long deep breath literally inches from your dog’s mouth. Now, was your dog’s breath less than sweet smelling or indeed real ‘doggy breath’ i.e. foul?
Second, open up your dog’s mouth and have a good look at her teeth. Are they nice and shiny white with salmon pink gums?
Just because your dog eats convenient dry dog food and is capable of handling it, doesn’t mean it’s biologically appropriate or that this dietary abuse won’t lead to long tern chronic disease, and a shortened lifespan.
Hopefully now your starting to understand the results of feeding dry dog food to your best friend. What about raw dog food?
Round 2 – Raw Dog Food
Historically dogs are predators and have thrived eating raw meat and bones for millions of years, it’s their biological diet and contains all the naturally occurring ingredients your dog would need for optimum health.
The modern day culture of feeding convenience food from cans and packets changes nothing when it comes to your dog’s biology. He needs raw dog food but gets dry dog food which is a little like comparing a Cesar salad to a serving of fries.
The Cesar salad’s got the quality protein, the moisture, the living enzymes and we know it’s the healthy option.
The fries have no protein, little moisture and as stated earlier, it’s dead food. So again it’s the unhealthy option – just filling a gap.
You might think the comparison is skewed somewhat but in reality the fries may well be better nutrition than dry dog food. The point being that your dog really needs fresh whole food like we need to get the healthy results.
What Does A Cesar Salad and a Raw Dog Food Diet Have in Common?
Raw dog food diets, either the ones you make up yourself at home or the pre-made commercial ones you buy at the pet store or online are like the Cesar salad. They give your dog the proper nourishment your dog needs without having to resort to palatability enhancers, E-numbers, sugar and all the other exotic ingredients made from parts of animals I’d rather not think about.
Your dog’s body gets the correct nutrients going to the correct places and providing the correct outcome – a long term healthy dog.
Four Advantages of Raw Dog Food
- Grain free
- Made with human grade ingredients
- You control the ingredients
- Over the lifespan of your dog you save over $10,200 as an Australian survey concluded. That’s an 85% overall cost saving largely due to far lower veterinary costs.
The truth is dogs have no real need for carbohydrates; their liver derives its energy from the proteins in meat and bone. So cutting out the grain that bulks out dry dog food is a good thing for your dog’s long term health.
Human grade ingredients mean you get food you can trust instead of pieces and parts of rendered dead animals that often do not include any actual meat at all.
You control your dog’s diet, which like your kids diet can be kept healthy because you made it or at least know what’s in it.
If we re-visit the dog breath test, a dog fed naturally will have sweet breath and white teeth with pink gums. This is the test of diet, of health and of how well your dog will live going forward.
If you’re as long in the tooth as me you’ll remember Mrs. Ronald Reagan telling us to “just say no to drugs”. In the final analysis the best raw dog food is always going to be streets ahead of dry dog food and not just because of the drugs used to fortify and preserve that sack of fast food.
And The Winner Between Dry Dog Food vs Raw Dog Food?
My advice: Switch your dog over to raw dog food for the best in dog health and to fix any unresolved health issues – it’s also an amazingly fast healer!
About Dan
This information also applies to cats!
I have had several dogs and a few cats, and I have seen how the Raw Diet is way better than the commercial crap diet (no pun intended).
Animals fed raw meat and bones ARE 78-100% healthier, all health issues (even genetic ones) become significantly reduced to non-existent!
So, please, pet owners, if you TRULY love your pets, PLEASE make the switch today! It WILL save you and your pet a LOT of hassle, worry, stress, and frustration.
And WILL extend their lives.
I read that pet food manufacturing companies that sell pet foods which are distributed and sold in cans, rely on the sterility of the can to protect them from spoilage in deterioration of the ingredients. But pet foods that are sold dry in bags rely on chemical preservatives to prevent spoilage. So this beg the question: are canned dog food (and cat food for that matter) safe to feed your pets?
Hi Jerry, great question, the canned food may well be safer to feed as the bagged kibble gives rise to afflatoxins and degrades over the month as the bag empties. The air in the part filled bag makes the oils in the dry food rancid and one of the causes of cancers in dogs and cats.
I like the part about imagining you are your dog and eating what they eat everyday, I have to admit I would lose a lot of weight that way because I couldn’t stomach eating the same thing everyday like they do. Maybe if people ate that way it would help us relearn portion size and things like that again. Keep up the good work you are doing a great job.
I’m sure pet lovers find it sickening how the commercial pet foods industry rakes in billions of dollars annually. In exchange for our dollars, we trust the companies to provide our pets with quality nutrition. The recent pet food recall demonstrated that our trust has been misplaced. The only way to retaliate and force change is to boycott packaged pet foods. It’s gonna take a continued collective effort to spread this message.
Hi John, thanks for commenting. Your right, our trust has been misplaced and the best option is for dog owners to take back control of their dogs diet in line with how we control our kids diet and let common sense prevail.
I took that part where said imagine being your dog, and I couldn’t do it. That is really a hard thing when I thought about eating the same thing everyday at every meal and it was this nasty dry hard food that was so crunchy it hurt my teeth. I actually started feeling sorry for my dogs and I will change what they eat from now on. Thank you .
Georgia, thank you for taking a moment to see things from your dogs perspective, you made my day with your comment : ).
If only every dog owner really thought about eating, say, cheeze burgers every day! At first it would be great, but boy would you soon get sick of them, let alone eating them every day for a lifetime!!!
And to think vets recommend a well known brand of dry food they say has the science behind it and it’s complete & balanced?! How can fast food be complete and balanced? So what then is fresh food for dogs incomplete and unbalanced? Go figure.
Thanks Randy.
I need to decide on a pet food, but which do I choose? The tuna or the turkey? The lamb or the beef? It can feel confusing, but it is not as complicated as it looks. Some people decide which foods to feed to their pets based on previous experience with pets, some base their decision on what friends feed to their pets, some stick to what the breeder has recommended, and some go by what their veterinarian advises.
My 9 year old American Bull Dog (he’ll be 10 next month) was recently diagnosed with total heart failure (VP Complex and Couplets). I’ve consulted with the vet and cardiologist who are recommending lifetime meds: Fimodendan 10 mg 2x a day ($132); Benezepril 20 mg 1x a day ($4), Mexiletine 150 mg 2x a day ($40), and water pills (a diurectic for 2 weeks only) as he has fluids in lungs and abdomen. Vet thinks this may extend my boys’ life another 12 months. I know these meds come at a high cost literally & figuratively as they have side effects I started researching raw food as a friend said this might have better results. I started him on all meat raw food diet this past Saturday (02/11/17). I was told this would strengthen his heart. This is new to me and I am desperate to cure my boy. Any feedback and suggestions are welcomed. Thank you.
Hi Monica, sorry to hear that, love the American Bull Dog, a very handsome dog. I take it he’s been on kibble all his life? Yes, get him on a raw food diet and get him into great shape with a balanced immune system. Tell you what, if you join my 1 to 1 program, we can work together and I’ll give you the feeding plan plus all the supplements to build your boy back up and get him off those meds over the next couple of months. It comes with ongoing email support too. Take a look at https://healthydogforlife.com/real-food-for-dogs-book-and-video-program-by-dan-scott/ it may be what your looking for. I believe, with my plan for your dog we can get him into great shape and off meds for life…. and way longer than 12 months! Dan.
I’m still worried about raw dog food–salmonella and other germs not destroyed by heat.
Can I cook “raw” dog food before serving to my dog?
Hi Mary, It’s not a problem for your dog and the salmonella scare is unfounded. There’s actually salmonella more in dried pet food. Human grade raw food is fine. You can cook the food, I’d flash fry it so the middle stays raw as the rawer the food the better the nutritional quality of it for dogs. Hope that helps.