What Are The Advantages Of a Raw Food Diet For Dogs?

Dogs make great companions and if you have a dog in your life it’s a safe bet that you want to keep him happy and healthy. Are you feeding your dog commercial dog food? Commercial canned dog food is convenient to use but are you giving your dog optimal nutrition? A better idea is to change to a raw food diet for dogs for reasons we’ll go into below

 

A raw food diet does offer some advantages. It contains concentrated nutrition whereas dog food in a can contains a lot of fillers such as grains. It also contain a lot of water. These ingredients are what you are paying for in a can of commercial dog food.

 

There is ongoing debate about the nuritional value of gains in a canine diet and some say a  dog’s digestion cannot properly process grains. Wherever the truth lies, there is no doubt that grains are added to commercial dog food to boost the manufacturers’ profits rather than the nutritional value!

 

As commercial dog food need to be cooked as part of the processing process, a lot of the vitamins and minerals in the food are lost. Although extra supplements are added to the final products, can this be as nutritionally whole as the natural vitamins and minerals found in a raw food diet?

 

More and more owners are feeding their dogs raw food or at least a mixture of both raw and canned. As people are becoming more conscious of what they themselves eat, naturally they are also concerned that their pet is also getting the best nutrition possible. Dog owners are also concerned about the quality of meat that goes into commercial dog foods. Usually these are  poor quality meats that are unfit for human consumption. When you buy your dog’s meat yourself, you have much more control over his diet.

 

It’s natural to have some questions before starting your dog on a raw food diet. Just what do I feed and how much of it shall I give him? Are there any foods that I should avoid? And the biggest question; How can I fit all this into my already busy day?

 

The good news is a raw food diet is easy to implement. Simply buy more meat and vegetables at the supermarket instead of canned dog food. That’s it! Your dog will know what he does and doesn’t enjoy eating and will regulate the amount.

 

It will take a little bit of adjusting to get used to how much and what to feed your dog, but once you start to do it, you will have the hang of it in no time. After a while, it is going to become second nature. Your dog will be the one to tell you what he or she likes to eat and just how much.

 

The above are good reasons to start or switch to a raw food diet for dogs. If your dog could speak, I’m sure he would end up thanking you for it. His coat will be shinier and he will be healthier overall.. If you are still unsure, why not start slowly and gradually add raw food into you dog’s eating schedule.

Commercial Dog Food

Commercial Dog Food – Do You Know The Truth About Dog Food Yet?

As a kid growing up in a family full of dogs, I remember the old days when mom and pop used to feed our dogs any type of table scraps that we had from our meals. And sometimes, the dogs would all have their meals prepared ahead of time. We ate all types of food and back in those days so did our animals, except for one major difference of today’s house pets – they didn’t eat a bite of commercial dog food.

Interestingly enough, three out of the four dogs we owned lived to the age of 18 and 19 years of age, with one dog reaching 21 years of age. And the only reason why the fourth did not hit these high numbers was because of bone cancer. Now our experience with these dogs does not negate any type of nutritional value that commercial dog food may provide, especially considering the leap in information and nutritional research that we have today, but it is a little ironic that standard human food did so well just a few years back.

Pet Food Advertising Has Brainwashed Us
A lot has changed over the past 20 or 30 years. Most dog owners feel that feeding their pets commercial dog food makes the most sense. They believe that high quality dog food sold in stores is not only the most convenient way to feed their animals, but it also is thought to give their dogs and puppies the best nutritional value offered, even better than human food. They believe that this decision is the right thing to do.

You hear this sort of thing over and over again whenever a discussion takes place about dog food. Just the other day I was discussing some dog tricks with my neighbor and the subject switched to what we fed our dogs. One comment that he made which is quite redundant is that “I feed my dog ‘dog food’ because it’s for dogs. Why would I feed him human food?” My neighbor goes on to display his sense of knowledge about nutrition for dogs by insisting that my way of feeding Charlie (my dog) table scraps was cheating him of the proper foods he needs for energy and growth.

Processed Food is still Processed Food
I realized that there was little chance of me convincing my neighbor of his falsely believed notions about proper nutrition and his dogs. Try convincing one of these people that a dog and a human both need similar nutritional foods. It’s not that easy. However, I did get across one point in which he understood and that was about processed food.

No matter how you look at it, or what you believe a dog should eat as opposed to humans, processed food is still processed food! This stuff is manufactured, which means it goes through various steps of processing, preservatives, and other additives before it hits the can and is packaged. Every step that is taken to get this food to the store shelves reduces its quality and nullifies most of its nutritional value.