Choosing the right diet for your dog is a critical decision that significantly impacts their overall health and well-being. As awareness of canine nutrition grows, pet owners are increasingly exploring alternatives to traditional kibble, such as fresh and raw food options. This article provides a detailed comparison of raw diets and kibble, examining their benefits, drawbacks, and key considerations to help you make an informed choice for your furry friend.
Understanding the Options: Raw, Fresh, and Kibble
Raw Dog Food
The raw dog food diet, often referred to as the "BARF" diet (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food), centers on feeding dogs uncooked meat, bones, organs, fruits, and vegetables. Proponents of raw feeding argue that this approach closely mimics the ancestral diet of wild canids, providing a more natural and nutrient-rich food source.
Potential Benefits:
- Improved Digestion and Nutrient Absorption: Raw food is unprocessed, allowing dogs to retain and absorb more of the natural vitamins and enzymes present in meats and vegetables. Raw ingredients are far more bioavailable than processed ingredients, allowing dogs to process and absorb all nutrients, enzymes, and minerals. Studies have even shown that pets digest food better when it’s raw.
- Healthier Coat and Skin: Raw dog food benefits include healthier digestion and improved nutrient absorption, both of which play a key role in supporting clear skin and a shiny coat.
- Cleaner Teeth and Gums: Anecdotal reports of health benefits of raw meat-based diets (RMBD) include cleaner teeth.
- Increased Energy Levels: Many owners report increased energy levels after switching to raw feeding.
- Gut Health: A raw diet supports a diverse and thriving gut microbiome because it’s made from real, living food, rich in natural enzymes and animal-based proteins.
Potential Drawbacks and Concerns:
- Risk of Foodborne Illnesses: Veterinary advice often highlights concerns about foodborne illnesses such as salmonella and E. coli, which can affect both dogs and humans. Multiple studies have reported the presence of pathogenic bacteria in RMBD as well in the feces, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration recommend against feeding raw diets to pets due to the risk of exposing owners to disease-causing enteric bacteria or parasites in the raw food products.
- Nutritional Imbalances: Achieving proper nutritional balance can be challenging without careful planning and guidance. Owners may also unwittingly create nutritional deficiencies or excesses in their pets due to poorly formulated diets.
- Handling and Storage Requirements: Handling and storage are critical when feeding raw; improper practices can lead to serious health risks. Meticulous care is required in the handling, preparation, and sanitation of raw food.
- Unsuitability for Certain Dogs: Some veterinarians warn that raw diets are not appropriate for dogs who share their homes with young children or people with compromised immune systems. Dogs with pancreatitis, cancer, or other diseases may require cooked food.
- Cost: Raw food can be more expensive.
Fresh Dog Food
Fresh dog food has gained significant popularity in recent years as an alternative to both raw feeding and traditional kibble. Fresh food options are typically lightly cooked, packaged in controlled portions, and delivered directly to your door.
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Potential Benefits:
- Balance Between Nutrition and Safety: Since the food is gently cooked, harmful pathogens are significantly reduced compared to raw diets, while still retaining most of the natural vitamins, minerals, and flavors.
- High-Quality Ingredients: Fresh diets often include high-quality meats, vegetables, and whole grains, offering dogs a nutrient-rich alternative to heavily processed kibble. Fresh dog food delivery services develop their recipes with guidance from vet nutritionists to ensure that they are nutritionally balanced and meet your dog’s specific needs.
- Veterinary-Approved: Veterinary experts often consider fresh feeding a safer, more convenient way to deliver optimal nutrition without the risks associated with raw food.
Potential Drawbacks and Concerns:
- Cost: Fresh dog food can be more expensive than kibble.
- Storage: Fresh dog food typically requires refrigeration.
- Time, Space, and Finances: Cooking for your pet is a process that’s demanding on your time, space, and finances.
Kibble
Kibble has long been the most common choice for dog owners due to its convenience, affordability, and long shelf life. Modern kibble formulations have evolved to include better quality proteins, improved digestibility, and added vitamins and minerals.
Potential Benefits:
- Convenience: It is easy to store, measure, and serve, making it suitable for busy households and pet owners managing multiple dogs.
- Affordability: Kibble is the most practical and affordable solution for many households.
- Nutritional Completeness: Many kibble varieties are formulated under strict nutritional guidelines, ensuring that dogs receive essential nutrients in every meal. All dry dog foods need preservatives to prevent the fat from becoming rancid.
- Dental Health: Those who feed their dogs kibble suggest the potential benefits to be reduced dental plaque and healthier gums.
- Reduced Risk of Bacteria: Those who feed their dogs kibble suggest the potential benefits to be reduced risk of bacteria and less risk of spoilage.
Potential Drawbacks and Concerns:
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- Low-Quality Ingredients: Many lower-quality brands contain fillers, artificial additives, and highly processed ingredients that offer limited nutritional value. To maintain high profit margins, some kibble companies lean towards sourcing inexpensive ingredients, resulting in a higher volume of plant-based proteins rather than more beneficial animal sources, despite the latter being more advantageous for our canine companions. Sadly, lower-quality kibbles often source ingredients from byproducts at rendering plants. The materials submitted to rendering plants can even include plastic and styrofoam from packaging. Plastics and metals from ear tags and other identification methods are also found. Furthermore, these materials are often from animals that were sick, already dead, or euthanized
- Digestive Issues and Weight Gain: Dogs on heavily processed kibble diets may experience digestive issues, weight gain, or reduced coat health over time.
- Processing: Almost all kibbles are highly processed and cooked at high temperatures to preserve shelf life. The ingredients in kibble are processed together and cooked.
- Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs): Processing may also result in chemical transformations such as the production of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). There is mounting evidence that AGEs contribute to the development of several important chronic and age-associated diseases in humans and dogs, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and neurodegeneration.
- Low Moisture Content: On average, dry dog food contains about 5-10% moisture, which is very low. First, dogs must choose to go to the water bowl instead of getting water in their meals (and some dogs just aren’t good at that). Second, the body expends its stored moisture to process the food, leaving insufficient water for other bodily functions.
Key Considerations for Choosing a Diet
Nutritional Needs
- Protein: Look for a food that has a protein as the first ingredient, not a grain. The best kibbles have a single source of protein, such as lamb or chicken.
- Carbohydrates: Raw diet formulators and commercial raw products often maintain carbohydrate levels at 2-4%, incorporating higher-quality ingredients like broccoli and carrots.
- Fatty Acids: Oils commonly used in commercial dry food include sunflower, safflower, grapeseed, and soybean. Raw diets tend not to contain any of these ingredients and instead use high-quality oils such as coconut oil, which is lower in omega-6, or flaxseed oil, which contains both omega-6 and omega-3.
Dog-Specific Factors
- Age:
- Size:
- Activity Level:
- Existing Health Conditions: Consulting with a veterinarian is crucial before making significant dietary changes, especially if your pet has allergies, weight issues, or chronic conditions.
- Sensitivities:
Lifestyle and Preferences
- Convenience:
- Budget:
- Storage Space:
- Commitment to Preparation:
A Deeper Look at Raw Diets
The History of Raw Feeding
Our modern conception of dog food hasn’t existed for very long. The first dog biscuit was made by an American electrician named James Spratt in the late 1800s. The F.H. Bennett Biscuit Company, the inventors of Milk-Bone, introduced the first dry dog food in the 1920s and 1930s. Oma’s Pride began crafting and distributing raw pet food in the 1990s after a family dog became sick eating dry food.
Raw Diet Composition
A raw diet usually includes organ meats, muscle meat, whole or ground bone, raw eggs, dog-safe fresh fruits and vegetables, and a dairy product such as yogurt. One of the most popular is the BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) diet, where it’s recommended that dogs eat “70% muscle meat, 10% raw edible bone, 7% vegetables, 5% liver, 5% other secreting organ, 2% seeds or nuts, and 1% fruit".
Sourcing Raw Ingredients
Chickens raised in open-grass pastures have healthier fats plus higher vitamin E levels compared to over-crowded farming practices. Free-range and grass-fed meats naturally contain less harmful bacteria like pathogenic E. coli as well.
Commercial Raw Food Options
Raw dog food can be homemade, store-bought, freeze-dried, or dehydrated. Nervous about feeding raw? Raw feeding has come a long way in recent years, with today’s most popular raw dog food delivery services making it easier than ever to make the switch. Many commercial raw food options are made from human-quality ingredients and supplements and in plants that are under USDA inspection.
Recommended Raw Food Brands
- Viva Raw: Offers USDA-inspected meats with organic produce and whole food supplements. It has a puppy-specific formula for balanced growth and both chunked and ground options.
- Open Farm Freeze-Dried Raw Morsels: Offers the benefits of raw food in a shelf-stable formula, made with humanely raised meats that meet strict animal welfare standards, plus no fillers, grains or artificial additives.
- We Feed Raw: Offers an assortment of proteins, including chicken, turkey, venison, lamb, beef and duck. The brand also sells freeze-dried options.
- Maev: The food stays frozen in bite-sized pieces that go straight from the freezer to the bowl. Each blend is made with USDA-certified meats and fruits and vegetables like green beans, zucchini and blueberries, plus functional supplements like chondroitin and glucosamine for joint health.
- Darwin's Natural Pet Products: The brand’s Intelligent Design line is formulated by vets to provide nutritionally balanced meals for dogs with conditions like kidney disease, liver issues or cancer.
Scientific Studies on Raw Diets
Several nontraditional feeding methodologies including raw meat-based diets (RMBDs) are believed by many dog owners to be superior to traditional extruded commercial dog foods. Despite the strong opinions, limited data are available comparing objective health measures among healthy dogs fed using different methods of diet preparation.
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- Study Comparing RMBD to Kibble: A cross-sectional observational study was performed comparing hematology, serum biochemistry, urinalysis management history, and clinical health scores in healthy client-owned dogs reported as fed RMBD (n = 28) or kibble (n = 27) for >1 yr. Dogs fed RMBD showed a slight improvement in CCS compared with kibble-fed dogs (CCS: P = 0.03). Serum alkaline phosphatase activity (P < 0.001) and globulin concentration (P < 0.001) were lower, while lymphocyte count (P < 0.05) was higher in dogs fed RMBD. No differences were found in urinalysis between diet groups. Owner management significantly differed with a greater likelihood of management interventions including dietary supplements and sporting activities in the RMBD group.
Addressing Common Concerns and Misconceptions
Food Safety
Cooking, high-temperature treatment or rendering can kill potential microbial agents and make such products safe for animal consumption. However, heating contaminants increases the levels of exotoxins, toxins secreted by bacteria breakdown during the rendering process.
Nutritional Completeness
Most homemade diets do not undergo the scrutiny and rigorous testing applied to commercial complete and balanced diets. If pet owners wish to feed their pets homemade diets, the diets should be prepared and cooked using recipes formulated by a veterinary nutritionist.
Cost
It’s true: raw food can be more expensive in the short term. However, in the long run, many pet parents find that they save money by feeding a biologically-appropriate diet.
Alternatives and Combinations
Mixing Kibble and Raw Food
It’s also important to note that pet parents don’t need to choose between kibble and raw food. Incorporate both kibble and fresh, whole foods like raw into your dog’s bowl each meal.
Fresh and Baked Recipes
Ollie offers a mixed meal plan that combined both their Fresh and Baked recipes.
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