You might be surprised to learn that while the majority of commercial dog foods contain grains, grain is not actually beneficial to a dog's diet. Dogs have a very different digestive system than their human companions. Some dogs have more noticeable allergic reactions to the grain in their diet, while others have more subtle symptoms that you may not even realize are a result of your dog's diet.
Most dogs will seem to do fine on a commercially manufactured dog food which contains grains and vegetables and byproducts. But, this type of diet for a dog is akin to a person on the typical American fast food diet. It will sustain them, but it is not optimal and it can lead to various health problems and issues. Many dogs eating commercial dog food suffer from chronic ear infections, itchy and dry skin, foul smelling breath and body odor, excessive shedding, tooth decay, and excessive thirst. People with dogs with these symptoms generally will take the dog to the veterinarian and ask for the symptoms to be treated. The veterinarian will prescribe antibiotics and ear cleaner for the ear infection, oatmeal or medicated shampoo for the itchy and dry skin or other ointments if it is bad enough, toothpaste and orders to brush the dog's teeth twice a day for the bad breath, regular grooming for the shedding, an expensive tooth cleaning and tooth removal for the tooth decay, and plenty of water for the thirst.
This is all well and good, but the problem is they all treat the symptoms, rather than the cause. Many, if not all, of these symptoms can often be eliminated simply by changing your dog's diet to a raw prey-based carnivorous diet of meat, organs, and meaty bones. While, there may be other causes, such as a disease or condition for these symptoms, the dog's diet has a big impact on their overall health. The way I see it is the dog will tell you whether his diet is correct for him. But, you need to be aware of what he is saying to you and know what to look for. These health issues that I mentioned earlier are considered so common by both dog owners and veterinarians, that if you dog has say, tooth decay, it is treated as a normal thing that happens and the dog's diet is not even considered as a culprit. It is amazing when you discover that simply giving your dog an appropriate raw meaty bone to your dog to chew and eat once a week or so will prevent your dog from ever getting tooth decay. I could go into all the health benefits from simply avoiding tooth decay, but that would take a while to discuss. Basically, tooth decay effects the rest of the dog's health and avoiding it will make is less likely your dog will develop various diseases.
Grain is generally used in commercial dog food as a cheap filler and is used to increase protein percentages without having to put actual meat into the food. Why would an industry whose whole purpose is to provide nutrition for dogs not provide a biologically appropriate and healthful food for them to eat? In short, profit. Dog food has to pass certain guidelines in order to be approved to be sold. They have to meat nutrient guidelines and have a certain amount of protein in them in order to be allowed to be sold. It is less expensive to use grains for protein than actual meat. Some dogs are so allergic to grains and other fillers such as corn, wheat, gluten, and soy that they throw up and have chronic diarrhea or refuse to eat the dog food which contains it. These dogs are usually put on grain-free diets. Another way manufacturers save money is by using meat "meals" and meat "byproducts." These meals and byproducts that you see listed on your dog food ingredient list are actually the most worthless parts of the animal and do not contain very much good nutritious muscle meat.
Another problem with commercial dog food is that it is cooked. When the grain, byproducts, and vegetables are cooked the process kills off any nutrients that were present. Therefore, the manufacturers have to add back the vitamins and nutrients to the food after the cooking process. When vitamins and nutrients are added back in this form, they are not as bio available as they were in their natural form. The ingredients as well as the cooking process make the resulting product very unpalatable to dogs. They would not touch it with the tips of their tongues unless the manufacturers sprayed it with grease, which is exactly what they do.
Feeding commercial dog food does have it's upsides. It is easy to feed and there are many brands to choose from. It is also easy to get as it is in any grocery store or pet supply store. There are also some very cheap brands of commercial dog food. There are some better brands out there that contain grains which dogs are less likely to be allergic to such as rice, millet and oats, have larger percentages of actual meat, and are additive and preservative free. These are certainly better to feed your dog than others. There are also grain free brands you can get which are mostly meat and vegetables. The main issue I find with the grain free brands is the majority of them contain potato, which is arguably not very good for dogs either. I will write more in other articles about what I feed my dogs and the different options on what to feed your dog if you choose to stop feeding commercial dog food.
Thanks for reading.
-Salem Dogs, Admin
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