Dogs are carnivores which means they need meat. Meat can be expensive at times if you buy it from the store. Though is it really that much more than a commercially feed from the pet companies?
There are many different brands of pet food to choose from including, Hills science diet, Pedigree, Merrick, California Natural, Alpo, and many others. Most of these cost somewhere around $.8 to $2 per pound. When you look at the ingredients of most of these dog foods you don't see meat as often as you see fillers like: potatoes, rice, potato starch, sweet potatoes, rice protein, corn, corn protein, and many others. These ingredients add a lot of weight and non-meat sources of protein. Not only is the whole meat content low, a lot of the meat put into the dog food are in the form of meat meals and meat byproducts. This means that they do not have a large amount of muscle meat but rather, the bones and other parts of the meat that are not as profitable sold as is. All this by product is not packed full of nutrition, like the pet food industry likes you to think.
Since dogs are carnivores, they need a diet almost exclusively of meat and organs from different types of animals. This means they need fish, lamb, beef, chicken, and other kinds of meat. Also, dogs need internal organs like the heart, liver, and stomach (aka tripe). These things, if you don't shop carefully, can be little pricey, but can be cheaper than commercial feed, if you know where to get it.
Science Diet, which many veterinarians push as a healthy dog food, have a photo on their website showing what they consider to be an "ideal" break down of what a dog should have in their diet. This photo shows a formula of 50% grains, 25% meat (or it could just be protein), and 25% of fruit, vegetables, and vitamins. If this photo is showing an accurate depiction of what Science Diet puts in their dog food, you are feeding your dog 75% waste and only 25% of what the dog needs which is the meat. This is even further degraded, if you realize that most of the meat on their ingredient lists show meat meal and byproducts, not fresh cut high quality meat, which is nutritious to them.
So, this $2 per pound commercial feed actually costs you $8 per pound for the meat/by products, since the fillers are not doing your dog any good.
If we give Science Diet the benefit of the doubt and assume that it is 25% of meat, and not just protein. Then it would be cheaper to go to Costco and buy their prime beef at around the same price. This would be by far more healthy for your dog, in the quality of meat. A person can find a raw food dealer for dog food at a lot cheaper price. Here in Oregon, I know of a dealer that has been selling for $1.25 per pound for beef and then only a $1.4 for his organ mix. But you shouldn't just feed them beef, you should feed a variety of meats so, if you add chicken to your dog's diet, it will make their food even cheaper than commercial dog foods, we can find it for $.69 per pound. This means that if I feed our dog twice a day, once in the morning and once at night, feeding them chicken in the morning and beef at night the cost per pound comes to $.97. This is cheaper than even the cheap dog food brands.
Commercial feeds for dogs are a lot more expensive, not just in the cost of the food, but also in the long run for the dog, due to health issues. Many dogs have allergies to grains and potatoes. Commercial feed manufacturers know that dogs need primarily meat. They try to break up the list of ingredients to make it look like meat is their primary ingredient. Some of the cheaper dog foods don't care and just show you corn as the top ingredients, since their market is not to the people that research, but the people that just try to get the cheapest feed.
As we can see, even the most popular brands from Hills, Purina, and others still don't come even close to giving your dog a cheap healthy meal.
For more information about raw feeding check out our other articles.
Commerical Dog Food, Is it Worth it?
If your in oregon and need to get a hold of a low cost raw food seller for dogs. Check out who we buy from:
Beef for Pets
If you need a higher quality dry feed here are some of the better dog food brands.
Please leave a comment if you have questions.
-Salem Dogs Admin
No comments:
Post a Comment