Raw Versus Dehydrated Dog Food

Good pet nutrition ensures a healthy life.

There is no more enthusiastic dog owner than one who raw feeds. On the Internet you will find plenty of advice, recipes, supplements and suggested health benefits of raw feeding. For the majority of dog owners however, dry feeding is the norm and has been for generations. Dry food offers the advantage of convenience and removes the need to handle raw meat and bones.

A Short History

The ancestors of our domestic dogs would have hunted for their food and enjoyed a high meat content diet containing a small quantity of vegetable matter from the gut of their prey. It is this evolutionary diet that raw food enthusiasts such as Dr. Ian Billinghurst and his Biologically Appropriate Raw Food (BARF) followers advocate as an appropriate diet for today’s pet.

Dry dog food, with its familiar kibble, made an appearance in 1957. Purina began marketing an extruded dog “chow” using machinery that had been developed to manufacture breakfast cereals and snacks.

Raw Diet

Raw meaty bones are the choice for BARF feeders.

Billinghurst recommends a feeding regimen based around raw meaty bones (50 to 60 percent) with pureed vegetables, meat, offal (liver, lungs hearts and trachea) and some dairy products and eggs included in the diet.

Dry Food

Dehydrated dog food offers convenience.

Dry dog food in the U.S. is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), ensuring that the food contains adequate levels of all the recognized essential nutrients required for good health and well-being.

The basic recipe for a dry food will contain a source of protein (such as chicken, lamb, beef or fish), cereals (wheat, rice, oats, corn or barley), flavoring, vitamins and minerals. Cheaper foods will generally contain less digestible materials, more additives and lower meat content. Premium foods may use a single meat and cereal source. Many manufacturers now tailor recipes for specific breeds, life stages and lifestyles.

Benefits

Raw feeders report improvements in skin condition, strengthening of the immune system, better nutrient absorption, healthy teeth with minimal tartar buildup, less bad breath, reduced stool volume and a healthy, lean body.

Users of dry food point to the convenience of having a complete food in a sack, less worries about the diet lacking vitamins or minerals, more control over the protein and fat content of the diet and reduced risk of infection from handling raw meat and bones.

Considerations

There is concern among some veterinarians about the presence of salmonella in chicken bones and raw food causing illness in dogs, and presenting a risk in the kitchen. Excreted bacteria also present an environmental health problem, particularly where children and vulnerable adults may walk.

An increasing number of dogs are showing signs of intolerance or allergy to common ingredients used in dry dog food. Usual suspects are wheat, rice, beef and dairy products.

References

• Provet Healthcare: Salmonellosis
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA): Pet Food Labels – General
• BARF World: Benefits of BARF
• Canadian Veterinary Journal: Preliminary Assessment of the Risk of Salmonella Infection in Dogs