Picking the best food for your dog
Try on this perspective on today’s dog food industry. Imagine if you woke up 50 years from now and your child was feeding your grandchild something called 'kid food,’ essentially cereal. Like today, there are many brands of cereal with different flavors and recipes and claims to nutrition and quality. So your child asks you what is the best 'kid food' to feed your grandchild, because the Kashi of kid food is the healthiest, but his child prefers the Frosted Flakes of kid food, which claims to have daily vitamins, but is full of sugar. You would think, “what the heck! Don't feed your kids that and only that. That isn't all kids are supposed to be eating!” This is the current state of dog food. Dog’s are not designed to eat a diet of only cooked food and all kibble is cooked. It also is augmented with filler ingredients other than animal protein that are not healthy for dogs to have a daily basis. While some people argue that they can digest it, therefore it’s an appropriate diet, to that I reply that just because I CAN digest McDonald’s, doesn’t mean I should, and certainly not on a daily basis.
Zoe switched to raw right after Haley joined the team and she never looked back
The modern concept of dog food began after World War II, before which dogs ate a combination of table scraps and scraps from the butcher. During this period, many pet dogs were put out during the day and allowed to wander, therefore, kill small prey or scavenge to supplement their diet. During WWII, tin was rationed, which put a stop to dog food canning. In an effort to keep factories productive after the war, dog food made from meat byproduct and cheap fillers that could be dried and bagged was the perfect answer to meet this commercial and industrial need. This type of feeding was easier and more palatable for pet owners, who traditionally don’t enjoy handling the raw meat and organs that dogs need. The smell of kibble has actually been scientifically balanced to find the perfect balance between a rancid enough to entice dogs and a palatable enough for humans to stomach and to keep in their homes.
The design of dog food has evolved to meet the desires of dog owners, which is now gravitating towards people’s limited knowledge of the benefit of raw food. Unfortunately, this lures owners with limited education into a false sense of doing what is best for their dogs. Unlike what the salesman at even the best pet store will tell you, raw food and kibble utilize very different digestive processes and should never be mixed. Not in the same day, not in the same diet, not ever. A proper diet must be only raw or only kibble, with canned food only being fed when prescribed by the vet for short term treatment of digestive issues or not at all.
How to tell if your food is good
Just like humans, a dog should be regularly having healthy, solid bowl movements. A dog’s stool is the best indicator of the quality of their food and how well it is agreeing with them. You don’t want your dog’s poo to be too large for the size of your dog, fluffy or soft (like frozen yogurt), uniformly shaped (like a sausage), stinky, acidic, frequent or too light or dark in color. The more fillers a dog food has, the more metabolically expensive it can be for your dog - the energy that it takes to digest and process their low quality food can negate it’s limited nutritional benefits. When nutrition is limited, a dog’s body will stop nourishing the less essential organs, such as eyes, ears, skin, and coat. When your dog has abundant nutrition, you will notice that their coat becomes incredibly soft and shiny, their ears cleaner.
Rules of thumb for buying kibble
Start at a pet store. If you can buy dog food at the grocery store, price will be cheap and the quality will be poor. Pet food should only be purchased at a pet store, ideally one that will take back a partially full bag as you try to find a food that is the right fit for your dog. Don’t be seduced into buying treats or raw toppers, those don’t align with my understanding of the canine digestive process. I don’t feed my dog any food outside of a full meal. Dogs are not designed to snack and one bite of food produces a meals worth of acid. Instead, dogs are designed to fast, eating only when they are able to kill or scavenge instead of on a regular feeding schedule. At all costs avoid any food with food coloring. Science Diet is the lowest possible quality and not only should you not purchase it, but you should avoid doing business with any vet who sells it as they value brand funding over your animal’s health. It is important to know that vets, just like pet store employees, do not receive a comprehensive education in nutrition. They will often caution against feeding raw because of the potential liability. To that I would counter that dog foods have had many recalls over the years, but how many recalls have there been for human grade chicken or other meats? While humans are protected from parasites and bacteria in meat by cooking our food, our dogs have stomach acid that is 10 times stronger than ours. The same way they can eat carrion that is beginning to decay and not get sick, they can eat raw meat in a way that isn’t safe for a human to do.
When feeding dry food, it is important not to free feed, leaving a bowl down all day and giving your dog a choice about when and how much to eat. Our dog’s stomachs are not designed to snack, but rather eat and fast. Because kibble isn’t an ideal food source, it make’s your dog’s stomach too acidic, requiring them to eat twice a day to keep their stomach bile at bay. We have all had a dog puke up foul smelling yellow foam if a meal is late. When you free feed, you create a stomach environment that is consistently far too acidic. There is nothing wrong with a dog skipping a meal and waiting until the next one! It’s natural for dogs to self fast and can be very healthy, the same way I skip meals or eat light some days. Free feeding has even been linked to a shorter life span. This is why I recommend leaving food down for 15 minutes then picking it up until the next meal, regardless of how much my dog eats. If your dog is chronically disinterested in their food, they don’t like it or it doesn’t make them feel good and you need to find a different one. Imagine if you had to eat a brand of cereal you hated for every meal and couldn’t communicate with your owner how much you didn’t like it? Best to err on the side of caution and transition to something different.
Kibble Recommendations
Open Farm (This is my number one choice and the brand I ask everyone to switch to if their food isn’t working)
•Instinct
•Merrick
•Merrick wild freeze dried raw infused
•Canidae
•Wellness
•Wellness Core
•Fromm
•Natural Balance
•Zignature
Dehydrated
Fresh Food
Switching foods
When you try a new dry food, it is important to switch foods slowly. Some dogs with iron stomachs can tolerate a quick switch, but it is safest to switch slowly. Feeding each for two days: 1/8th, 1/4th, 1/2th, 3/4th of the new food until your dog is fully switched over. Your dog’s poo may be less that ideal during the transition if they are very sensitive, but ideally should balance out within a week to solid, contoured, and healthy looking.
When selecting a brand, do research online, but know that there is an evolution in quality within brands over time. Orijin and Merrick were two of my favorite foods until their popularity led to one of them being purchased by Purina, who promptly raised prices and lowered quality to the point where I stopped recommending them. How could I tell? The poo of the dog’s who were on those foods degraded to a level where I could tell their stomach were unhappy and the food was being padded with fillers. Fillers are nutritionally costly to a dog and can use more metabolic energy to push through the digestive process than is offset by the limited nutrition contained in the food.
Feeding Raw
Frozen pre-packaged raw food has become a popular option for owners who understand the benefits of going raw. These foods are expensive, easy and not quite completely sound from a raw perspective. These prepackaged bags can be a part of raw food, but are not a complete diet as they lack the bone that is an important source of fiber, jaw exercise and teeth cleaning that dog’s need. Raw bone, unlike cooked, is incredibly healthy for dogs and an essential part of the raw diet. Cooked bones, as most of us know, are dangerous for dogs as they are apt to splinter when being chewed and can even puncture their intestines. Raw bones, on the other hand, are healthy, safe and they provide natural exercise for a dog’s jaw and even help to keep teeth clean!
When transitioning, I fast my dog for a full 24 hours and make the switch completely, not feeling kibble again unless I am fully switching back. Begin by feeding one meat source only. I like to start with a chicken drumstick, thigh or back as chicken is easily digested and the bones are soft and easy to chew. After a day of fasting, most dogs are happy to be presented with raw meat for the first time in their life. They will start by licking it to begin breaking down the muscle, then chewing it, intuitively knowing how to consume whole meat. Some owners are concerned about giving their dog such a primal food source, but watching a dog eat their first piece of chicken is amazing and exciting. In a life that is mostly civilized, it is a rare opportunity to see your dog’s animal nature in action.
Porter never had a normal poo in his life till he got on raw food. Now he is healthy and can run all day to his hearts content!
How much to feed
Picking the amount of food per day is trial and error. Shoot to feed 2-3% of your dog’s ideal body weight. My 12lb Dachshund eats a drumstick or one puck consisting of a bone, red muscle meat, organ combination that I get from the farmers market with enzymes and probiotic sprinkled on top. A 50lb dog who is getting substantial exercise will eat two chicken quarters a day, fed at once or split into two meals a day. I alternate between the bone in meat and pucks, feeding more when my dog looks skinny and less when she starts to lose her hourglass dip near her hips.
For raw, each meal should ideally be 65% muscle meat, 20% bone, 10% heart, 5% liver. Their general diet also contains 65% boned meat, such as chicken legs, backs and lamb necks for example. Suggested meat progressions when starting out on raw are chicken backs, chicken drumsticks or quarters, turkey necks, pork, fish canned in water such as salmon or mackerel or raw fish, lamb and beef. After a month, add in some organ meat like organic hearts, livers and kidneys. It’s important to get livers organic as they process what the conventionally raised animals are fed, which are not chemicals we want in our pets. It is also a good idea to introduce egg including the shell, garlic, apple cider vinegar, yogurt and leftovers from the fridge that you would eat yourself, not scraps of overly fatty meat, as well as some cooked or raw vegetables.
Raw poo
After an initial adjustment in their digestive process, your dog’s poo should be smaller, denser and break down into a white powder, unlike the poo of conventionally fed dogs, which do not break down over time, another red flag on their quality that even the flies don’t want to eat it. If your dog’s poo is too loose, add more bone. If it’s too dry or your dog is straining to get it out, add more muscle meat. Too much bone can cause constipation and the surplus of calcium can block the absorption of other nutrients. When my dog was on kibble I needed to pay to have her anal glands expressed and they now express naturally in the process of moving her firm, raw bowels.
Types of bones
Raw meaty bones (RMBs) that are large, inedible and have a small amount of meat, marrow and cartilage on them are a great form of recreation for your dog. I always have a bag in my freezer that I rinse under water and throw outside for my dog to enjoy. These bones are best purchased from a butcher, ethnic market or raw feeding cooperative as they will be much cheaper from those sources than from the pet store. These bones can be marrow, soup or knuckle. RMBs are gnawed on, not consumed and have little meat. Bones that can be fed and consumed include chicken necks, backs, and leg quarters; turkey necks; lamb breast and necks; pork breast (riblets) and necks; and canned fish with bones, such as jack mackerel, pink salmon, and sardines (packed in water rather than oil).
The bones that can be consumed should make up 30 to 50 percent (one third to one half) of the total diet, or possibly a little more if the parts you feed have a great deal more meat than bone (e.g., whole chickens or rabbits). The natural diet of the wolf in the wild contains 15 percent bone or less, based on the amount of edible bone in the large prey they feed upon. While a reasonable amount more won’t harm an adult dog, it’s not needed and reduces the amount of other valuable foods that can be fed.
Transitioning
This philosophy of feeding is referred to as the Whole Prey Model and is designed to mimic the experience of eating a whole animal that was caught and killed. While it may seem intimidating at first, feeding raw is quite easy and intuitive for both owner and dog. While your dog may have an initial ‘healing crisis’ that involves a dip of health now that they have a stable and nutritious diet and can address some chronic by minor health issues. After three months, your dog will show signs of abundant nutrition in their coat, eyes and ears. When strangers remark on how soft their coat is you will know you are there!
Big dogs eat raw too! It’s worth every penny to see your dog vitally healthy.
There are very few dogs who do not do well on a raw diet, or even more rare, don’t like it. It is important to approach it exactly the way I describe and not be seduced into going back to kibble as your dog adjusts their palate. For the first three days, offer a drumstick or bowl of meat mix twice a day, trying to find their preferred protein and favorite time to dine. If they don’t eat, simply pick it up and wait till the next meal. No dog will let themselves starve and the more stubborn pups need a bit more incentivizing to try something new. If after 3 days of fasting your dog still refuses to eat, try a different food source or go back to the best quality kibble you can find.
After a few months you should have a good sense of how much your dog eats, what types of proteins agree with them and what cuts of meat they prefer. This will help guide you in what and how much to purchase, but does take time to figure out. Utilizing the freezer helps ensure that nothing goes bad, although dogs can safely eat meat that is slightly beyond consumable for a human.
Feeding raw in Austin
I like to start out with a package of drumsticks or chicken quarters from the grocery store. I put 3-4 in a baggie, leaving one bag out in the fridge and freezing the rest. If you would like to buy in bulk, place an order with East Side Poultry. I let the box of meat defrost then separate and freeze it in baggies. Then I don’t have to worry about it for another month or two. For dogs, defrosting and refreezing meat is no problem as they will not turn their nose up at the texture.
For the pucks, I order from Jake and Blue, which now has home delivery as well as a stall at a farmers market. Be sure to get ground bone as the pucks can create loose poo and need that extra fiber to be added. We also order marrow bones from them to feed as a treat. I love the quality and these pucks seem to keep my dog more full than the grocery store brands, although some clients are happy on brands like Northeast Naturals available at Bark and Purr or Hollywood Feed.
There is another delivery service called Texas Tripe that drives through Austin once a month so owners can collect bulk amounts of meat. I used to buy their tripe and meat mix tubes, bulk boxes of chicken parts and bones.
There is a local raw feeding collective, ARF, but they require a monthly volunteer shift in order to have access to their collectively purchased meat sources so be ready to jump in with both feet!
Lucy loving raw life
I’m excited for you to start your dog food journey! Remember to move slowly when changing and supplementing your dog’s diet and follow my recommendations as closely as possible. This isn’t an area where there is much room for creativity. Imformation available from vets, pet stores and online articles will be confusing and contradictory, but after a decade of feeding my dog raw and helping owners transition to the raw diet, this post is a comprehensive guide for what I know to be true and effective. Just ask Harley! She is going strong after a decade and gets compliments on her soft coat and vitality all the time.
Like a dog with a marrow bone