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Yeah, it seems like we went straight from grain-based food, to super high protein, no grain food. Makes me wonder about the diabetes you hear about in dogs these days. I am thinking that too much protein is not a good thing for dogs either.
I recently researched what a proper balance would be for home-made food for my dog and found this really great brochure on the subject, based on research by the National Academies in Washington DC:
I recently researched what a proper balance would be for home-made food for my dog and found this really great brochure on the subject, based on research by the National Academies in Washington DC:
Kibble is processed, and many ingredients are questionable, so it's sort of amusing to have people say 'I am not going to give my dog any whole, wholesome food from my cupboard/stove/oven. That's for people only. Only this processed, chemical-laden, un-fresh, dry stuff is good for my dog'.
What you linked to here, regarding balance of nutrients, is what is important to evaluate, whether we are making it, or a dog food company.
PS a couple of Cheetos isn't going to hurt them either. I feel bad I was so strict with my dog and never let her have any. She only ever got wholesome foods made by myself or a premium pet food company. I'm glad I at least gave her REAL MEAT.
When you see their reaction to real meat you know how terribly boring their kibble is. Like a crack addict or something, eyes wide as can be.
Whole food = unprocessed "people food" like bits of chicken, carrots, eggs, sardines (water not oil), liver (chicken or beef), beef will be healthier for your dogs than a processed biscuit.
BTW, there is no such thing as "people food" and "dog food". There isn't a special animal that comprises "dog food"; it is all the same = food.
Sardines are another crack-addict response food, lol! I love eggs for dogs too. With the shell if they will eat the shell, but not all will. Agree about the BEEF.
In fact beef, chicken, and eggs are on the list for sensitive tummies and I would try them for the elderly dog as well.
Okay, so people food is the same as dog food, except when it's poison, and dog food is the same as people food except we wouldn't eat it.
I'm done here.
That's rich! Yep, something like that! One of the things I did once I started to get more concerned about the whole dog food thing was to taste my dog's commercial food. I figured it should taste like what it was supposedly made from, right? Mostly it was pretty bland stuff. But people can eat it. Not that we would!
The dog food industry grew up for human convenience. And they have since taken advantage of human fads (regarding dogs and pets). I just have to shrug, and remember, I suppose, that is what makes a lot of businesses go 'round.
Chicken meal, fish meal - all that - is mostly ground up parts we normally would not eat. Chicken backs and bones, joint cartilage, perhaps innards like lungs, and heads and claws. Same with fish. Gross, right? But human edible. It's like grasshoppers - we grew up thinking eating something like that is gross. So we don't. But they are nutritious as food if you can get over that.
Now, it might be helpful to realize that joint cartilage and tendons are good sources of all that stuff, like chondroitin and glucosamine, that the supplement market sells for joint support. Bones are a good source of calcium, and the marrow is high in protein and other good stuff. Osso buco is special because of the marrow.
I give my dogs chicken backs, raw, but scalded with boiling water (to reduce any bacterial count). That would be something that goes into chicken meal. The dogs get calcium and their teeth get some cleaning action. People with German Shepherd sized dogs can feed the whole chicken legs - same thing. When I cook my primary dog food for the freezer, I cook it like a stew, cooking until the tendons and ligaments are soft. I take out the little amount of bone that remains, and cut off or strip off the chunks of ligament for the dogs to eat. Some cultures do this for human food - but we normally don't. From the chicken legs, I get little cap like sections of the end of the leg and thigh joints. The dogs can eat and swallow these - but they would be a bit large for a person to swallow. If a human did - they are good food. Just not what we are accustomed to eating, and so we think of them as "inedible".
I wouldn't eat fish heads, but there is nothing in them that is not nutritious. Stomachs are just fine - that's tripe. For dogs, feeding raw tripe gives them enzymes and small amounts of pre-digested greens or grains - stuff that helps with digestion. There are, obviously, SOME parts - like intestines, bladders, colons - that would be problematic and probably unhealthy. There are some organs of some animals, also, that are not healthy for other reasons. The only example I can think of: polar bear liver is too high in certain things (vitamins A and K, if I recall) - so it is not something to feed a human or a dog. I know when my cats catch a mouse and eat it, there is one organ they leave behind. I don't know which it is, but it must taste pretty bad! Pretty much everything else IS edible, even though we, today, might consider it waste.
Of, I will give you the answer to my question. What is in dog food? 'People food'. And chemicals. There is nothing good to happen to say chicken, when processed into dog food, that makes it better for dogs that chicken you cook (or don't) yourself.
Because it's important. There is no such thing as 'people food'. There is food that is good for a dog or cat or isn't.
This is not completely true.
Poor quality dog food will occasionally have ingredients like rendered fat or bone meal which can have animal products in t that people do not typically eat. Lots of things that are labeleled as pet food would not be considered people food due to either its origins or it's status as waste products etc.
...........There is no such thing as 'people food'. There is food that is good for a dog or cat or isn't.
But you are aware that the food that goes into dog kibble is mostly food that is graded as not suitable to go into the human food chain.
Discolored grain, too many insect parts, too many mouse hairs, parts of the meat animal that humans generally do not eat, 3D meat, peanut shells, ground up fish guts, what's left over after screening grain, dried chicken poop, things that won't get approved to feed to humans.
Occasionally (very rarely) a batch of dog food made with discolored grain kills a bunch of dogs because the discoloration is ergot or something toxic. Although dogs basically can digest most of the stuff put into dog food. Maybe people could eat it too, but it isn't considered suitable for humans.
Nobody really believes that dog kibble at 50 cents a pound contains good beef that costs $4.00 a pound. If the kibble costs 50 cents a pound, whatever has gone into it is really cheap, much less than 50 cents a pound because the price of a bag of kibble includes the packaging, shipping, profit for the manufacturer, and mark-up for the store that sells it.
Whole grains are great stuff! Lots of protein and other good things. Nothing wrong with peas and potatoes, but there's also nothing inherently wrong with whole grains like corn, wheat, and rice. At all.
Carnivores need MEAT protein rather than plant protein. If it were cats we were discussing, plant protein is out of the question, as they are obligate carnivores, which dogs are not.
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That's rich! Yep, something like that! One of the things I did once I started to get more concerned about the whole dog food thing was to taste my dog's commercial food. I figured it should taste like what it was supposedly made from, right? Mostly it was pretty bland stuff. But people can eat it. Not that we would!
