In today's busy life, our pets are earning a special place in the family. More people want to feed them a more natural diet to be sure they're happy and healthy. Food manufacturers have been only too happy to provide dry and tinned foods that are clean, convenient and healthy to feed.
When commercial tinned foods were first introduced in the 1960's, vets noticed a flush of health problems that were significantly harming animals. The foods were improved, and the industry now feeds millions of pets around the world. Without doubt, commercial foods have improved out of sight since the '60's. But, are they a true substitute for your pet's natural diet? Some vets say yes, some say no. Some breeders swear by commercial foods, others would never feed them. So, what's the average person supposed to do?
We've put together some articles that may help you to decide one way or the other. For some people, the choice is the convenience of a dry food. Others will swear by raw meat. We hope that these articles will help you understand the benefits of both.
There's a lot of research around now that states that a raw meat diet is the most natural way to feed your pet. It's what they ate before humans domesticated them, and what they'll return to if we're not around. It's plain and simple - a balanced, raw meat diet is natural and healthy for dogs and cats. But why?
What is a raw meat diet?A raw meat diet consists of raw meat... but it's not only raw meat! Dogs and cats need fibre and other nutrients like we do. Why raw? The cooking process destroys most of the nutrients in the meat, meaning your pet isn't getting the nutrient benefit they need. The same goes for fruit and vegetables - raw, they have all the nutrients still intact. Cooked, many of the nutrients are destroyed. Unless these nutrients are replaced by supplements, your pet will suffer health problems.
There's a lot of parts to this answer, but it boils down to this: it's their natural diet. They've evolved to eat it, and it's what they will thrive on the best. Sounds a bit high and mighty doesn't it? Here are some facts to help you understand this complex issue.
New studies have found a surprising fact: your pet dog's DNA is 99.8% identical to a Grey Wolf. That makes your pet dog essentially a domesticated wolf! The Smithsonian institute recognised this fact in 1999 and re-classified the Domestic Dog to the same family as the wolf. Why is that important? Because it means that we should feed our pet dog's the same diet as the Grey Wolf.
Commercial foods are based on high amounts of carbohydrates. These supply energy for your pet but change the way their digestive system works.
A Raw Meat diet is your pet's natural defence against rotten food!In our shop, we get many customers telling us about the time their pet became ill with violent diarreah. Yuck! Sometimes, we'll be told that "the last time I fed Fido raw meat, he had diarreah for days!". So, does that mean feeding raw meat is not appropriate for dogs today? Are they better suited to our modern commercial foods instead? Well... no... and yes. It all comes back - again - to the commmercial food being based on carbohydrates.
We cook many of our foods and have done for aeons. It was a crucial evolutionary point that lead to our current society. Dogs and cats never took that evolutionary step. They're not able to light fires and cook their food. Some people believe that because they've been domesticated by us, their digestive system has adapted to our human style of food - cooked and carbohydrate loaded. This is far from the truth. Dogs and cats are evolved to eat a raw meat diet and eating a human diet can lead to health problems.
Our modern society demands that we feed our pets quickly, easily and with no mess. This has lead to a huge industry that supplies foods for them. Some are good, some not so much. Many pet foods and raw pet meat have preservatives added to them and this can be a bad thing too!
Most commercial foods contain high amounts of carbohydrates as an energy source. If you've been reading along, you'd know now that carbohydrates change the way that your pet's digestive system works. This change has some consequences when feeding raw meat and bone along with the carbohydrates.
The quick rule is - don't feed raw meat or bone with commercial foods. If you want to feed dry foods and raw meats, never feed them together in a single meal. Feed the commercial food one day and raw meat the next. The best situation is to either feed a raw meat and bone diet or feed the "best" commercial food you can. For the reasons why, click the button!
Diet can influence your dog's behaviour!One of the more surprising aspects of feding your dog is that the diet can influence their behaviour. Just like giving a human child too much sugar, your dog can experience erratic behaviour when fed an inappropriate diet. Michelle Tankay runs the Happy Dog Program and explains why.
Copyright © 2010 Apycom jQuery Menus