Can highly processed food harm your dog?
K9 Natural founder Geoff Bowers offers his point of view on modern dog food and why he believes owners need to take a more open minded look at what they feed their canine companions.
At K9 Natural, our primary goal is to enhance the welfare of all animals; therefore we aim to improve the quality of life for all dogs by encouraging greater awareness about the benefits of simple, natural feeding practices.
In some ways this can be an uncomplicated task - particularly if owners are open-minded and understand some important points about the nature of their dogs - for example, dogs are recognized as opportunist carnivores, not omnivores, where cats are obligate carnivores.
However through years of advertising, the influence on breeders and everyday dog owners should not be underestimated. It has led to a widespread belief that ‘scientifically developed’ foods (which often contain rice, wheat, corn and their by-products) are better for our dogs than the food which nature has provided for thousands of years.
In the not-too-distant past, it was common to feed dogs with meat and bones from the local butcher.
What is the price of feeding our pets convenience foods?
However, a change in society’s habits has led us to become more reliant on processed convenience foods – and what could be more convenient than a big bag of kibble that feeds a dog for a month and requires no further thought?
But is that bag of kibble actually feeding your dog, or merely filling them? Are they really getting the nourishment they need for optimum health, or has quality been sacrificed in pursuit of convenience and profit?
Periodontal disease, obesity and other health issues were unheard of in cats and dogs years ago but are disturbingly common today. During this time, convenience pet foods have become commonplace.
So is there a link between convenience foods and illness?
It’s increasingly hard not to think so, which is why I believe it’s so important for dog owners to educate themselves about the vital area of nutrition. Only by doing so can they make informed decisions about what to feed their much-loved canine companions.
There are some basic questions that all dog owners should seek answers to when considering a particular food for their pet:
- What ingredients does the food contain and are those ingredients appropriate for an opportunist carnivore?
- Is the ingredients list and nutritional table easy to understand?
- Where do the ingredients originate from and how have they been processed?
- What man-made additives and preservatives are included, and why are they necessary?
- How many suppliers contribute to the food’s chain of production, and how effectively are those suppliers regulated?
I pose two questions to dog owners I meet who seem reluctant to consider natural raw foods: “Have you ever seen a dog grazing in a field of wheat?”, and, “Have you ever seen a dog cook or heat its food?”
Everybody knows the answer to these questions yet it is often not until they are posed in this very logical way that people stop to reflect on how ‘unnatural’ pet foods have become. Most of us understand that when you heat food, you are changing and reducing its nutritional properties. It makes sense therefore to ask ourselves why we choose to feed cooked meat and grain/rice filled biscuits to our best friends. Scrutinizing nutritional information on pet food packaging and advertising can be an extremely difficult task. It is important then that as our dogs’ guardians, we take responsibility for researching what our dogs need and sourcing a food that meets that need.
And I quote……"Although we have come to accept commercial foods as being normal or natural ways to feed animals (and indeed ourselves), in fact they are not. They are simply what we've gotten used to in the last few decades. But nothing we can produce commercially can ever rival those mysteriously complex foods manufactured for eons by nature itself." - Richard Pitcairn, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
Ultimately, if you cannot get the answers you want about a particular pet food in plain, easy-to-understand language from the manufacturer, retailer or other source, you should question how comfortable are you feeding it to your cherished dog, and look for alternatives that you can have confidence in.
Choose a “species appropriate” diet for your dogs
A dog fed a species-appropriate diet (the kind of food its ancestors thrived on for thousands of years before domestication) has a high likelihood of enjoying a long and active life because the dog is eating what it’s physiologically designed to digest and derive nutrition from.
When I talk of a ‘species-appropriate’ diet, I mean one that is suited to an opportunistic carnivore - because that is exactly what dogs are – and, specifically suited to a canine.
Don’t feed grains
Dogs struggle to digest grains and do not require large amounts of carbohydrates. They need protein from animal muscle meat, not from protein sources like grain and vegetable matter that they find harder to digest.
Vitamins and minerals are required in adequate quantities, along with readily accessible nutrients from natural sources in their purest, raw form.
Despite the best intentions of their owners, many dogs are denied a natural diet. Instead, they are fed an often unchanging diet of processed foods, which can be hard to digest, may not provide adequate nutrition and - most disturbingly – could contain highly questionable ingredients that you would never dream of feeding your dog (refer to the link at the end of this article).
By not scrutinizing the dog food you buy, are you potentially putting your dog at risk?
In 2007, a major pet food recall implicating brands from across the price spectrum (including internationally-known premium brands) led to a massive product recall in the United States and the deaths by kidney failure of hundreds, of cats and dogs. The deadly ingredient was believed to have been melamine (used in the manufacture of plastic utensils and laminates), traced to grains imported from China.
If anything positive can be taken from this tragic event and others like it, it’s that it generated an increased interest in the practice of raw feeding. As I mentioned earlier, nature provided dogs with the perfect diet long before man intervened and began producing convenient foods for dogs. Raw feeding takes its lead from nature – not science or industry – to provide natural nutrition and nourishment for our canines.
Dogs need raw meaty bones
We know canines need raw meaty bones, hence I advocate you feed them too - I also know the best food for your dog is warm, covered in fur and it runs past its nose, hence I understand that K9 is not in the most appropriate physical form for your dog; however I realize that due to human urbanization we struggle to feed them this perfect diet.
That is why I still recommend you feed your dog a raw meaty bone in the morning (dawn) and then feed K9natural in the evening (dusk)….as they would eat at those times if they hunted. Please read this raw meaty bones article by Tom Lonsdale) and you will see why.
So why do so many people deny their canine friends the food that nature naturally provides?
Maybe we’ve become so accustomed to eating processed foods ourselves that we think nothing of feeding them to our canines too. Could the convenience of a dog food be more important to us than its contents? Have years of slick advertising made us believe that scientifically-developed dog foods are better than the natural, raw foods canines have always eaten? Or are we simply too busy to care about this issue.
Clearly just by reading this article, you’re not too busy and you do care - just like thousands of other enlightened dog owners who are taking the time to think about the issue and to take a more critical approach to what they feed their canine companions.
As a result, many of these people are switching on to the benefits of raw feeding. Whether you choose to make raw food meals for your dog in your home, or you buy an easy-to-feed, ready-made natural raw food like K9 Natural, you’re giving your dog the kind of food nature designed for it - food that it desires and deserves. What better gift could you give your dog?
- Geoff Bowers, Founder and Director of K9 Natural Food Limited
For any further nutritional advice please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Footnote: This opinion article is based on my own research, knowledge & beliefs. K9 Natural Food Limited encourages consumers to carry out their own research into dog foods and come to their own conclusions. It goes without saying that I welcome any questions you might have about the ingredients and production methods used to make K9 Natural. I back the product 100% and believe that it stands up to the most robust scrutiny; however, I will not test K9 on animals. Nature's ingredients don't require scientific testing on animals. The food you feed might?
A good place to start your research is this independent essay from Harvard Law School student Justine S. Patrick. It's an enlightening read.
