Dogs naturally have a highly acidic stomach
At K9 Natural a common question posed to us by new customers is “why are we not allowed to feed our dog for 12 hours before transitioning them onto a raw food diet?”. This question is best answered by explaining how a dog’s digestive system works and how it differs in response to both raw and cooked (kibble and canned) products. A look into the benefits of why a highly acidic environment is best for a dog stomach will also be briefly discussed.
In simplistic terms once a dog eats a meal it enters the stomach via the oesophagus. At this point, hydrochloric acid (HCI) is released into the stomach, thus as the concentration increases, so does the acidity.
Corresponding with the release of HCI is the secretion of an important protein enzyme, the main role of which is to breakdown protein into a more digestible form to be used by the dog’s body.
Acidity levels of the stomach are measured as pH levels, without going into too much depth on this subject, the lower the level the greater the acidity (level 1), the higher the level the less the acidity (level 6). Once pH level 7 is reached a neutral value is said to have been achieved.
From the stomach, partially digested food then enters the small intestine, which is the site where the majority of macronutrients (protein, fats and carbohydrates) are absorbed.
If we now turn our attention to a dog fed a dry/kibble/canned cooked product which generally has relatively high levels of processed carbohydrates. A dog’s empty stomach pH level is normally around level 1. When fed a cooked processed diet, the pH level will rise to approximately 5, this as opposed to a raw diet in which a pH level of 2 is achieved post feeding, before returning back to level 1 in a much shorter period of time. From a dog’s digestive standpoint pH levels are really important for three main reasons.
The high level of stomach acidity of a raw fed dog means that bones can be easily broken down and absorbed.
Any bacteria within the raw food can be comfortably dealt with due to the highly acidic stomach environment.
If the stomach pH level rises too much (as seen with the kibble/dry/canned products) protein digestibility is greatly impaired. Hence, a raw diet helps much more by allowing a dog to utilise the protein source it has consumed.
The reason for the 12 hour transition is simple. This time-span will allow the dog’s stomach pH levels to return to the highly acidic level that it should be. Therefore the dog will easily be capable of dealing with a raw dog food diet and raw meaty bones without any digestive issues occurring. This incidentally is also why we recommend using K9 Natural and raw meaty bones solely, as opposed to being used as a topper for kibble based products.
For more product information visit the K9 Natural Raw Dog Food page.
