If you are anything like us, you'll want to do all you knowingly can to give your pooch the best chance at life. For us, this means feeding our Golden Retriever a diet that is natural, wholesome and void of any processed doggie food (hello kibble). Sunshine is a whole foods pup and although her meals take a little extra time to prepare, after reading this you'll understand why it's absolutely worth it.
Ever since we bought little Shiney into our home as an eight week old pup we have been feeding her a wholefoods diet. The majority of her bowl is filled with real vegetables (in both their raw and cooked state) along with raw muscle and organ meats. We have made a conscious decision not to feed her kibble or canned food as we believe that our poochies, just like us, are what they eat too!
Have you ever actually turned over your pooches kibble packet and read the ingredients? Have you ever thought about the process it has to go through to get from it's original fresh, whole, raw state into that perfectly formed small pellet?
Just as we can't expect our own bodies to flourish on processed, lifeless, packaged foods, we can't expect our furry friends to either. We want our pets to do more than just survive, we want them to thrive! So let's find out what kibble is really made of shall we.
Kibble is actually an incredibly dehydrating, highly processed, heat treated, nutritionally void food that is a far cry from its original state.
To be blatantly honest, kibble is essentially the equivalent to human fast food. The most dominant nutrient found in most dry dog foods is carbohydrates (corn, wheat, barley etc). This is because it's a cheap filler and is used to help bind the kibble. Whilst your pooch actually has a higher need for protein and fat sources in their diet, it's more economical for a company to bulk out it's products with cheap carbohydrates.
You'll also notice that many kibbles come in an array of different colours. Now, let's get real here: do you really think your pooch cares what colour their food is? Has your dog ever only eaten the red and green pellets, leaving the brown because they didn't like the colour? These vibrant colours are used purely to lure you, the human in! The (artificial) colour of your pooches kibble has absolutely no relevance to its nutritional value. Along with artificial colours, kibble also contains additives and preservatives all of which are proven to cause harm.
Due to kibble being so highly process (much like the standard Australia/American diet) pet food companies must add synthetic vitamins and minerals to their products. Whilst these fortified vitamins and minerals may theoretically meet the health requirements of the average pooch these chemicals produced in a laboratory act very differently in the body than that of these nutrients found in their raw wholefood states. Synthetic nutrition is not the way to health.
A label many pet food companies hide behind is the term "meat by-products". Pet-grade ingredients can be that which are not legally fit for human consumption. The ingredients behind this elusive label could indeed actually include meat from dying, diseased and disabled animals. What counts as a ‘meat’ source in dog food could literally be anything as their is actually no regulation. Say no more.
Kibble In A Nut Shell
Highly processed
Heat treated
High in carbohydrates
Synthetic fortification
Dehydrating
Questionable meat sources
Nutritionally deficient
Contains artificial colours, preservatives and additives
So many of the diseases or ill-conditions that our domestic pets suffer from today are in fact a result of nutritional deficiency.
Our pets should die simply from getting old, not from disease. Dogs aren't meant to be obese, get cancer or suffer from allergies. Feeding your pooch as natural diet as possible will help promote health and avoid disease.
So the question now is what do you feed your pooch instead of kibble? The simple answer is real vegetables and real meat. Food that is as close to it's natural state as possible.
We often joke that Sunshine eats better than most humans do but the truth is, it's actually no joke. Her bowl is filled to the brim with nourishment. Lots of fresh vegetables (pulverised or grated), raw meat, a little offal, sometimes fruit or a whole raw egg (shell included) and some extra nutritional boosters like ground chia, flax or pumpkin seeds plus a little coconut oil. If we need some training treats we'll simply dehydrate our own (liver or kidney are great for this).
Simply keep it real.
We'll be talking in much more depth about what we feed Sunshine in an upcoming post. It's important to firstly educate yourself as to why kibble is an inferior food choice for your pooch. We look forward to sharing with you more about what we feed our Sunshine soon. Stay tuned!
