I am often asked about what makes a good diet for a dog. This is a highly contentious topic; if you want to start a fight on the internet then post on social media about what you feed your dog. So here we go…
It feels these days that we are constantly being told how important our diet is, the biggest and best impact we can have on our health is to eat better, we’ll feel better now and we’ll live longer. Why would this be any different for dogs? I am not a nutritionist, but I can tell you how I feed my dogs based on all the research that I have done, and why I think it works.
Let’s start with what dogs need
Dogs are omnivores. Yes, they’re not carnivores, they need to eat vegetable matter to be healthy. Wild canines, wolves, wild dogs, or feral dogs will catch an animal and eat the whole thing including the stomach contents which will be partially digested vegetable matter. This is the primary way that a dog will consume vegetables. The second way you have probably seen yourself. Have you ever been walking and there’s a fresh pile of horse manure on the path and your dog does the unthinkable and starts eating it? Herbivore dung is a natural part of a canine’s diet. So, what does this mean? We need to include vegetables in our dogs’ diets, the leafy green variety, not the starch-heavy tuber kind.
Meat is obvious. We know that dogs have evolved to eat other animals so the bulk of their diet should be animal-sourced protein.
Dogs are famous for eating bones, and again, if we look to wild canines then there is definitely an amount of bones which they eat. We need to be careful here because many domestic dog breeds are no longer capable of safely digesting bones so we need to be careful which bones and how much.
We can now break these three elements down to work out how to do this best.
Vegetables
We’re really looking at leafy greens here. We don’t want to feed sugars and starches to our dogs. Domestic dogs have evolved since their wolf origins and they are capable of creating the enzyme amylase which is used to digest starch. Most dogs most of the time don’t need starch. The exceptions are when dogs need more energy, like growing puppies, pregnant or lactating females. For a healthy adult dog you can avoid rice, potatoes and pasta as well as starchier root vegetables like beets. The exception would be carrots, they contain a lot of good nutrients. Similarly, although fruit contains sugars, it also contains a lot nutrients which are highly beneficial so deserve a place in their diet. Avoid grapes, these are toxic to dogs.
Some recent research has shown that legumes and pulses are not good for dogs. That would be peas, chickpeas and beans. They contain a protein which dogs struggle to digest.
I generally feed my dogs leafy greens, spinach, chard, cabbage, that kind of thing, occasionally a carrot or a fruit like an apple. Whatever it is I dice it up quite small and cook it lightly so it more easily digested and mixes easily with the meat portion of the meal.
Meat
The problem with meat is the cost. However, dogs aren’t too picky (generally, there are always exceptions). Organ meat is relatively cheap and highly nutritious. For example, heart is a very dense high quality protein source, oesophagus contains cartilage which has the components the dog will need to create its own healthy joints. Even lungs are a source of protein. Liver is such a good source of vitamin A that we shouldn’t feed too much of it to our dogs, but a small amount is great. When you buy these organs from a butcher they come with various muscles attached, these are another good source of protein.
For my dogs I take all these organs and cut them up to the size of a match box. This then gets frozen to kill any parasites that might be present.
I normally don’t put any liver in with my dogs’ food, I cook this separately and use it as high-level rewards for training. This also helps to control how much my dogs are eating.
Bones
Dogs are famous for eating bones. They are the densest form of calcium you can give to your dog so they have what they need to build their own healthy skeleton. But be careful..
Not all bones are good news. The enormous beef knuckles often sold as marrow bones are very hard on teeth. Teeth can be worn down or even broken by these so I avoid them. Many bones have a tendency to splinter. These may not be sharp enough to pierce the dogs digestive tract but they could potentially cause discomfort or get stuck. My dogs seem to do well on lamb breast bones and ribs so that’s all that I given them and they are always given raw. When you start feeding bones make sure it is under supervision to check that your dog copes with it ok. I have heard of dogs unused to eating bones trying to swallow them whole and getting them stuck on the way down.
Supplements
Just like with human nutrition, there is a world of supplements out there that we can give our dogs. I generally prefer to stick with the natural end of supplementation if possible. My dogs are large breeds and one has joint issues so I give them both a glucosamine / chondroitin supplement along with some oily fish. They have some cooked sardine or mackerel every day to get a little fish oil into them to help with their mobility and the glucosamine supplement should help with their joint surfaces.
Raw or cooked
To me this is a question of bio-availability. From the research I have done it seems that a raw diet is a good option. But when it comes to getting the highest possible nutrient value out of the food it seems that cooking it a little might just have the edge. It begins the process of breaking down the food so a dog (or any organism for that matter) can digest it more easily and absorb more of the nutrients from it. I think we’ve all seen the effects of giving certain foods to our dogs only for it to emerge at the other end still intact. Very little if any of that food had been absorbed and used. That’s why I prefer to cut up my dogs’ food and to lightly cook it. Some studies show that we shouldn’t over cook their food, not so much that it browns on the outside. This might be delicious to us but it appears this “maillard reaction” which caramelises the proteins and sugars found in most foods is actually harmful to dogs’ long term health, so try to avoid this. Cooking can also be beneficial in neutralising any harmful bacteria, viruses or parasites that are in the food.
Other notes
Good food can be expensive but I have heard an argument suggesting that paying more for food offsets vets bills in the long run, and I can certainly attest to how much pet health care can cost. If you feed a higher quality nutrition we can maintain better health into older age and the upfront cost of the food is less in comparison.
Changing diets in dogs should be done gradually. Switching from one food type to another too quickly can cause diarrhoea. If you want to change your dog’s diet then introduce a little of the new food, slowly increasing the amount over the course of a week while decreasing the amount of their old food.
In Summary
I like to keep food as naturel as possible. We’re told that processed food is bad for us and I extend this to my dogs. Whatever you choose to feed your dogs it has to fit in with your lifestyle. I acknowledge that the way I feed is not the cheapest and it takes time to prepare, so it isn’t for everyone. But diet is a scale. Any small improvement in what we feed ourselves and our dogs pushes us all up that scale. Any positive change is worthwhile, even a small one.
Until next time, enjoy your dog.
Nick
