Dog kibble – how it is made, and how to easily supplement it with natural nutrients.

Dog kibble is about the good the bad and the unhealthy.

However, there is a VERY simple, ECONOMICAL, way of adding MEAT to your mix, to make it MUCH HEALTHIER, without sacrificing Convenience.

IN its purest form, most dog food sites will tell you that it contains meat, grains and vegetables with many yummy micronutrients in a nutritious mix. For 99% of the products out there, this is complete garbage. This is why:

THE GOOD is that kibble is relatively cheap, Convenient in feeding form, easy to measure in cups, and to store. It seemingly sustains dog life.

THE BAD, is that through the misleading practice of ingredient splitting, the contents usually include not fit for human consumption meat or meat by product at around 30-40%, then cheap highly processed grains or vegetables. Questionable offal might be thrown in, and a myriad of trailing harsh vitamins and minerals (usually not of natural sourcing) and an even smaller amount of micro nutrients added to so their picture can be included big on the front of thet pack.

THE UNHEALTHY?  Kibble in general.  Built for a price (profit margin). Kibble usually includes as much cheap grain and vegetables as the maker can get away with, while meeting the bare numerical minimum protein requirements to be called whole and balanced ‘dog food’ by affco.

Poor bio availably of NON meat products, means that just meeting the bare minimum often means that a dog doesn’t get sufficient protein (essential amino acids). Let alone healthy meat enzymes to assist dog digestion.

And while the laughable images that they repeatedly use such as faux scientists in lab coats cutting up prime steak are the furthest from the truth, the worst issue is that even for the meat that is included, once it is mixed into a mainly grain or vegetable slurry,  it is then cooked at extreme heat (to make the process quick and ‘efficient’) which denatures any of the enzymes or protein that is included.

Its not always an issue about colour additives, it’s the myriad of preservatives and other tricks they use to mimic meat and achieve the bare minimum standard (on paper) that really do the harm.

Once this mix is super-heated, it is then extruded through pipes, coated with oil to make it semi palatable, then passed through a cutting blade, to fly through the air and dry quickly so they can pack it all together in one large back of grain.

Grain free usually means vegetables are substituted which are often as low-quality bio availability as grains. Its just a trend to sell food, nothing to do with dog health.

MEAT DOG FOOD SUPPLEMENTS = HEALTHY MEAT BASED DOG TREATS

We have discussed at length raw feeding (raw meat, offal and bone) mixes.  But getting the combinations right, and the effort expended is usually beyond the desire of most dog owners. After all, you just want to enjoy time with your dog, not slaving over another meal right?

That is why we suggest either our super tasty meat balls or crinkle treats for your dog.

Authorities suggest that you can safely replace up to at least 25% of kibble with dried meat.

And while you can definitely use and of our jerkies, many owners find it easier to measure out cups of kibble and cups of meat balls.

So for instance, if your dog normally eats 200g of Kibble during the day, you could replace 50g of its kibble with our dried meat balls.  The reason why this is often more convenient and easier than measuring wet met, or dried jerky is that the meat balls are already dried and similar in size to many types of kibble out there.  So if you fed your dog FOUR cups of kibble, you would just replace one of the cups with meat balls.

The reason you would replace one of the cups is that our meat balls are up to 80% meat, versus 30-40% meat found in most kibble.  This simple replacement is not only convenient and cost effective, but you would be significantly boosting your dog’s meat protein intake, which is much more bio available than any vegetable proteins.

You can of course add other healthy meat based treats, for chewing or arthritis or any other functional thing you need, but many people want a quick and easy way to add to their dogs nutrition and this is one of the easiest.