Why healthy Dog Treats are Good, Organic Dog Food is bad.
In many new ultra premium PRICE dog foods they talk about using “raw freeze dried” ingredients. Usually Free range products including chicken and beef and maybe Organic fruit and vegetables. However just because a pellet is ‘ethically sourced and have a 10 YEAR shelf life means little to the actual nutrition required by dogs. Cardboard also has a 10 year shelf life.
The dog food industry facts
1 97% of people buy commercial dog food. That means 3% prepare their own dog food, regularly, and less than 3% that prepare mainly raw meat dog food diets that are balanced with appropriate offal and bone sources and amounts.
2 Ethically sourced is a ‘nice to have’ thing on the check list of things that human and pet food should be. But of course it completely avoids the major issue of dogs being feed as close to 80- 90% meat, offal, and bones as they should be to be really healthy.
Who chooses ‘how ethically’ any source is, and who monitors the company that rubber stamps those companies that pay them money to call them ethically sourced?
3 ‘Raw freeze dried’ is a great buzzword, however as we have documented several times before in this blog, Freezing for too long or not low enough or too high a cold temperatures can damage the essential amino acids and enzymes in meat – which is the whole reason why you are feeding a dog a raw diet.
The best thing is either to feed your dog human grade raw meat, OR healthy dog treats meat treats that are slow oven cooked – the best way to reduce bacteria count, without destroying the nutrition quality of the meat.
Why Healthy Dog Treats BEAT Ethically Sourced commercial Dog Food.
Rather than go on about why the latest dog food offering is just attempting to steal the premium part of the dog pellet market from the majors. Its probably better to understand you may as well keep feeding your dog your regular premium kibble but supplement with 100% dried meat dog treats (like ours).
We see that some of the owners of these new businesses might have a genuine care for their dogs, even if they don’t walk them regularly, and even if they are really just a marketing business sub-contracting out all of the creation and logistics of their product. That was the Blackhawk model that so successfully made their management team rich (before selling to a bigger corporate) and what every new guy is now trying to emulate. Marketing campaigns, PR campaigns, sub-contract out, sell the business for big profit. But don’t believe the hype. Be geminately informed about what is missing – ie enough quality meat.
What they constantly fail to inform you is the PERCENTAGE of quality meat in their products and what their exact method of freeze drying involves (and what science papers back up their methods).
It is HIGHLY LIKELY that the new products have around 30% meat in them. The current ultra premium have up to 40% and one or two from NZ have 50% but they are very expensive per kg . Right now, about 90% of commercial dog food has 30% meat or less, usually of low grade (non-human quality). You will also notice that all a company providing “ethically sourced” meat is doing is assuaging the owner guilt – NOT actually helping the dogs. After all, the meat isn’t even organic meat.
NOTE – We don’t provide an organic dog meat treat range either, because we know that most people struggle to buy meat dog treats for their dog, let alone adding the organic surcharge to that. But instead we provide the PRIMARY thing a dog needs – 100% meat (not 30%) !
You would not feed your rabbit (herbivore) a meat diet – don’t feed your dog (carnivore) a herbivore diet.
Grain and veggies can be learned to be eaten by dogs (because of their tasty sugar and oil) but meat is all they need. The affco table was created by the majors for profit, not health.
The fact that the carrots and potatoes are organic in some new dog food mixes is irrelevant, since all they are doing is taking the place of meat and meat proteins your carnivore domestic dog should be eating. Veggies = great for human omnivores, just a waste of space for carnivore dogs. They might make their stools firm, but they are also overloading the dog with carbs and assisting in the creating of a myriad of diseases, usually in older age – by which time its too late, the damage is done.
Some brands say the “nutritional content of this dog food is off the charts”. That is maybe correct, if it was meant for a human. All new dog food has to do is not kill too many dogs during aafco testing food trials, and meet the MINIMUM numbers in charts – NOT the source, which means low bio available protein sources like grain (with 30% meat) just meet the minimum affco numbers on the chart The dog, never gets to use that protein for body maintenance and growth functions, just for calories. Because only MEAT is bio-available to carnivore dogs, not cheap grain or vegetable sources.
That is why we stress the importance of feeding more meat, offal, and bones to your dog for their primal needs, their nutritional needs and truly meeting their body physiological needs.
If you are not a raw feeder, and dont want to overcook meat for your dog, then properly dried meat based dog treats provide chewing exercise, teeth cleaning and above all 100% of their nutritional needs. When added to a commercial dog food diet (with low meat levels) 100% meat dog treats (from a good source) are the natural supplement to provide the balance the dog needs.