Dog food – the reason for removing meat from ALL our domestic animals.
What we should be feeding our animals
REAL NATURAL FOOD SOURCES per SPECIES
Herbivore
Omnivore
Carnivore
RABBIT
Guinee Pig
Cows
Sheep
Squirrel
HUMANS
Some Apes
Pigs
Bears
Opposum
Wolves (obligate)
Cats (obligate)
Dogs (facultative)
Mountain Lions
Hawks
These are the evolutionary niches that these animals NATURALLY FIT IN.
That they evolved to exist in, that their hunting and eating habits are evolved around.
That their digestion systems evolved to be in.
If they have their primary food source compromised, they will eventually get sick no matter HOW much masking and Frankenstein-ing is done to mimic the actual food they are supposed to eat.
WHAT WE ARE ACTUALLY FEEDING SPECIES
Herbivore
Omnivore
Carnivore
RABBIT
Guinee Pig
Cows
Sheep
Squirrel
HUMANS
Pigs
Cats (obligate carnivore)
Dogs (facultative carnivore)
HUMANS
Some Apes
Pigs
Bears
Opposum
Cats (obligate carnivore)
Dogs (facultative carnivore)
Wolves (obligate)
Mountain Lions
Hawks
This table shows how WRONG our economically ruled world has gotten it.
THE RED font in the table above shows species that have been moved BY HUMANS from their true food source category to a lesser MEAT category.
Humans have choice, ANIMALS dont. The difference between faculative carnivore & obligate carnivore is that domestic dogs have some amalyse in their mouths, and cats tend to die quicker on Herbivore diets. BOTH domestic dogs and cats are CARNIVORE by classification, its just that dogs tollerate grain slighly better. BUT DONTTHRIVE on it.
Dogs have poor digestibility of vegetable matter. Vegetable matter is said to have LOW bio-availabilty for domestic dogs
All of the domesticated animals (including humans) have moved one or TWO categories AWAY from meat.
A simple thought experiment, if you trust human diet judgement so much, what happened to the popularity of the Aitken diet, the clay diet, the military diet (1,000 calories per day), Ketogenic diet (75 percent fats, 20 percent protein, and only 5 percent carbohydrates. ) etc. These diets make the authors rich, and sell a lot of books, but invariably are found by science groups (like CSIRO) to be extremely dangerous mid and long term for humans. So why would we trust humans to create the best dog diets which essentially are just the removal of MEAT, the PRIMARY ingredient in a wild dog’s diet??? That is the definition of insanity.
The reason for this half century trend is that is for the benefit of a world dominated by massively powerful corporations, selling us the cheapest food that they can to maximise their profits.
They are dressing it up as the best health option for the animal and for the planet. But if it’s simple the WRONG food TYPE for your dog.
What you should immediately realise from the above charts is that even though it includes a very select number of animals (feel free to populate the charts with your own favourite animals). The MAIN common denominator is that we are rapidly changing the NATURAL and HEALTHY food source of HUMANS and those ANIMALS immediately controlled and owned by the humans. To just have less or NO MEAT.
Yes, there are plenty of healthy Vegetarian and Vegan humans out there. But humans have been omnivores for hundreds of thousands of years, and have even evolved our teeth and other main components to grinding end extracting vegetable matter over that time. NOT SO OUR DOGS.
You might also realise that the corporate food machine is gearing up to maximise profits on these people in western civilisations as articles makes it all “on trend”. But the reality is that their isn’t as much of an adjustment to change an OMNIVORE like a human (that originally evolved from being a CARNIVORE) to a HERBIVORE (vegetarian or vegan).
And if things are lacking in their diet, they can take expensive supplements, they are in control of how they feel and what they do about it. ONLY HUMANS have their own choice over their own health and diet.
WHY ARE OUR CATS & DOGS BEING DOWNGRADED TO OMNIVORE & HERBIVORE ANIMALS?
BECAUSE WE CAN.
Supermarket dog food pellets mainly made of grain or other carb (SUGAR) based food is VERY CHEAP.
It is very convenient in big sacks.
Dogs tend to poo in easy to clean up clumps.
THAT IS WHY WE HAVE BEEN SOLD OUT BY THE CORPORATIONS, AND WHY WE CONTINUE TO BUY THE LIE.
You will notice that no other animals besides those we domesticated and are forcing to not eat meat, are choosing to give up hunting and eating meat. For that is the purpose they evolved.
Yes we have tamed the wolf, we have evolved it into many different shapes and colours, originally we made them just our working dog slaves, and occasional pets. But this sad last misstep of the 20th century to mould our most loved animals into our preferred likeness with food that is EASY FOR US TO PURCHASE and store, is just about US, not them.
Many owners who haven’t read our NUTRTION tab or BLOG tab articles, based in science, might ask, what does it matter? Dogs are living to greater years than ever. But that is not entirely true.
And in fact, dogs are getting as much if not worse arthritis and organ failure issues, and pancreatitis and diabetes in record numbers. And much of that is highly likely attributed to a carb diet, instead of their natural meat diet that is animal protein based.
A side note on what Omnivore (commercial dog food) and herbivore (highly unnatural vegan and vegetarian diets) are doing to our beloved domestic dogs.
Besides weakening their jaws (so we have to give them artificial compressed green vegetable sticks to chew on (instead of bones or jerkies) .. it is also massively messing with the bacteria population in their guts.
There is a mass of human research into the gut biome o humans of late, because they are realising how important it is to our full body health.
The problem for dogs, is that there is no spokesperson, except for small groups like ours. The only research performed on dogs, is to figure out how to make them eat more vegetables at a higher profit. Or how to trick them to eating past feeling full, so they eat more inappropriate vegetable-based foods.
YES, on the surface the extra amino acids, vitamins and minerals added to commercial vegetable-based dog food is going someway to making up for the meat deficient, but only partially.
One of my recent favourite insights into this was an article I read about how commercial dog foods have really messed with dogs stomach acid pH levels. This logarithmic pH scale means that a wild dog that mostly eats meat has a pH of around 2. REF 1 It is extremely acid, to quickly rip nutrition out of meat and then expel the waste. If the meat is ‘off’, such as it often will be when they bury it for later, the very high acid levels kill most of the BAD bacteria that would normally harm the dog, and kill humans.
The effect of feeding dogs a high vegetable diet, is that the pH can rises to around 3 – which can be up to 10 times more dilute than the dogs stomach acid should be. It is turning their stomach acid into more like the environment more like a cow’s stomach. But cows have multiple stomachs, chew and crush the grains much greater before swallowing and the mush stays in the stomach for days longer, meaning it has time to be digested by the weaker acid.
THIS means that a dog fed mainly a vegetable or grain diet, is believed to hvae a weaker acid level, and som can be more susceptible to harm from things it eats off the ground or digs up, or finds in your back yard or the dog park. Even in the water that other dogs have left viruses and bacteria in etc. Noting that pH level research in dog feeding is VERY limited and mainly based around testing for the acceptance of medicines, and not the mechanics of digestion.
WHY WE FEED DOGS VEGETABLES
Yes, its nice to prepare a home cooked meal for our loved ones. But since many people preparing home cooked dog food don’t understand the basic requirements that commercial dog food are trying to mimic, they often massively fail in the endeavour.
Dogs are mainly fed vegetables, because it is cheaper for the food manufactureres and their ads tell us wrongly that it is BEST for our carnivore dogs.
This is why they never try and convince us to feed our pet rabbits meat, but are happy to feed our carnivore dogs mainly vegetables! In fact the disturbing trend of turning carnivore dogs vegan will have major negative impact on many dogs lives in the decades to come.
Have you noticed wild carnivore animals are in no hurry to try vegan diets? That is because it is unnatural and they would have significant negative health impacts immediately if they did. Because NO NATURAL healthy Vegan or Vegetable based diet exists in the wild. Only with a LOT of supplements from pharmaceutical companies etc do commercial dog food seem anywhere like a meat based diet. Just because our food manufacturers can add massively over-processed and concentrated vegetable matter to make them look and ‘taste’ acceptable to dogs, does not mean feeding our dogs the wrong food type is a good idea.
The case for dogs not being carnivore
Is extremely weak. And mostly propagated by dog food manufactures through sponsored university ‘studies’. Yes, they have some amalyse in their mouth. Yes, in the wild they will occasionally eat small amounts of berries in times of prey shortage. BUT none of that explains the domestic dog’s teeth type, stomach type, intestine type, and bio-availability (difficulty processing NON ANIMAL foods).
Just because on paper the aafco dog food tables suggest that any food can be made to be the SAME does not make it true. It is unfortunately wishful thinking, for for dogs, a dangerous game that usually shows you the negative impacts in their senior years, when the damage is often too late, and cant be proved.
There are very few genuinely INDEPENDENT studies suggesting a meat-based diet is bad for the vast majority of domestic dogs. These dogs are anomalies.
There is no rational, logical, NON FINANCIAL motive between converting an entire dog species over to a new mainly non meat food source.
But as said many times before, if you are not sure of what a nutritionally balanced meat-based diet looks like, and are struggling to find a meat based commercial dog food diet you can afford, then meat based dog treat supplements are always going to be your easiest, best bet, at giving your dog both satisfaction and health.
