Why Feeding Your Dog Fresh Food Is Less Expensive Than A Kibble Diet.
How to give your dog a proper dinner without breaking the bank.
Feeding cheaply costs more.
The cost-of-living crisis has impacted everyone, resulting in cutbacks for many. But some cutbacks are a false economy.
Dog food is one of those cutbacks that can cost us more in the long term. Poor health and behaviour can often result from a poor diet. This leads to vet bills and training bills and more.
I'd rather allocate my funds to providing my dog with good food instead of paying for costly clean-up operations after things have already gone awry. I am betting you would, too.
Why commercial kibble is not all that.
Looking at the packaging, you might mistakenly believe that kibble is a great way to feed your dog. Photos of cheerful dogs, healthy dinners, and wonderful descriptions that make your mouth water give a positive energy.
The food is convenient, and easy to prepare.
This makes you think you are giving your dog something wonderful for dinner. But are you really?
Take a look at this ingredients list from Purina.
Please remember, by volume, the first ingredient is the biggest, then the next biggest, and so on until the last ingredient is a tiny smidge in the recipe.
What do you see?
Sure there is some chicken, which is good, but it doesn’t say what part of a chicken. “WTF is chicken by-product meal?” I hear you ask. Do you want to know? It could be ground up anything from beaks to eyeballs. Yummy.
The rest of the list sounds like a curious cross between a chemistry set and a pot noodle.
What about this beauty from Pedigree? Supposedly chicken, rice and vegetable flavour:
The main ingredient here is “ground whole grain corn”. Not chicken, rice, or vegetables.
Followed by “Meat and bone meal.”
Which doesn’t sound so bad … or does it?
My first question is “what meat?” - if your dog has allergies, this could mean a really troublesome time ahead if your dog eats this. By not naming the meat, the ingredient could be chicken one week, pork the next, horse … in extreme cases (not Pedigree, or in the UK, as far as I know) pet food companies have even fed euthanised dogs and cats back to dogs under the guise of “meat meal.”
https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-industry-exposed/euthanized-pets-dog-food/
Always be suspicious of meat meal. Or anything that says “derivative,” “mechanically separated meat,” or “meat by-products” which can also be anything at all.
Sawdust is a plant derivative.
Anus and eyelids are on the menu too.
It is likely that things described in the above manner have not been thoroughly checked for things like cancers or ulcers, either. It all goes in the grinder together.
Mmm … hungry?
By the time you get to anything that definitely came from a chicken you are seven ingredients in.
Nope.
Kibble production fail
Kibble has a shelf life of around 12-18 months. You may think this is great news … but is it?
To begin with that shelf life reduces more rapidly once the bag opens and food becomes stale within four to six weeks. Not good if you just bought a 3 month supply of crappos for Mr. Floofypants.
To get the 12-18 months shelf life, kibble needs to be cooked to literal death, to ensure that there are no living organisms in it that might cause it to go off. All those nutrients, pre, and probiotics and more, must die.
The kibble mixture is therefore blended into a paste and extruded through machines, cooking the goodness out of it, and turning it into a dough. Then, more machines press the dough to make little shapes. Then, the last bits of moisture are extracted from the little shapes, to make sad little lumps of rock hard, tasteless yuck.
No dog will want to eat this, or be able to survive on eating it for very long, so manufacturers spray (often chemical based) flavourings, artificial colourings, and a vitamin supplement back over the pellets.
Dogs can’t even see the colourings, they are just their for your benefit, to make you think it looks nice.
Preservatives are then sprayed over the pellets, and the finished product is bagged up.
This might then sit in a warehouse or two, exposed to all kinds of hot, cold or damp environments, and catching storage mite infestations, for a year before making it onto your dog’s plate.
Yummy.
Potential risks of commercial kibble.
Liver damage
Aflatoxins are toxic compounds produced by certain moulds that can contaminate ingredients like corn and other grains commonly used in kibble. Chronic exposure to aflatoxins can lead to liver damage and has been linked to an increased risk of liver cancer in dogs.Digestive Issues -
Some dogs may have difficulty digesting kibble, especially if they have sensitivities or allergies to certain ingredients commonly found in kibble, such as grains, certain proteins, or artificial additives.
Controlling the ingredients your dog consumes allows you to control allergies and intolerances around food, too. No more vomit, and bloody diarrhoea.A lack of antioxidants, pro and prebiotics -
All required for good bodily and gut microbiome health
Design your dog’s diet.
Luckily, it is pretty easy to feed your dog a fresh food diet. Pet food companies will let you think it is hard and that their way is the best. However, once you begin feeding your dog fresh food, you will be amazed at how simple it is and wonder why you ever considered kibble.
I wrote a mini ebook about feeding an 80/10/10 raw diet. You can get it from my Gumroad shop by clicking the image above. If you need further advice on it, do give me a shout!
If raw is not your thing you can lightly cook the food instead, but be sure not to give cooked bones. You can mix calcium supplements or ground eggshell* into their food instead.
How you can feed your dog well, without it costing the earth.
So, now we have covered why kibble is not the best thing for your dog. Let’s work out how to make fresh feeding benefit your pocket, as well as your floofer.
Fun Not Fear® Club members can get my top tips below to save you pennies while creating food for your dog.
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