1. It's Health Food Our own Doctors are telling us to consume more whole foods and less processed foods so why are our Vets telling us to feed our dogs less whole foods and more processed foods? Sadly, their University education is sponsored by the likes of Hills Science Diet & Royal Canin, therefore their educational knowledge has been brought by kibble manufacturers. 2. Improved Gut Health When your dog eats real food that has not been heat affected, it is alive with beneficial bacteria and dietary enzymes that leads to a healthy digestive system. Given a healthy gut is linked to mental health & disease, this is certainly an area of health we want our dogs to have access to. 3. Healthier Poos Kibble being mostly plant matter in many cases is full of bulking agents that are simply pooped out, this makes for big stinky poos. A healthy diet is reflected in the dogs stools with smaller stools that don't make you gag or require 2 hands to pick up.
4. Improved Mental Health
When we put real food into dogs instead of highly processed foods laden with synthetic nutrients, colourings, preservatives and a list of artificial ingredients we can improve mental health through the gut brain axis which is where a healthy gut positively influences mental health.
5. You're In Control When you feed a whole foods diet, you know exactly what is going into your body, you no longer have to wonder if the meat came from an already dead, diseased, disabled etc. animal which are commonly used to pet foods. You can control the ingredients and choose which ones could be beneficial for your dogs individual circumstance.
6. Healthy Coat & Eyes
When you stop feeding highly processed foods that can be effected with rancid fats and start feeding whole foods with fresh forms of omega fattty acids you will very quickly see an improvement in their coat and eyes.
7. Improved Muscle & Ligament Health Animals who have access to quality proteins and whole food nutrients such as Manganese, Zinc & Vitamin C vs synthetic forms will have an opportunity to have stronger muscles and ligaments that can better support their skeleton, this is not only ideal for the average companion dog enjoying life but also performance dogs who have a higher risk of injury.
8. Reduce The Risk Of Future Disease
When we remove kibble from our dogs diets, we reduce the inflammation in their body that can come from a diet high in carbohydrates i.e. kibble is often 25-40% Carbohydrates. Inflammation is the precursor to disease including organ & joint disease aka arthritis.
9. Avoid Issues With Synthetic Vitamins & Minerals Feeding a fresh food diet is based on the premise of feeding a variety of foods on rotation to avoid underdoing or overdoing any one nutrient. When you feed kibble, you are feeding the exactly same thing day in and day out, apart from how incredibly boring that is, it comes with its own risks such as if there is an issue with the synthetic vitamin and mineral mix that results in a deficiency or excess of certain nutrients. We saw the results of this when Hill Science Diet had an issue with excess Vitamin D that killed many dogs and made many others very sick. Feeding a fresh food diet aims to balance over time through variety on rotation, the same way you would consume a healthy diet.
10. See Your Vet Less
Although we love our Vets and what they do for our animals, we'd prefer not to see them too often! When we feed a health food diet to our dogs, it is reasonable to expect that over time we will see less medical challenges that can be the result of feeding a high inflammatory diet like kibble.