Some time back a reader wrote to tell me that:
First of all I don't believe a carnivore - and dogs ARE classed as carnivores -- do not do well on a diet high in cereal and grains. Many humans in fact do not with 1 in 4 in N America being allergic to wheat and dairy. Secondly, with the Melamine poisoning and NUMEROUS recalls, more and more ingredients being sourced in China... I choose to make my dogs food so I know what they are being fed.
This morning, a bit pressed for time, I am posting my response as a stand-alone.
M - As I read your comment I am tossing sugar peas to a Pit Bull that loves them.
I just spent the day in the field with working terriers that spent the first thirty minutes not doing too much work, such was their delight in eating grass because they like the taste so much.
Surely you know that dogs are omnivores?
Surely you have seen this yourself in forest and field?
Dogs will eat anything that tastes good to them, and that includes dog shit, I assure you.
Most canids are, in fact, omnivores as anyone who sets out food for them will attest. My wild yard fox love old bread, baked potatoes and, of course, dog food above all.
You know what they feed the wolves at the zoo? Dog food! Purina even!
And do you know what the single greatest food allergy dogs have is? Beef! It's why so many dogs with allergies are told to switch to lamb and rice. I am not sure what your mumble about wheat allergies in humans is about. One quarter of humans have wheat allergies? Nonsense!
No reason not to make your own dog food if you want to and have actually read a bit and followed a recipe developed by someone with at least a year in nutrition classes, but be advised that in fact you have no idea what you are feeding your dogs. In fact, you have no idea what you are feeding yourself most of the time. Almost all grain in the U.S. is GMO at the moment, your vegetables come from all over the world where they have been sprayed with who-knows-what, and the prescription medications you put in yourself and your dogs are made in China, India, Puerto Rico and God Knows Where.
You may like to make your own food, and it probably does the dog no harm, but you are not likely to have any idea how much fat, protein or carbohydrates are actually in the food, what micro-nutrients might be missing, or even if you have the proper amount of roughage.
The good news is that the gut of the dog is a marvelous thing and it generally sorts it out, with only a little strain on the liver and kidneys if you get it wrong.
Dog food fetishes by pet owners are mostly about themselves and not about the dog.
I am always amused at how many fat people who do not exercise at all are concerned that their dog eat only "natural" food.
These same people drive in cars with Chinese brake pads in them, but have decided everything in China is to be avoided because of the melamine incident.
Did they miss the almost daily toxic food and drugs stories coming out of U.S. factories?
Or how about the people that poison their kids with bad cooking and "homeopathic" medicines? Happens every day!
Now M-, if you REALLY want to feed your dog a natural diet, I recommend catching wild rats and squirrels and tossing them to your dog, guts, bones, fur and all. Throw in a little dead deer ass too.
That's what wild carnivores really eat.
If you want to feed your dog like a wolf, it's whole rats and deer ass all the way.
2 comments:
I would be genuinely curious to know how many people who insist that their dogs eat nothing but "natural" foods do same for themselves. It could be an interesting experiment to watch their shopping patterns in a grocery store to see if they stick to the edges to acquire foods in their more "natural" state or head through the aisles for processed, boxed, pre-cooked or canned foodstuffs!
One of my favorite conversations to have with people is the "by-product" discussion. "MAH GOGGIE NEVER EATS BY-PRODUCTS, THEY IZ BADS!"
Excellent. What do you give your dog for treats or chewing pleasures?
"Oh, we buy him all sorts of natural things like bully sticks, cow hooves, deer antlers, freeze-dried liver, lung and it sounds gross, but did you know you can also get trachea chews at the store too?"
...You KNOW those are all by-products by definition, right?
*crickets*
i agree whole rats are a great diet for dogs AND cats; i've always thought canning them would be a *great* way to get rid of the excess rats while making money...there could be rodent bounty hunters...or like recycling, bring in a rat and get cash..
2 things:
1) grains in the USA by type are most certainly not mostly GMO; yes perhaps by volume, since corn, and canola are giant crops in the USA (soy, the other giant crop is not a grain). but here in the USA, wheat, oats, rice, millet, quinoa, amaranth, teff, einkorn, and etc are non-GMO as of this date.
the problem is though, like GMO grains, most CONVENTIONALLY grown grains in the USA ARE grown with the same high ;levels of herbicides--RoundUp, Dicamba, etc, and pesticides as GMO grains are. so IMO, are just as dangerous. to avoid the most egregious chemicals, it is necessary to buy grains from farms that either use Organic methods, or beyond that, use Regenerative farming methods (the best for every part of the system from microbe to human to planet).
2) canids are somewhat omnivorous, yes, but are more towards the carnivorous side, especially when compared with humans. without going into a lot of detail, one only has to look at the differences between canids and humans in skull shape, teeth, stomach acids and what is fully digestible/indigestible, vitamins and other nutrients that are naturally produced or not produced in the bodies and why, GI tracts -length & shape &function, and etc, to see that we are more omnivorous and canids more carnivorous.
I've used comparisons of open dissections of the cow (a true vegetarian), a human (omnivore), a cat (even more of a carnivore than a dog), and a dog (mostly carnivorous, but with many omnivore aspects), to show vegans who say humans are built to be vegans because of their teeth and GI tract, that that idea is patently false. i also use it to show that in fact we are more like dogs than cows, but that dogs are sort of midway between humans and cats on the vegan to carnivore scale.
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