I have made a lot of changes in our home to make it cleaner and healthier...especially when it comes to food.
But what about the dog's food? Considering how unregulated our food is....you can only imagine how unregulated animal food is!
My doggos look forward to 2 things...napping and eating, so I might at well make the eating as enjoyable and as healthy as possible, lol!
I share all about this on my Instagram page (not as updated with info as this blog post is though), if you'd rather listen instead of read, click here!
I've known that dog food wasn't the greatest since we got our first dog over 5 years ago. I simply went online and googled some information about different dog food brands to find the best ones, but I was confused with what I found. Literally all the brands had tons of recalls. Like even brands that I knew were expensive and better quality. I decided to go to a local store and bought one that I thought was as good as I could get, but I didn't really know how good or bad it was...I just knew I couldn't find any recalls on it.
Fast forward and my once puppy dog is about 6 (I'm crying) and I find a new holistic vet for him. SHE WAS AMAZING AND I LEARNED SO MUCH. I spent over an hour at that appointment, and most of it was literally her just educating me. It wasn't a 15 minute appointment with them just telling me what my dog needs with no education behind it. I could go on and on, but I'll try to stick to dog food for now :)
Here's a little summary of what I learned...
Most dog food is made by the process of extrusion. What is this process? Here's what my vet said, "It's one of the least inexpensive ways of turning inedible foodstuffs into pet food. They use high heat and pressure to incinerate bones, gristle, claws, diseased flesh, etc. and mold it into shapes. There is very little nutrition after this process, as the nutritional value is literally cooked right out...hence the need for more synthetic additives."Often times if food isn't 'human-grade' which means unfit for human consumption, then they put it in dog food - GROSS.
Here's Purina, sharing how they use extrusion.
Like I mentioned earlier...there's not much regulation on human food, so its going to be even worse for pet food. A couple vets I have learned from compare most dog food to cereal. Can you imagine trying to get all your nutrients from cereal for every meal of every day? Yikes! Their poor bodies.
So how to stay away from extrusion? Look for baked kibble instead. As I've been learning more and more (I'm currently editing this post about 6 months later), I have learned that there are levels of dog food. A good goal is to try and improve by going to the next level or try incorporating part of a better level. A lot of us can't spend a bunch more money nor do we want to get overwhelmed with a lot of changes, but don't just assume it's going to be more money...take the time to learn about your options, and take advantage of any deals you can get. I often start and cancel subscriptions to get an extra 10% off - oops lol. And don't stress about making big changes RIGHT NOW, I used up my old dog food, and even bought it one more time because I still wanted to look into better brands and costs a little longer. We're not in a rush :)
Here's the levels of dog food - I was feeding ultra-processed and my goal has been switching to processed for now - small improvements so that I don't get overwhelmed.
Ultra-processed dog food (most dog kibble made through extrusion)
Processed dog food (baked kibble - still processed, but less heat adulteration steps)
Raw food (fresh, raw foods)
Another benefit of limiting ultra-processed? It will help keep your dog at a healthier weight! My big dog was overweight and the vet explained how dogs will often overeat because they aren't getting the nutritional value in their diets, so they try to eat more to make up for it. *Side-note - unlike humans, dogs don't even need carbs in their diet, yet ultra-processed dog foods often contain 60% carbs...I'm sorry what...
Once you smell dog food that is baked compared to typical dog food that follows the extrusion process, you'll say, "this smells like actual food and this smells like gross crap that I should never feed my dog." It's true :)
My vet recommended a couple brands, and I went with Honest Kitchen. She has tested so many brands with her dogs and this was actually her favorite too. I will probably try other brands too - I recently listened to a podcast (linked below) and she shared more good options that I want to check out.
Currently, I feed my dogs 1/2 dehydrated (moist) food and 1/2 of the dry cluster kibbles. I want to eventually have part kibbles and part whole foods (raw foods) but I'm here for small changes over time. If I start doing more raw/whole foods, I'll do a whole other blog post on that. You can get 20% off your first Honest Kitchen order here!
My dog has lost weight, and he literally drools SO much while I'm getting his food ready. He used to get excited with his old food, but this is a whole new level now!
Happy dogs, happy life!
Here's a couple resources if you want to learn more:
+ Search around for a holist vet in your area - they will be more knowledgeable around preventative health/root causes/nutrition/etc. instead of focusing on treating a symptom
+ The Forever Dog (This book was pretty research heavy and took me a while to get through, but it was packed full of so much good info. After getting halfway through it, I took a break and read a fun book as a reward lol) Book Here - or get it from the library for free :)
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