There’s plenty of reasons to not feed kibble. Honestly, kibble isn’t the ideal diet for your dog. Yes, I’m guilty of giving my dogs kibble but I’m transitioning them to be on a raw diet.
Reasons to not feed kibble to your dog
1. Not a Natural Diet
Kibble doesn’t even come close to resemble what a dog would eat in the wild. Think back to where dogs come from and you’ll see that even their wolf ancestors never ate kibble or even cooked foods. Dogs can eat and survive on small to medium sized prey. As long as the prey isn’t a carnivore, dogs can eat it. Occasionally your dog can eat plants, fruits, or vegetables as they may naturally attempt this in the wild.
2. Poor Quality Ingredients and Fillers
Kibble is mainly filled with grains, cereals, and potatoes. With these being acceptable in the majority of dog foods, they are simply fillers with minimal meats. Dogs need meat and a variety of meat, not fillers or fruits and vegetables. The proteins that are commonly found in dog kibble are meat by-products which just aren’t good. Meat by-products are cheap alternatives to having proteins in kibble but lead to poor quality food for your dog.
3. Dry Food is bad for Canine Dental Health
Most vets will typically advise you to feed your dog a dry food (kibble) diet. They say this is healthy but it can lead to tooth decay. Kibble is definitely the most easily found and accessible type of dog food though. Feeding your dog kibble to clean their teeth is like you munching on biscuits to keep your teeth clean. You wouldn’t do that so why do it to your dog? After eatingany type of a biscuit my teeth feel anything but clean, so your dog would feel the same.
4. Contamination Risk
If you haven’t heard, kibble is constantly having recalls all due to some sort of contamination within the food. Sometimes it is mandatory but often times it is only voluntary. Why would anyone want to go through that?! One common scare tactic used by anti-raw feeders is the risk of bacterial and parasitic contamination and infection. Yet it’s extremely, I mean EXTREMELY RARE for a dog to develop illness from a raw diet. Their stomachs are different than ours and can handle the raw meats without getting sick. To see the recall list of any dog food, you can visit Dog Food Advisor.
5. Processed Pet Food Contains High Levels of Advanced Glycation End Products (AGE’s)
When fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in kibble are heated and pressurized, a process reaction known as “Mallard Reaction” takes place. AGE’s increase oxidative stress and inflammation in the body leading to chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
This is simply just my honest opinion and feeling towards why you shouldn’t feed kibble to your dog after doing so much research on it. My dogs have never done that well on kibble and since switching them to even higher quality kibble, they weren’t exactly improving. Giving them raw foods that were good for them and made a good diet for them, has helped them tremendously. Raw isn’t for everyone and it’s still a relatively new concept for most. Although many companies are starting to create raw food toppers or raw foods that are freeze dried to make raw feeding easier for dog owners.
