Why I Avoid Commercial Dog Foods for My Breeding Dogs

I did promise I would talk about how to feed a natural diet to your breeding dogs this week. But then I realized what I need to talk about first is why not just use commercial kibbles?  So I do want to go over a few things now that I hate about commercial kibbles to get you interested in feeding a natural diet :).

The way I look at commercial kibbles, it’s a bit like how you might look at having takeaway pizza or going to Burger King: you wouldn’t want to live on it, but it’s okay on Saturday nights.

So in small doses, I don’t see anything wrong with commercial foods, but I do see a lot wrong with basing our dogs’ diets on it, whether that be our breeding dogs or whether that be the puppies that we send off into their forever homes.

I am going now to go through a few things that I don’t like about commercial food, and then you can make up your own mind. And next week, those that are interested can learn how I recommend that you can feed a healthy, natural diet to your breeding dogs that meets all their needs. So let’s get into it.

Commercial Dog Food is Highly Processed

Well, the first thing I really don’t like about commercial foods is that they’re very highly processed.  For example, they are heated under extreme heat to destroy any bacteria and fungi and other toxins that are lurking in them.  This heavy processing destroys the natural enzymes in the food.  The proteins are also denatured and transformed into lesser digestible forms.  So the stuff that ends up is not as digestible as it would have been if it was in its natural original form.

Half of it is Carbs!

Another thing I really don’t like about a lot of commercial foods is that even the most expensive ones available on the market are usually around about 50% carbs. You’re paying a lot of money for very cheap filler foods.

They either have carbs in the form of wheat and corn, or they have carbs in the form of legumes.  The grain-free ones will instead of wheat and corn, use things like peas, beans, lupins or other legumes.

I did talk about the danger of legumes, particularly their content of phytoestrogens, in the last blog post.  There are also anti-nutrients in legumes, which can damage your dog’s reproductive performance and general health.

Grains have got glutens in them, of course. And a dog isn’t supposed to be reared on a 50% carbohydrate diet. That’s not a natural diet for a carnivore, is it?

The Fats Are Often Rancid

Another thing that I really don’t like about commercial foods is the fats in them.

For a start they are often old and rancid.  Kibbles often sit around for weeks before being eaten.  There’s transport time from the factory that manufactures them.  Then they can sit around at the distributors.  Once they’re transported to the shop, they can sit there for a while before they make it to your place. And if you buy a big bag, it might take you some time to get through the bag.

If there happens to be hot weather at any time during that period, or if it’s a prolonged period of time, the fats that are in the food will eventually go rancid.

Now rancid fats can cause chronic inflammation in the body, whether you get a cheap biscuit or kibble where the fat’s baked into it. And with the more expensive ones, they spray the fat on after they cook the kibble to make it more palatable. But they’re still prone to going rancid.

Artificial Colors in Commercial Dog Food

Another thing I don’t like about commercial foods is that they often put artificial colors in them to make them more appealing to the humans that buy them for their pets. Of course, the pets can’t tell any difference and wouldn’t care.

These artificial colors have been associated with health issues in animals, for example cancer. And of course, behavioral issues and allergies in children have been known to be caused by some of the colors in foods, and there’s no reason to suspect that this wouldn’t be happening in some of our pets as well.

We’re talking here about particular colors that have been identified as culprits, like the blue and the red colors and caramel colors, for example.

Microbial Contamination

Now, a big criticism of raw meaty diets is that they can be contaminated with bacteria, and this is true.  Bacteria such as Pasteurella or Salmonella are not uncommon contaminants of raw food unless you buy fresh human-quality food to begin with, which is not likely to have much contamination on it, is it?

So that’s a good thing.  But what you won’t often hear about is that we often see similar levels of contamination with commercial food.   It’s not uncommon for salmonella, for example, to be a contaminant of commercial pet food.

Bad Plastics in Commercial Dog Food

Last week, I talked a bit about bad plastics such as BPA, DEHP and PCB making their way into commercial pet food.  For a start, the wrappings on discarded meat products that have gone past the use-by date often end up being diverted into the pet food industry food chain.   And then, of course, plastic lined tins or bags can also contain these “bad” plastics.

How these plastics can disrupt the reproductive performance of our dogs was discussed in the last email post, so look out for that one. But needless to say here, plastics are a common contaminant of commercial pet foods and something to be avoided.

Euthanasia Drug Residues in Commercial Dog Food

Euthanized animals, chiefly livestock, can make their way into the pet food chain.  Look out for it on the label for commercial pet food – the words, meat meal, bone meal, or animal fats – these could come from anywhere including roadkill, and euthanized animals.  These meat and fat sources really are the bottom of the barrel as far as quality of ingredients.

Those meat meals and bone meals also can contain barbitals like pentobarbital, which is a euthanasia drug.  And this can harm the liver of our pets, particularly adults.

Ideally, you want to be buying food that is made from all human-quality sources with named actual ingredient sources rather than being derived from general ingredients like “meals”.

Antibiotic Residues in Commercial Dog Food

Animals who’ve been treated with antibiotics often make their way into the pet meat food chain as well. And those antibiotics can end up being in our animal food and affect our animals.   These residues put a strain on the liver and kidneys, and are also linked with cancer, allergies and autoimmune conditions as well as reproductive disorders.

Nasty Preservatives Too 🙁

Preservatives are used in fairly high doses in commercial pet food, especially kibbles because they’re not refrigerated.   Sulfites for example are commonly used to suppress bacterial and fungal growth. Sulfites are a neurotoxin and they’re also in wines. And that’s why sometimes you can get a really bad hangover from having champagne or wine!

And then you’ve got the BHA or the BHT, butylated hydroxyanisole, or butylated toluene. These are used to preserve fats.  They’ve been proven to be carcinogenic, which means they cause cancer.

They also have been shown to harm the reproductive organs and be harmful to embryos. So that’s a really big, no, no, especially for dog breeders, right?

So what do you feed instead?

So there are all the reasons why I really am not a great fan of commercial dog food. So what do you do? I know I’ve got four children and no doctor ever said to me, “You must give your child kibble or commercial food because we just don’t trust you to give your child a balanced diet.”

What they say instead is “Feed whole foods and give a good variety of them.” So that’s what I suggest you do with your breeding dogs. And next week, we’re going to talk about how you can do that.