1. Not Species Appropriate
Kibble is not species-appropriate for our pets. Let’s get technical. Dogs are facultative carnivores. Meaning they have a very high amino acid and meat requirement. They can survive on a plant-based diet, but they cannot thrive. They adapt but can be plagued by all sorts of health consequences of malnutrition. This is why I consider dogs to be obligate carnivores. That being said, cats and (dogs) are obligate carnivores. They are not omnivores, meaning they do not have a choice regarding having meat in their diet. They NEED large amounts of meat to thrive and avoid malnutrition and deficient delated disease. Fruits, vegetables, and occasionally grains are found to be predigested in minimal amounts within the digestive tract of the small animals they are supposed to consume.
Dogs and cats do not manufacture significant levels of the digestive enzyme amylase (the enzyme necessary to break down carbohydrates) present within their bodies. Still, they have PLENTY of lipase and protease enzymes. This makes sense as protease and lipase break down fat and protein, essential for their high-protein diet. Amylase breaks down carbohydrates, which is why it ISN’T found in abundance in the body because dogs and cats do not require it, or expanding on that thought, they do not need plant matter. Their teeth are made to cut meat and chew on bones, and they do not have the teeth required to grind grain.
Coupled with the fact that they don’t produce enough digestive enzymes to break down carbohydrates, we know that dogs and cats are not omnivores and have no choice regarding meat consumption. Additionally, dogs share 98.8% of their DNA with wolves. They can even interbreed because these two species are so similar. Cats share 95.6% of their DNA with tigers.
The Alternative
Raw food is very beneficial for overall health and is considered species-appropriate, and here is why:
Raw food is fantastic for digestive health.
Raw food can help naturally expel and prevent intestinal parasites and intestinal infections from occurring. Raw food also starves cancer and inflammatory cells. Fruits, vegetables, and sometimes grains are found to be predigested in minimal amounts within the digestive tract of small animals they consume. The most species-appropriate diet is the raw food ancestral diet, an 80:10:10 ( 80% muscle meat, 10% bone, 10% organ) or whole ground animal. This supplies all the needed nutrients, including plenty of taurine, abundant in the heart muscle, and some other meats such as beef tongue. A taurine deficiency can cause dilated cardiomyopathy. Although dogs can manufacture this amino acid in small amounts, it is still required in the diet. Cats cannot manufacture taurine even in those small amounts, so their requirement is slightly higher than dogs and is mandated in their diet. When pet manufacturers switched to grain-free food formulations and added lentils, legumes, and sweet potatoes to their food, taurine absorption was inhibited, and a fatal heart disease that was almost nonexistent became prevalent. Taurine inhibitors should be avoided.
2. Oxidization Of Fat
The fat within kibble oxidizes and becomes rancid when exposed to light, air, or heat, which increases free radical damage throughout the body (linked to cancer). When you open your pet’s bag of kibble, the air gets in, and oxidation occurs. Air, light, and heat all increase the oxidation process of the processed kibble. Oxidation may occur before you even open the bag during shipping and processing. And every time the amount of oxidation increases so does the health risks associated with consuming the rancid fats within the kibble. The fats and oils in the dry kibble are very susceptible to oxidation. So, every time you open the bag, the fat particles break down into more minor compounds, such as malondialdehyde (a marker of cancer risk), and the fat within the food becomes rancid.
Problems with rancid fat in food:
Rancid fats destroy vitamins and minerals, which leads to vitamin and mineral deficiency and overall chronic malnutrition in our pets, making them more susceptible to disease, injury, or illness.
Dogs and cats are often vitamin D deficient because they cannot absorb it from sun exposure. It has to be attained through diet, but most diets are chronically vitamin D deficient due to low-quality sources, whether supplemental or food. In lab studies, pets suffered vitamin, fat, and protein deficiencies when fed diets with rancid fats.
Rancid fats have also been linked to many other health issues, such as malnutrition, hair loss, diarrhea, liver and kidney disease, reproductive problems, cancer, and even death.
3. Overcooked & Processed
Kibble is overcooked and processed at extremely high temperatures.
It contains very few nutrients because of overcooking and using low-quality ingredients, so they add tons of synthetic vitamin and mineral premix, which is less bioavailable than whole food sources. As we previously discussed, dogs are essentially obligate carnivores just like cats, meaning they NEED high-quality meat in their diet to survive and thrive. (We know this because they have plenty of the digestive enzymes necessary to break down meat protein but not many enzymes that break down carbohydrates and plant matter.) Most kibble contains low-quality meat and many plant-based proteins and amino acids that aren’t bioavailable to our pets.
4. Digestibility
Our pet’s digestive tracts were made for digesting raw meat with a high water content. Pets on kibble typically pass substantial stools daily, often multiple times a day, because their body doesn’t absorb much, if anything, in their dry food. Because of the high water content, raw passes through the digestive tract much quicker. The body assimilates almost everything, so the stools are small and infrequent. Pets barely drink water on a raw diet because they are so well hydrated by the water and moisture within their meat. Finally, the digestive systems were made to tolerate the bacteria within the meat, which is why the gut microbiome of raw-fed dogs is typically so healthy, and they continue to pass small stools and do not present with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or gastrointestinal symptoms as dry fed pets can.