With all the confusion created around the raw canine diet, the fact that high protein dog food still makes dog owners nervous should not come as a surprise. Perhaps we need to shed some light on what constitutes nutritional and non-nutritional dog foods to start with.
My ancestors the wild dogs and wolves have been consuming meat as their prime source of food for tens of thousands of years, as long as they could find prey. They have supplemented their diet with plants, which became a nutrition staple when protein was unavailable.
But let’s be clear about something here. Eating plants simply adds a few carbs to our diet for better balance. Grains are not high on the ideal canine menu, specially corn which is of very little use to us though it ends up being added to commercial dog food as a filler. Being plentiful and cheap, it often shows up as a primary ingredient - so much for canine health!
I know I’m on the right track when experts agree with me. “In general, high-quality animal source proteins provide superior amino acid balances for companion animals, compared with the amino acid balances that are supplied by grain proteins. The protein in grains is not as balanced or available as the protein in high-quality animal sources…” state Case, Carey and Hirakawa in Canine and Feline Nutrition.
Protein is the foundation of homemade healthy dog food. A favorite of mine is liver which is full of phosphorus and vitamins A and B1, but lamb and beef are good too, and so are organ meats like liver, heart, kidney, etc. If your dog has a sensitive stomach, he’ll find chicken and turkey easier to digest. And let’s not forget some fish for our Omega-3s, specially salmon and herring.
But did you know that the best protein of all comes from eggs. Oh boy, I LOVE eggs in any shape or form: raw, soft-boiled, hard-boiled, in an omelette, and my Scrambled Eggs Doggie Style … just divine! Try this recipe on your pooch, and you’ll spoil his appetite for anything else.
But a balanced canine diet actually includes a lot of food varieties you would find in a healthy human diet. So high protein dog food means more than just meat. We have to have fats too.
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