Ancestral Diet
One of the biggest questions that owners face is what to feed their dogs. Dog food has become divided into Raw VS Dry kibble over the past few years. But what's best for dogs?
What The DNA Says
In nature dog's ancestors - wolves, would eat anything from whole wild prey to insects, fruits, and vegetables. A dog is classified somewhere in-between carnivores and omnivores, with clear carnivore preferences.
With clear genetic makeup from wolves still making up 99.9% of a dogs DNA, including tooth shape, enzyme production for digesting meat, even dogs far away from phenotype as a wolf such as a pug still benefit from a nutritional and natural diet.
What is Raw?
Raw feeding or "BARF" Biologically Appropriate Raw Food is the practice of providing a balance of fresh raw meats, bones and offal for your dogs meals. The art of raw feeding can be calculated using the 80-10-10 rule, meaning meals should contain 80% muscle meat, 10% bone and 10% half offal and half liver.
DIY or Premade?
Sounds a little overwhelming? Some owners choose to DIY their dogs raw meals by sourcing all products themselves, which is great if your friends with the local butcher or game keeper!
But a more convenient way owners achieve this is by purchasing ready made complete raw food meals which have the correct ratios and can even have added super foods included!
"Here at Raw Paw our dog food contains 100% human grade meat, meaning no meat derivatives or 'flavoured formulas', offering you the best balanced diet for your hounds" - Raw Paw
Good Dogs Recommends
Good Dogs Daycare is a proud stockist of Raw Paw, which is locally made in the Ribble Valley. Raw Paw sources local ingredients and offers a balanced diet in 2 sizes; 500g and 1kg and 4 flavours; Chicken & Beef, Chicken & Lamb, Beef & Turkey and Elite - Chicken, Beef, Lamb & Turkey (Mr Oranges Favourite).
Whats In Kibble?
A great alternative to a raw diet is to find a high quality kibble with the correct nutritional balance with quality ingredients. But there's so much choice? A few key factors to look at when selecting the correct kibble are:
High quality animal protein - look for words like "whole, freshly prepared and dried" when looking at ingredient lists.
Check percentages on the ingredient list. The highest percentage shown on the packet should be meat.
"The origins of Eden began after a conversation with a local vet who was an advocate for The Ancestral Diet. Its principle was simple, feed your pet what they would have historically eaten in the wild." - Eden
Good Dogs Recommends
We recommend Eden dog food, which follows the ancestral philosophy when it comes to feeding pets.
They have excellent British sourced ingredients like rabbit, duck, pheasant, wild boar, venison, chicken, lamb, trout and salmon. Eden food also has super foods included, such as Spirulina, Green Lipped Mussel, Coconut Oil, Seaweed Oil and Cranberry.
Blades favourite is the Fish Cuisine, for extra enrichment we scatter feed the kibble or add it to slow feeders.
For more information on feeding your dog raw or kibble, feel free to message or email us at Good Dogs Daycare for a chat and some free samples!