In my store, Nature’s Nibbles, I’m often asked which food is the best for dogs and or cats. I often answer, “I don’t sell that…” I always get the same reaction, confusion. Let me explain. The BEST food for your pets is, well, food! It’s all there in your grocery store! People often call it “people food”, but 90+ years ago we just called it food. As a matter of fact, 90+ years ago there WAS no “cat food” or “dog food”. We would just gather what we ate and feed our animals! Or, as we prepared food for our families, we would also prepare food for our furry kids, as well. Getting the point? Good!
Now, don’t get me wrong, I do sell the highest quality dry, canned and raw meals for dogs and cats, but the bottom line is, the fresher the food and the less processed the food, the better the health. It’s true for humans, horses, dogs, cats…heck, all living things thrive on fresh food!
Dry pet food, even with the high quality, human grade ingredients, is still the most processed of all the choices. It is the furthest from the source materials that make it. No matter what factory makes it, it’s all processed the same way. It comes down to the ingredients. All natural pet food companies use all natural ingredients, making the food better quality than the commercial brand pet foods. With that said, it’s still the most processed and in my opinion all, All Natural dry pet food is all the same quality. No dry food company, that I am aware of, has a state-of-the-art dry food processing plant that makes it any different than the next one. The benefit of dry food is ours… it’s economical, and helps us, economically, feed our larger animals or if we have multiple animals to feed. We still need to make sure that, at least half, if not more of their meals, daily, have a fresh alternative to the dry food, i.e. canned or raw.
Canned foods are fresher, cleaner, contain fewer ingredients and are simply better quality than dry. Canned foods, also, are all made the same way. (Better quality ingredients than the commercial brand canned food), but quality-wise, the same, and again, better quality than dry food.
Raw meals are fresher, cleaner and even less ingredients than canned and as quality goes, the next best thing to making the food yourself… “Make it myself?” Yes, and it’s easier than you think!
Raw foods are just that. Raw. They include the, much needed, bones, essential organs and all the supplementation a dog or cat needs and is their species specific diet. Food they’ve been eating for millions of years and what they’ve been eating, hanging out with humans, since the late stone-age!
Raw feeding is very beneficial for our furry children and according to WebMD (Yes, they even talk about pets!) The “potential benefits of the raw dog food diet that supporters tout include:”
- Shinier coats
- Healthier skin
- Cleaner teeth
- Higher energy levels
- Smaller stools
Other benefits include healthy digestion, lower or even no food allergies, healthier muscle tone, improvement in behavior and attitude, potentially longer life and most importantly less visits to the Vet! There are many great recipes that can be found online! A little research on the subject of feeding raw can open one’s eyes to a world of happy and healthy pets and, in the long run, can save pet parents a lot of money! There’s nothing more expensive than a sick pet!
Chris Gabriel is a pet-food whisperer and the owner of Nature’s Nibbles, a natural pet food store in Alexandria, Virginia. Learn more about Chris and Nature’s Nibbles at http://naturesnibbles.com/
