The Chemistry of Kibble

Kibble: Never A Good Option

www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/kibble-never-a-good-option/

Sigh, this article is harolding "better" kibble based off more meat products. Auroria's article is based off cheaper cardboard-ish kibble. Both are biased. If your dog is happy and healthy, who cares?

Must be doing something wrong, I've fed all of my dogs kibble, and not the expensive, organic, scientific stuff either. They have lived long, healthy lives. Healthy enough that when I have to change vets, they always comment on my pets' condition and say, "You must be feeding them the expensive, organic, scientific stuff!" "No, no, and nope."

Thanks for the fascinating article. I laughed out loud a couple of times.

While “The Chemistry of Kibble” [April, 2013] provided an interesting insight into what most pet food manufacturers try to do to make their food palatable. The article states that pet foods are mixed with “soy and wheat grains… [and that] cats and dogs are not grain eaters.” I think it is worth noting that there are plenty of pet foods available that are grain-free that do not require tricks to “entice [pets] to eat enough for it to be nutritionally sufficient.”

One wonders where Spanky, Thomas, Skipper, Porkchop, Mohammid, Elvis, Sandi, Bela, Yankee, Fergie, Murphy, Limburger, and some 300 other dogs and cats came from before they 'resided' in a lab cage at this facility and where they'll go once the lab is finished with them. There are plenty of good kibble manufacturers who make high quality food without using lab animals to taste-test. Given the ultimate consumers are pets at home, it makes more sense to taste test to pooches with the diet and lifestyle of a pet, rather than lab animal.

This is an unnecessary article glorifying an extremely unnecessary 'science' industry created not for pet health or welfare, but simply profit.

Absolute garbage. Why must everything have some freekin' chemical to cover up the fact that it's made with more chemicals and processed crap? I like Doritos, but I'm not going to live on them no matter how tasty they are.

First off, the first ingredient of these cheap kibble recipes is corn meal, wheat is way down the list, and K9's cannot digest cornmeal. It requires feeding them twice as much kibble to get the benificial protein that they need at the risk of overloading them on the carbohydrates that they do not need, which not only is bad for them and causes weight gain, but also much higher rates of digestive and health issues along with shortend life spans and quality of life in their later years. Cheap kibble is also way more expensive in reality because you do feed twice as much as you would with premium foods that are not quite double the price. If you feed a 90lb. dog 3 cups of cheap kibble twice a day along with canned food, you could do the same job with just 2 cups of premium kibble twice a day with no canned food at all. Premium kibble is almost all protein, this is the fuel K9's require for a long vibrant life. Not to mention that they leave alot less waste to clean up and are way less gassy.

All of our rescues have come in overweight and lethargic compared to their healthy counterparts, even at 4 and 5 years old they acted closer to 10 in vitality, 2 months of premium and not only do they lose weight dramatically, they regain their vibrance and playfullness, coats improve and problem health issues diminish add to the overall reduction in the cost of caring for your best friend.

Sure, you can go cheap, but your buddy will die sooner and the last years of his life will suck compared to a life of proper nutrition. Not one K9 trainer will ever recommend a cheap kibble brand, even iams has corn meal in it. TIP: if you see a comercial for it, it's garbage, if it's sold in a grocery store, it's garbage. Pet store and feed houses are where you find what you need, they rarely carry grain based food. If you see corn anywhere in the ingredient list, move on. Try it for a couple of months, you will see the difference and you will spend less over time. The only downside is that your dog will be more energetic.

I can change my cats' food any time I want, as long as the new stuff costs more than the old stuff. The problem is, I can never reverse the process.

I thoroughly enjoyed this article and its insights. I turned away from kibble long ago and I'm glad that I did.