Some Diet Facts and Myths

There are three compositional types of food you can feed your dog:
1) Kibble (processed canned or dry food)
2) Cooked food
3) Raw food


Basically, the belief is that kibble is the worst, followed by cooked food, and then raw food.

Kibble
The main gripe about kibble is that it is mainly cooked under high temperatures and processed. There are a whole lot of other arguments against kibble, such as, dubious food sources. Advertisers can claim that their ingredients are "superior" or "premium", but the American Feed Control (AAFCO) allows 'Pet Grade' meat to be manufactured into kibble, which includes 'Dying, Diseased, Dead, and Disabled' animals. So even if the kibble is passed as "nutritionally appropriate", the meat source can come from an inferior quality.

Look out for foods that do not state clearly where their meats are from, especially when they use words like "Premium" or "Nutrient rich". Also look out for meat by-products in the ingredient list, that's a sure sign of inferior quality ingredients. Premium kibble brands such as Orijen usually state clearly where their ingredients come from (eg: "wild-caught fish from Canada’s northern lakes")and also state that their ingredients are human grade, or "fit for human consumption".

Even if it's a premium grade kibble, those who believe in biologically appropriate raw foods would highlight that eating processed food is equivalent to a human eating processed food all day, however premium it is, is still not recommended.

Mummy can eat processed crispy pork floss all day though, yummy!

Cooked Food
While this is considered fresher than processed food, cooked foods are considered have modified protein chains that destroy a lot of the nutrients that dogs can get from eating raw foods. Hmm.

RAW
There various types of raw diets include: Prey-Modal, BARF, Raw Meaty Bones (RMB), Raw Dehydrated.
As mummy is running out of time, this is a good site with brief overviews of all the raw diets, or you can click on the links above more a more detailed explanation. Mummy currently interested in the BARF diet, as Zeus has been having itching, fur loss problems and bad breath. There is a BARF supplier in Singapore with seven BARF formulas and mummy is thinking of giving it a try.