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Grain or Not in a Dog's Diet? From the desk of Mogens Eliasen - first published: October 22, 2006 (update of previous article from 2003)
Commercial dog foods are made primarily of grain. More than 2/3 of them are grain. Grains are cheap and abundant. Generally, grains contain about 90-95% carbohydrates, though….
Wild carnivores have no access to carbohydrates in such amounts and have never had, for the entire period of evolution. Anyone with respect for Nature should have a serious problem with that!
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Carnivore or omnivore? These classifications are man-made. They can cause a lot of confusion if you try to apply them rigidly, and you are outright into logic inconsistency if you think you can use those classifications to draw any kinds of conclusions whatsoever about what dogs should be fed! It will suffice for you to acknowledge that there are some huge differences between the dog's gastrointestinal system and the human system. Whether both are within the spectrum of "omnivores" or the dog truly is a "carnivore" does not matter. There is only one authority we can rely on: Canis Lupus, the wolf - as he would be fed in a natural environment. The genetic differences between dogs and wolves are no greater than the differences between black and white people. For this reason, the only feeding philosophy that makes sense will be an attempt to get as close as you can to what Mother Nature has been feeding her wolves throughout evolution. The bad news is that we do not know with certainty what that exactly would be, except that it is not a precise copy of what wolves nowadays feed on in the wild, where they have much more prey available than ever before! Another unpleasant fact is that, no matter what the exact details might be, we know enough about them to conclude that you cannot reproduce them perfectly - most people simply don't have the supplies of whole, live prey animals... and you don't want to give your dog its natural incentive to eat all the veggies it might need: starvation.... But this does not mean that we cannot use our brains. In fact, we do have enough information available in order to make some very diligent choices in regards to feeding our dogs. Let's discuss the feeding of grains in lieu of this. Using grain in commercial food There are many powerful reasons for feeding grain:
However, here are some good reasons for not feeding grain:
Where grain would fit into the picture of a natural diet The tricky thing is that dogs could actually do quite well, at least short-term, on a meal that was almost exclusively made of grain products! This can have value for dogs that need to go gently on their stomach (keeping the pH around neutral is far less stressful than lowering it down to strong acidic levels). For sick dogs, this can sometimes makes good sense. And finally, for working dogs that need a fast energy boost for a specific performance that calls for a short burst of energy. And, sure, no healthy dogs are going to take any serious harm from the odd cookie… But as a standard component of a regular diet for a dog, there should be no room for grains Sincerely, Mogens Eliasen
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