The General Health Benefits of Raw Dog Food
Why Feed Raw Dog Food?
There are many health benefits for your dog when switching to a BARF raw dog food diet. Dogs were in existence long before man created processed pet food and processed food was invented for the convenience of man, not for the benefit of your dog. They are, both domesticated and wild, carnivores, and are anatomically built for eating meat, and feeding your dog raw is a natural option for their digestive system.
Biologically Appropriate Raw Food diets are based on fresh foods such as raw meat and bones, vegetables and minerals and are designed to replicate your dog’s ancestral diet.
A BARF diet acknowledges the dog’s evolution and natural diet and contains 60-100% raw, meaty bones, with up to 40% carbohydrates. At Cotswold RAW our recipes follow this principle – containing raw, meaty bones and fresh vegetables with NO grain.
Humans are the only animals that cook their foods and cooking breaks down the proteins and amino acids in raw meat, destroying much of its nutritional goodness. A Cotswold RAW dog food diet guarantees
- Quality ingredients
- No high-temperature processing
- No filler, no grain
- No artificial additives or preservatives
Why is processed dog food so bad?
As in all things, there are good processed foods and bad processed foods. Bad processed foods can contain 60-70% poor quality ‘feed grade’ grains and the unsavoury parts of the animal. The labelling ‘fit for human consumption’ is of little comfort as this label is applied to the whole animal, even the unsavoury bits. Good quality processed food contains better cuts of meat and some vegetables but is still often ‘bulked out’ with grain.There are two problems, however. Firstly, whether the carbohydrate is good or bad it is used as cheap filler and represents too high a proportion of the food. Secondly, the act of cooking destroys much of the nutritional value of the constituents. High-temperature cooking of meat also forms heterocyclic amines and other carcinogenic compounds (50% of dogs that reach maturity will die from cancer). Finally in order to qualify as ‘balanced’ or ‘complete’ under EU guidelines all the nutrients lost in the processing need to be added back in the form of chemicals.
The argument for feeding processed wet or dry food runs
Dogs don’t eat grain in the wild and can’t digest raw grain, but the grain is the cheapest source of energy, so cook it at high temperature and now the dog can digest it, but cooking has destroyed 70% of the nutritional value, no problem, add synthetic nutrients to the recommended level.There are many dog food options out there for dog owners, but choosing a raw food diet could improve their health and well-being. Let your dog decide! Browse our range of products today and start your dog's BARF diet.
