Dry vs Raw Food - Page 1

Jcmeyer can you provide us with articles with factual studies.  This is an "in my opinion" piece.  Most of us that feed raw use actual studies and research. I feed a food that is able to cross the border ( Canada to USA)  ( very few kibbles can do this) and is HUMAN grade.  I has been studied through research grants and has been deemed as "complete nutrition"  I could eat it myself if I wanted to but alas I can not eat meat ... 

Hussein recommends avoiding dog or cat food with a primary ingredient of "chicken byproducts." This means low-quality parts unfit for human consumption, like heads and feet, were used. Such byproducts generally don't supply the right balance of amino acids.

I disagree.

I will not avoid "chicken-by-product" per se. In fact, pet grade chicken-by-product does have the right balance of amino acids and can be superior to chicken meal. A manufacturer may not accept too many heads and feet, plus I think chicken heads may be a better source of DHA. and so is immature eggs in by-product. Most kibble has more than enough high quality protein.


I'd say that because many people believe by-product to be inferior, many better makers of food want to avoid it. So a food with it "tends" to be inferior.

Do not avoid chicken by product per se.

"Most of us that feed raw use actual studies and research."

I like to read some of these studies. What is the typical duration and sample size?

"He says it make sense that dogs get food to which they're evolutionarily adapted, which means nothing cooked."

Evolution is not an end point, it is a process.

Evolution (Epidemology) involves genetic diversity of both pathogen and host. The pathogen evolves and so does the host. Some elimination in the poplation is always required to maintain a charcteristic of a population of resistance to a pathogen, a new strain even.

Species face extinction due to insufficient genetic diversity to overcome pathogen genetic diversity.


 

If a pup kibble has chicken meal  or chicken-by-product meal  as the first listed ingredient, no soy and very little corn, and has gross protein of 27%  or more, there WILL be enough high quality protein. A few heads and feets matters little. 

Protein is not the concern; other nutrients like DHA can be.

Each chicken has a head and two feet, how would chicken-by-product be dominated by head and feet? Not possible.

Besides, pet grade by-product is exclusive of head and feet. By product is basically meal plus internal organs and guts and developing eggs. How can this be inferior in any sense? Superior to meal, IMO.

I will still stick with raw.. Just like I love my veggies and fruits and things over protein shakes and prepared multivitamins.

It is everybody's choice. But one should be informed about the risks feeding raw. To proclaim there are none is not truthful.

"Chicken can go from very good to very bad," he said.

I disagree. The reason and perspective of the article are quite misplaced.

In terms of excessive calcium, chicken based food tends more to be so-so.

This is  because the bone content included in chicken does not vary widely, less so than large animal protein source.

The sources of varies bones in a chicken is known. Some will never be included because chicken parts destined for human consumption contain those bones.  

For the Kirkland lamb and rice with only 22-23% protein, the calcium is 1.7%!