Do dogs need grain?

The natural diet for a wild dog would consist mainly of small animals. This would include raw meat, bones, and a small amount of fruit/grains found in the small animals intestine. The healthiest diet for a dog, would most closely resemble their natural diet. Most commercial dry dog foods have about 55% grain in them, because the dog food is cheaper to make. Grain is a cheap filler, but is not a healthy diet for your dog, and can eventually cause bad health and even disease. In fact, dogs do not even have a requirement for carbohydrates.

Canine and Feline Nutrition "The fact that dogs and cats do not require carbohydrate is immaterial because the nutrient content of most commercial foods include (carbohydrates).(2)

Small Animal Clinical Nutrition III, written by the founder of Science Diet (Mark Morris Sr.) and his son (Mark Morris Jr.): "Some question exists regarding the need of dogs and cats for dietary carbohydrate. From a practical sense, the answer to this question is of little importance because there are carbohydrates in most food ingredients used in commercially prepared dog foods."(3)

The Waltham Book of Companion Animal Nutrition: "There is no known minimum dietary requirement for carbohydrate..."(4)

Many of us, including our dogs are victims of slick advertising campaigns put out by commercial pet food companies. They would like you to believe that your dog will not be healthy unless you force them to eat an unnatural diet of mainly grains, along with inferior quality meat, highly processed with a generous sprinkling of preservatives and added synthetic vitamins. I'll be taking a closer look at raw food diets in the next few weeks, and hope you will join us!