The risks of feeding your dog raw food and the benefits of kibble
The food we eat is important to prevent diseases, improve our mood, and to keep our body strong. Unfortunately, pets cannot choose what to eat which is why it is the owner’s responsibility to provide their pets with food that will be best for their health. Whether it is better to feed your pet raw food has been debated between pet owners and veterinarians. While there are both pros and cons to feeding a raw diet, providing raw food can harm your pet’s health.
Risk of Raw
Illnesses
There are multiple reasons pets should not be receiving raw food, the main reason would be the number of pathogens such as E.coli and salmonella. These pathogens would be on the protein thus increasing the risk of illnesses. Cooking the protein would allow it to reach a certain internal temperature that will eliminate the pathogens in the food. When these pathogens are eaten, foodborne illness can be developed and thus secondary transmission to humans can occur.
Nutritional Imbalance
Another reason would be the nutritional imbalance since raw diets do not provide all the essential nutrients their body requires. Some ingredients in the raw diet can provide excessive or deficient amounts of nutrients such as phosphorus or calcium.
Costly
Feeding your pet raw food can be costly. Raw meals in pet stores can be expensive and the shelf life does not last very long thus the need to continuously purchase more frequently.
Benefits of Kibble
Balanced Diet
Dry food, also known as kibble, can offer numerous benefits for the pet and the owner. Kibble includes ingredients such as protein, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. This provides a balanced diet created to meet the nutritional requirements of a pet. Various brands provide pet food specifically created based on your pet’s conditions and stage to help nutritionally manage their health conditions.
Precise Portioning
Dietary control is easier since portioning dry food is more precise. The packing already has a calculated calorie count based on age and weight or losing or maintaining weight.
Storage
feeding your pet dry food is very quick as no preparation is required while storage is also very convenient especially if an owner has multiple pets eating the same type of food. Purchasing dry food is very cost-effective as the shelf life lasts longer thus allowing for bulk buying.
