Diet is probably the most important issue you will deal with in your dog’s life. A healthy dog will be resistant to disease and parasites and has a greater chance of living a long and healthy life. While a dog can survive (at least for a while) on a low quality commercial dog food, it will not likely thrive. There is also a greater probability that your dog will eventually experience chronic health problems.

If your dog has health issues, you most likely have a problem with your dog’s diet. Feeding your dog only kibble (dry dog food) is akin to your eating only processed cereal every day for every meal. Processed food is not ideal in either humans or dogs.

While there are many differing opinions on what is the best diet for a dog, we would highly recommend switching to at least 75% raw meat in the diet (bones included) and avoiding most commercial dog foods. Dogs are quite resistant to bacteria on raw meat, even when the meat is quite ripe (stinky!).

We recommend avoiding processed foods and most cooked foods. Raw vegetables can be helpful in small amounts, and table scraps are fine if the food is nourishing. White flour, sugar, chocolate, etc., are not nourishing for either us or the dog, and chocolate in particular can be deadly for a dog.

A good way to learn more about diet for your pet is to research Species Appropriate Raw Food (SARF) Diets online.

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