How to Add Fresh Food to Dry Dog Food
For Better Health and Taurine Needs!
By Lew Olson, PhD Natural Health

How to Add Fresh Food to Dry Dog Food
For Better Health and Taurine Needs!

By Lew Olson, PhD Natural Health

Each method of feeding has issues of convenience, cost, time and interest of the person choosing their preferred choice. Making your own raw diet is generally less expensive than buying a pre-made raw brand. Cooking meals for your dog at home is also less expensive than buying pre-made cooked diets. And commercial dry dog food offers the product that is readily available and needs no preparation or freezer space. It offers the convenience of a one-step simple ‘measure out the meal amount’ that provides the convenience of providing your dog ‘a meal in a scoop’.

You need to understand how taurine is lost from animal-based products when heat is used or moisture is removed. When meat is cooked, taurine (an amino acid found only in animal-based products) is leached out during cooking. Many types of commercial dog food are heavily processed at high heats and the moisture is removed in order to make a dry product. Since a bag of meat and fat would have no shelf life, fiber is added to the food. This would include grains, rice, vegetables, beet pulp, rice bran, tomato pomace, flax seed and even peanut hulls. But the recent addition of legumes, potatoes, peas and pea proteins and lentils have added more of a concern as some research has shown that these may inhibit the uptake of taurine. It would also be wise to avoid commercial dog food that contains legumes, potatoes, peas, pea protein and lentils!

https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-health-literacy/questions-answers-fda-center-veterinary-medicines-investigation-possible-connection-between-diet-and?utm_campaign=8-10-2018-DCM&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua

You can mix fresh food with kibble. It does not affect digestion. That was a big Internet myth for some time. I do caution people, however, that it is probably wiser to feed raw meaty bones as a separate meal from kibble - at least in the beginning. Raw meaty bones are usually fatty and the heaviness of the bones may compete with the dry dog food for digestion in the stomach. I recommend any dry kibble be moistened, as moist food is easier to digest for dogs and is not as irritating to their digestive tract. Dogs are designed to eat raw meat and bones. It would be a rare thing if they ever ate anything completely dry. It is my opinion that eating dry food is what is causes so many digestion issues, including IBD, gastritis, reflux, an irritated intestinal lining and the ability to digest and uptake nutrients. People complain of their dog having allergies, stomach sensitivities, gas and diarrhea frequently and I believe most of this could be resolved with a diet that is moist and contains some fresh food.

Adding fresh food to kibble will only enhance it! But it MUST be enhanced with animal-based products only. Dry dog food is already too high in carbohydrates. As mentioned earlier, carbohydrates are added to extend shelf life and keep costs down. So, give your dog what they really need which is meat, animal fat, eggs, whole milk yogurt, cottage cheese, canned mackerel, salmon or sardines packed in water, organ meat, raw meaty bones and chicken or beef broth. All of these contain taurine - some more than others - and they help moisten the dry food. DO NOT add any vegetables, potatoes, grains or fruits. Dogs get no nutritional value from carbohydrates and they will only add to larger stools, poorer digestion, gas, and they add unnecessary calories.

You can offer your dog a variety of foods with each meal. Any meats you add can be cooked or raw, with the exception of raw meaty bones. Do Not cook raw meaty bones. Raw meaty bones must be fed raw as cooked bones can splinter and cause injury to your dog, and raw meaty bones are easily digested. I do however, suggest only feeding raw meaty bones SEPARATELY from dry food in the beginning. And for extra digestive insurance as you start to add fresh animal-proteins to your dog’s dry food diet, I suggest adding the Berte’s Ultra Probiotic Powder to your dog’s meals to aid digestion. This is a very reasonably priced product at only $13.95 for a one-pound jar and it will support your dog through this diet change.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2813349/

Berte’s Daily Blend, and Fish Oil capsules at one capsule per ten to twenty pounds of body weight daily.

K9Nutrition Facebook page, or in my book, Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs. I also have videos on preparing raw and home cooked meals for your dog at https://rawandnaturalnutritionfordogs.teachable.com