What should I feed my dog?

The question I get asked most often is what should I feed my dog. The answer is fairly simple: whatever works for both. Getting there, however, can be tricky. Especially nowadays, with so many information available, and so many "feeding philosophies".

Here's my view of the whole dog feeding dillema and options.

1.    Kibble – the simplest and easiest way

Since there are lots of different brands, the hardest thing is choosing the right kibble for your dog.

What I look for when choosing kibble:

• meat content (the more, the better); even though dogs arent't strict/obligate carnivores like cats, I still don't feel comfortable not feeding them meat (which means-no vegetarian kibble for my dogs).
• ME (kcal/kg) – (metabolisable energy) – the more energy per kg, the better (how much is too much - depends on the dog). I prefer foods with higher kcal/kg content (I think Acana Sport and agility has the highest, not sure though, haven't checked in awhile).
• different meats, grains, veggies etc. – the less, the better. I prefer kibble with one or two meat sources. Less is more.
• little or no fish/fish oil. I prefer to give fish and/or fish oil separately. Don't like either in kibble.
• no potatoes, tapioca or sweet potatoes in kibble; especially potatoes are easily available and I would like to keep my dogs' exposure to this protein/carb source at a minimum-in case they need an elimination diet. I'm not anti-grains and actually prefer rice to all other carb sources.

Here's an interesting site about various brands of kibble. While I don't necessarily agree with the ratings, I still find it very useful (mostly because I can look through different kibble brands at once and don't have to google around).

Last (but not least) IMO there is nothing wrong with feeding your dogs kibble. I do not believe that people, who feed their dogs dry food, are bad, lazy, don't care about health etc.. I believe each and every one of us does the best that s/he can for our dogs and sometimes, other ways of feeding are just not possible (too expensive, not enough time to prepare food, not enough room to store home made food,...). It doesn't matter. If the dog is doing great on kibble, I say stick with that. Your dog's health comes before any philosophy.

2.    Home prepared raw food diet

There are a couple of different ways of feeding, I think theres are the best known:

• BARF - bones and raw food or biologically appropriate raw food (Ian Billinghurst DVM)
• RMB -  raw meaty bones (Tom Lonsdale DVM)
• whole prey (sometimes also called franken prey)

I find the whole raw feeding movement rather interesting and have been following its progress for about 10 years. So far, their arguments have yet to convince me to start feeding raw food. I'm not against raw feeding, but I'm not supporting it either. To anyone interested in feeding their dog(s) raw food - read as much as you can; pros and cons. If your dog does well on raw food, great.i In the end, that's all that matters. The dog is the one that is important here, not the philosophy. Why don't I feed my dogs raw food? Because they're thriving on what they get-kibble and homecooked. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

PS: I would never feed raw (or cooked) bones. Never. All bones my dogs get are huge bones that cannot be swallowed and have lots of meat and other soft tissue on them. Chicken necks, wings, turkey necks etc... are out of the question. Even if I was feeding raw meat, I would not feed raw bones and I don't recommend it to anyone.

3.    Home prepared cooked food diet

My favourite and IMO the best choice, if you have time, space and the will to learn as much as possible. I prefer "the excel version (crunching numbers)" to determine how much food I must feed. Some feed 1/3 meat, 1/3 veggies and 1/3 carbs (mostly grains), with supplements. Some feed only meat and veggies. There are lots of different ways to feed your dog, all you have to do is find what works for you and your dog and stick with that.

4.    A compromise : home prepared food (raw or cooked) and kibble

For example, kibble 5 -6 days/week, home prepared 1-2 days/week. Not suitable for picky eaters, though. My peis eat everything I give them, be it kibble or homecooked, they're not even close to being picky. As for Tari.... well, he's just a spoiled little dog and gets special treatment.

My dogs

My dogs get both kibble and home prepared food. Tari (my golden oldie) has been eating homecooked food since he was 3 months old (or so). Every now and then, he gets some (senior)  kibble as well. The peis get 1 kibble meal and 1 homecooked meal. Tari usually gets homecooked with some kibble mixed in. He used to be on a 100% homecooked diet that I made by using an excel spreadsheet. All three also get various supplements, like fish oil (fish BODY oil), vitamin E, CoQ10, glucosamine, chondroitine, MSM and vitamin C. Not all the time or all at once, of course. Their diets are NOT grainfree, reasons being very simple: 

A. They don't have problems with grains (no allergies etc.) and

B. I don't believe grains are bad for all dogs.