Sunday 6 July 2014

Dog and cat food

By I have decided to do something interesting for me and my pets. Pets have gone native. Back to raw.
Its a minefield on good / bad information out there. Everyone has their own opinion on all aspects of pet food. Some are commercial only, some raw only, and some both mixed.
I've read on Facebook pages dedicated to Raw food  people's opinions but little fact.
Many slander the pet food market and their marketing. Calling them evil etc for the sake of a making a profit.
I tend to side with the overall thought process too however, where is the proof that Raw food is best.
Raw feeders "seem" to be followers of common sense. For which I applaud. I, am a lapsed Analytical Chemist, I was trained in factual analysis of everything. So how did I mistakenly feed my pets processed for many years within questioning it?
Pure laziness is all I can think of.
I always thought that every can would be the same regardless of manufacturer or brand. Meat and veg in huge vat, cooked, and tinned. I would compare labels and check like for like of content analysis and buy that way. Then I went down cheapest route. What a wrong way or way for a supposedly educated person.
When I started to wake up to the rubbish in a can or huge sack. I moved to home cooked. I thought I could replicate the tinned stuff but control the ingredients at home. No more added artificial colours, preservatives or flavours. I was aware of raw feeding but never considered it. Somehow in the back of my mind, if cooked meat is better for humans surely killing any bugs must be better for pets.
Again I ask now. Where is the scientific fact to back up anything I did? Appears I never saw any. I can assume pet food manufacturers have it all. I am sure they will have tested all their tinned / canned vs Raw. But no profitable pet food business would dare release info if Raw was clinically proven to be healthier. If they did, surely they would lose customers in theirs droves and be forced potentially out of business.
This is the start of my journey  trying to sort actual fact from heresay.
I have read on plenty of sites and books that dogs should eat 80% meat, 10%, offal and 10% bone. Good information which sounds plausible but I have yet to find out why.
My journey will attempt to bring common sense back to my research. I will also try to find scientific fact (or at least a biological hypothesis) to match people's claims of why processed foods are bad, and raw is good.
So far, I'm studying the enzymatic breakdown processes of foods in the dog / cats digestive system. Finding reasons why cooking foods affects these processes from working properly. Again, what I am reading is common sense. Cooking destroys any enzymes on the actual meat itself which a dog would absorb and use to break it down into amino acids which can be used by the body to rebuild new needed proteins / muscles in their body. If a dog eats less usable enzymes, it has to compensate somehow. It's Pancreas has to work harder supplying enzymes. This itself, an over active Pancreas, can have a problematic affect on a dog / cat.
Arrghh brain overload for now.

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