Raw Diet or Kibble: Which is Best for Your Dog

With lifestyles becoming more and more hectic, incorporating certain healthy practices for the welfare of your pupper often becomes a massive challenge. Despite this, pet parents do try their best to make sure their dog lives a life free of disease and health issues. In this blog, we inform you about Raw Diet or Kibble: Which is Best for Your Dog.

An important aspect to consider in this aspect is what kind of food to feed your dog to ensure that he gets a well-rounded, and nutritious diet.

With the increasing commercialization of the pet healthcare industry, most pet parents are far too spoilt for choice in the matter of diet options.

The long-standing question still remains – which type of food is better for your dog – raw and fresh food options or packaged kibble which is easy to source?

Before we actually answer that question, it is imperative to understand some fundamental concepts which play an important role in deciding whether to give your pets a raw and fresh food diet or whether to stick with packaged kibble and ensure that they get a regular and well-balanced diet.

1. Time

There is no question about the fact that preparing a fresh and raw food diet for your dogs is a time-intensive process.

Unfortunately, time is what people fall short of in the present-day work culture and environment.

Packaged kibble offers an easy alternative to circumvent the shortage of time while ensuring your pooch still gets the required amount of nutrition in their diet.

2. Allergies

As surprising as it may seem, dogs have allergies too. Naturally, this is the result of modern-day breeding practices which result in various health issues for dogs, more importantly, purebred dogs. Now, kibble is often made as a result of mass demand.

That means that the food is prepared on the basis of a generalization of the existing market demand. The issue that pre-packaged kibble poses threat is the neglect of special cases of allergies.

This means that as a pet parent you have either limited or no options to ensure that you don’t aggravate your pup’s allergies with the food that he or she eats.

A raw and fresh diet ensures that you stay aware of all the ingredients that go into preparing your pet’s meal and thereby ensuring that you avoid the foods that your dog is allergic to.

Also See: Top 10 Trending Dog Beds That You Can Buy Online

3. Expenses

It comes as no surprise that most pre-packaged kibble brands cost a bomb. However, contrary to popular belief, homemade food is not necessarily the cheaper alternative.

Taking into consideration your dog’s dietary requirements and taste preferences, home-made food that suits your dog can be quite expensive to prepare on a daily basis

4. Age

Another factor that needs to be taken into consideration is the age of the dog. When dogs are young, protein and calcium are extremely crucial to their skeletal and muscular development.

Other vitamins also play an important role in bolstering their gut, intestinal, and cardiovascular health along with their immunity power.

These dietary requirements cannot always be met with a fresh and raw food diet without having some sort of adverse effect. Conversely, giving pre-packed kibble to a young pooch also may not yield healthy long-term benefits.

5. Size of your dog

Also See: 3 Ways To Reduce Digestive Problems In Your Pooch

Talking about nutrition, different breeds of dogs have varying dietary requirements. While big dogs often require large amounts of calcium and protein, smaller dogs do not have the same requirements.

For example, a labrador, which is a medium-sized dog, normally has a high bone density. Therefore, to maintain healthy joints, the dog needs a fairly large amount of calcium as part of a daily diet.

This can be incorporated in the form of curd, milk diluted with water (because it is difficult for dogs to digest milk), cottage cheese, and so on.

It would be very hard for a pet parent to maintain the requirement of calcium for a labrador in its homemade raw food.

However, if you own a smaller breed like a Lhasa-apso, their calcium intake requirements are much lesser. Therefore, there are breed-specific kibble foods that can meet their dietary and nutrition requirements easily.

Having said that, the answer to the leitmotif of this article is in no way a simple question to answer.

One of the easiest ways to do that is to list out the benefits and disadvantages of both types of diets.

When choosing the correct diet for your dog it is essential to know its benefits and risks.

To make it easier for you to decide what kind of diet you want to pick for your dog we have listed a number of advantages and disadvantages of giving a raw diet as well as a diet of kibble to your dog.

Potential Advantages of a Raw Diet

1. Shinier coats
2. Healthier skin
3. Cleaner teeth
4. Higher energy levels
5. Firm stools

Potential Disadvantages of a Raw Diet

1. A possible threat to your dog’s health due to the presence of bacteria in raw meat.
2. A lopsided eating regimen that may harm the health of your dog if given for an all-encompassing period.
3. The cooked bones in the meat could choke your dog or break his teeth if not eaten properly.

Advantages of Kibble

1. Convenient, easy to feed & widely available.
2. Kibble is rather easy to store and home and also an easier option when travelling.
3. There is a range of options available in the market, based on various budgets and flavours.
4. Formulas are available for different life stages, breeds, and health requirements.
5. Kibble comes in handy when training your dog, you can easily keep them in your hand or pocket while training your dog.

Potential Disadvantages of Kibble

1. Some kibble brands are terrible and adversely affect your dog’s health.
2. The advertising and packaging are not always honest.
3. There are too many options in the market, and to find the right choice for your dog you will have to do a lot of research and might have to shift through a lot of products before you find the one.
4. A lot of people tend to believe that a kibble diet can cause bloating in your dog.

Pick the right kind of diet is a lot about the trial method, you pick what might seem suitable for your dog, it might turn out to be the correct pick or you might end up needing to shift to another kind.

It takes patience and persistence on your end and you will find the right food match for your little buddy. Do not forget to consult your vet regarding the food choices you make for your dog.

Also See: 5 Supplements You Should Incorporate Into Your Dog’s Diet