By Carrie Hyde, The Spaw Pet Life Coach | January 28, 2021
There are a lot of myths within the canine world that many pet owners have bought into. These myths arise from a number of places, from our flawed understanding of wolf pack behavior to well-meaning dog enthusiasts who think they know all there is to know about our four-legged friends.
But, by far, the number one producer of false dog myths is the pet food industry.
Big Kibble has a vested interest in making you, the pet owner, believe certain things about canine eating habits, dietary needs, and the power of dried kibble. If these myths weren’t so widely believed and readily circulated (even by those who should know better) they couldn’t get away with selling the products they do.
So, what has the pet food industry lied to you about? Here are ten of the most commonly believed myths in the canine dietary world and why believing these myths is so dangerous for your dog.
Myth 1: Kibble Cleans Teeth
It’s easy to see how this myth persisted. Hard crunchy pieces of food seem like they could, in theory, help scrape plaque off teeth. But there are two major flaws with this theory.
First, most dogs don’t do a lot of chewing. If you take a moment to look at a dog’s teeth, the reason for this becomes immediately obvious. Unlike humans, who have broad, flat molars made to crush food, dog molars are pointy with very little surface area effective for crushing something like a piece of kibble.
These sharp, pointed teeth evolved for searing flesh from bone. This meat isn’t chewed but swallowed whole to be digested in the dog’s highly acidic stomach. Similarly, when something small like kibble is eaten, it usually goes straight down the throat without touching the teeth.
Now there are some dogs out there who tend to chew their food. And there are some types of kibble that are large enough to force the issue. But even in these cases, kibble does not help clean teeth.
Just like potato chips or hard crackers, when kibble is crushed, it creates small pieces of food residue that get caught between the teeth. This, in turn, stimulates bacterial growth in the mouth. While some excessively large types of kibble may help scrape teeth during the initial chewing process, all create food film that sticks to the teeth and is ultimately detrimental to oral health.
This myth is false. Most dogs swallow their kibble whole, erasing any potential oral health benefits from kibble. Those that do chew receive, at most, minimal plaque scraping that is more than overshadowed by the fact that all chewed food leaves behind food particles that cause plaque and cavities to form.
Myth 2: If Meat Is the First Ingredient, It’s a Quality Dog Food
Dog food companies know that most pet owners are well educated in the importance of a high-protein diet for their dog. They know that when you go to pick out a new food, you’re more likely to pick one that has meat listed as the first ingredient, that’s why they go to great lengths to arrange their ingredients list so something like “chicken meal” or “turkey” appears first.
But this doesn’t always mean that the recipe contains more of that meat than any other ingredient.
By law, ingredient lists must be organized from the most abundant ingredient to the least abundant. This measure is based on overall weight. But pet food companies can easily tweak this to make their food look better. One of the most popular ways to accomplish this is by ingredient splitting.
If a food has more corn in it than chicken, then the company can easily keep chicken as the first ingredient listed by breaking corn up into separate ingredients, such as cornmeal and whole corn. These two ingredients are basically the same thing, but when split up like this, each weighs less than the total amount of chicken and thus can be listed after it.
Pet food companies use this trick all the time and often with more than one ingredient. If you see the same word listed more than once on a label, you can assume that that food makes up a large percentage of the total mass of the ingredients.
To complicate things more, even if meat is the first legitimate ingredient, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the food is good. Much of the meat used in dog food is extremely low quality, as we’ve discussed previously.
Looking for a meat ingredient listed first is one step toward finding a quality commercial diet, but it is, by no means, the only step you should take.
Myth 3: A Balanced Diet Can Come from Eating the Same Thing Every Day
Almost every bag of AAFCO certified adult dog food comes with the label “complete and balanced.” The dog food companies want you to believe this means that that food is the only thing your dog needs to eat to be healthy.
This is highly misleading for several reasons.
First, AAFCO standards only establish a minimum for nutrient content in most cases. This means one “complete and balanced” diet may have only trace amounts of a certain nutrient while another that bears the same labeling has four times the amount of that nutrient. The same is true of macronutrients like protein and fat. Theoretically, two dogs eating two different “complete and balanced” diets could be consuming massively different amounts of calcium, iron, vitamin D, protein, and other vital nutrients.
Second, only certain nutrients are tracked by AAFCO. Things like probiotics, antioxidants, and enzymes that we know make a huge difference in health and longevity are not included in any of AAFCO’s “complete and balanced” guidelines. A lack of any one of these less-essential “nutrients” isn’t likely to cause immediate problems but can lead to chronic problems down the line.
It is also worth noting that most commercial dog foods contain at least one concerning contaminant, whether it be heavy metals, pesticides, or other harmful chemicals. Occasional exposure to these kinds of toxins isn’t likely to have an impact on an adult dog. But continued exposure, day after day for years, can cause serious damage.
The fact is, commercial dog foods provide only a baseline of nutrition. And each product takes a slightly different approach to that baseline. Because you can never know exactly what your specific dog needs in terms of nutrition, it is best to provide variety to cover your bases and to avoid continuous exposure to the same toxins.
This means not only switching up the commercial dog food base you feed every month or so, but also adding healthy, fresh additions to their bowl whenever you can. Adding some raw meat, meaty bones, yogurt, bone broth, eggs, and other nutrient-dense foods to your dog’s diet is a great way to assure their “complete and balanced” diet is actually complete and balanced.
Myth 4: Feeding Raw Food Is Dangerous
Some veterinarians and most major dog food companies warn against feeding dogs raw food. They want you to think that because humans are highly susceptible to e. Coli and salmonella that dogs are equally at risk of these diseases.
The truth is, dogs evolved from wild canines who eat raw meat and carrion. Their systems have been optimized to deal with pathogens common to meat. They have special immunoglobulins in their saliva to help neutralize bacteria. Their stomachs are more acidic than humans to help kill off pathogens. And they are capable of carrying high loads of certain bacteria, like e. Coli, would be deadly to humans.
When you take away the risks of eating raw meat, all you have left are benefits. Raw meat has more nutrients and intact enzymes than cooked meat. These micro properties are vital to longevity and sustained health and are much easier to absorb than the synthetic nutrients added to cooked commercial diets.
Myth 5: Grain-Free Diets Are Higher In Protein
Corn has long been vilified in the dog food world. This ingredient brings little nutritional value to dog food and is used only as a cheap filler. Other grains, like rice and barley, are also used as fillers and take up space that should be filled with quality animal protein ingredients.
As people learned about the overuse of grains in dog food, many companies changed tactics and started putting out grain-free foods. But the truth is, these foods don’t necessarily have more protein in them than grain-containing diets. All these companies really did is replace starch-heavy corn and rice with starch-heavy potatoes, tapioca, and peas.
If you really want to find a food that has more animal protein than your typical commercial diet, look for brands that list their total meat ingredient percentage on the bag. A grain-containing food that contains 80% animal ingredients is going to be much better for your dog than a grain-free food that contains 80% potatoes.
Myth 6: Feeding Raw Bones Is Dangerous
Many people believe that feeding bones to dogs is dangerous for their health. The truth is, feeding cooked bones is always dangerous, but feeding raw bones is very safe when done correctly.
Whole raw bones that are the right size for your dog, sourced from quality sources, and stored properly can provide dogs with a healthy energy outlet and plenty of vital nutrients. Raw bones are known to help normalize dogs’ digestive tracts, improve oral health, and provide a natural source of calcium for stronger bones and teeth.
If your dog is new to raw, it is a good idea to start them slowly so their system can get used to raw meat and bones. So long as you educate yourself and feed them responsibly, raw bones aren’t only safe, but highly beneficial.
Myth 7: Diet Food Can Help Your Pet Lose Weight
Most dog diets marketed for weight loss contain about as much protein as your typical diet but have about half as much fat. When protein is kept the same and fat is reduced, more carbohydrates must be added to the recipe.
But low-fat, high-carb diets do not help dogs lose weight. In fact, multiple studies have shown that the more carbs in a diet, the more fat dogs put on. In one study published in the Journal of Nutrition, beagles on a low-carb diet lost six times as much body fat as those on a high-carb diet even though the calorie content of each diet was the same.
Rather than buying into the “weight loss” label on commercial dog food, try switching your dog to a high-quality, high-protein diet with limited carbohydrates. Or consider cutting their kibble amount and adding quality meat to replace some of those calories. This approach combined with activity will help your dog lose weight without sacrificing nutrition.
Myth 8: Prescription Diets Are Worth the Price
Whether it’s kidney issues, weight gain, or bladder infections, it seems just about every health ailment comes with a prescription diet that claims to help reduce symptoms. But are these diets really worth that inflated price tag? One look at the ingredients label should tell you all you need to know.
The first five ingredients in one of the most popular commercial urinary prescription diets are brewers rice, corn starch, pork fat, egg product, and powdered cellulose. Read the whole list and you’ll find that this diet doesn’t have a single meat ingredient in it. Yet it costs about four times as much as your average-quality commercial dog kibble.
So, what makes this sub-par food a “prescription bladder diet?” It has less calcium and sodium than your average dog food, which is meant to protect against bladder stones. This reduced mineral content is a product of the synthetic nutrient blend that is added to the food, not a characteristic created from the cruddy ingredients listed above. This company could provide your dog the same protection against bladder stones using quality ingredients–but that wouldn’t be as profitable!
Multiple lawsuits have been drawn against Hill’s, Purina, and other companies that produce prescription diets due to a lack of scientific evidence that these high-priced diets actually do anything to help sick dogs. If your vet recommends an RX diet, you are much better off researching the dietary needs of a dog with that condition and building your own home-prepared diet based on those guidelines.
Myth 9: Hypoallergenic Food Can Help Your Allergic Dog
As food allergies in dogs become more widely diagnosed, hypoallergenic dog food is becoming more common. The problem with these diets centers around a single indisputable fact: there is no such thing as a hypoallergenic food.
The most common allergens for dogs are, in order, beef, dairy, chicken, wheat, and lamb. But a dog can develop an allergy to any type of food ingredient that it has repeated exposure to. The only way to find a “hypoallergenic” food for your dog is to find a diet that does not contain any ingredients the dog is allergic to. As long as you do this, the food will not cause a reaction, whether it contains overly expensive “hypoallergenic” ingredients or not.
Dogs develop food allergies when their immune system and gut biome are out of balance. If your dog continues to react to new foods with different ingredients, that’s a clear indication you need to spend some time working to rebalance their system and focus on rebuilding their gut health.
Myth 10: Fresh Food Diets Are Best
One of the newest dog food trends has brought with it its own wave of dog nutrition myths. Of course, I’m talking about the fresh food dog craze.
Fresh food dog companies like The Farmer’s Dog and Nom Nom claim that fresh food is better for dogs because it is less processed. While this argument does carry merit (after all, processing removes many vital nutrients and enzymes), it only holds any weight if the ingredients that aren’t processed are high quality and good for your dog in the first place.
Many of these fresh food companies load their recipes with grains, starches, and other filler ingredients that you’ll also find in low-quality kibble. Even the meat used in some of these pricey fresh food brands is highly questionable and not likely to contain a lot of nutrition.
The bottom line is these diets often use the same types of ingredients as mid-range dog foods but cost as much as premiere kibble. In this case, you and your dog are better off opting for the kibble. For true, quality fresh food, your best bet is a home-prepared diet made with ingredients you source in ratios that make sense for a carnivorous diet.
By Carrie Hyde, The Spaw Pet Life Coach | January 28, 2021
Written for The Spaw by Sara Seitz, Professional Freelance Writer and Novelist with Pen and Post
Carrie Hyde is the founder, owner, and Pet Life Coach of The Spaw in Tustin, CA. Carrie’s extensive experience and understanding of pet nutrition and coaching enabled her to create The Spawdcast, a podcast dedicated to educating pet parents and pet industry professionals on ALL the options available to their pets. Her mission is to open pet-owner’s eyes to the questions they may not even know to ask, to shine a light on the many myths that have been part of pet care for decades, and to offer whole solutions for their pets. Carrie Hyde is a certified pet nutritionist with the goal of helping pet parents & pet professionals with a new understanding of how to care for pets in a “whole and natural” way.
