Why raw?
To answer this question, we start with the nutrition that is being fed to our pet today, namely chunks and canned food. A very big chance that you also feed this food to your dog or cat. With cuttings and canned food, your pet gets nutrients, and it is also said that your beloved pet is well fed.
But is this true?
Two kinds of pieces
On the market there are two types of chunks: pressed chunks and expanded chunks. The latter is manufactured under high temperatures, as a result of which many essential nutrients are lost.
Regardless what kind of chunk you feed they have two things in common:
First they have come to the market for the convenience of the owner, not for the health of your pet. Nothing is easier than to strew chunks in a bowl for the dog or pulling a tin open for the cat.
After all, the package is ‘complete menu’, so you do not have to worry about anything else. According to the producer, your dog or cat will not fall short of nutrition.
Secondly, and that might be even more important: chunks or can food is unnatural for your dog or cat. By nature carnivores and their metabolism benefit from meat, preferably raw, so as to preserve as much of the natural ingredients as possible.
Production process chunks and canned food
Chunk and canned foods are produced in such a way that good essential nutrients that are in meat are lost. After cooking, there are significantly fewer ingredients left for your dog or cat. In order to get the food back to an acceptable level, vitamins, minerals and other preparations are then added artificially. The same components that have been lost in the production process!
Finally for both the producer and the consumer it is useful if the food is long-lasting. In order to extend shelf life, preservatives are added. For this purpose, the same products are added that are also found in pesticides (including BHA and BHT). On the package these additives are often referred to under a collective name, such as “EC-approved antioxidants”.
Added all up, chunk and cane food is very far from what your pet would eat by nature.
Why essential?
A carnivore is an animal that has a digestion for the absorption and digestion of animal fats and proteins. And not to eat cereals and dried boiled meat. Last bu not least, we do not see a wolf in nature cook a meal …
Artificial food leads to a lazy digestion of a carnivore with the important consequence that the animal’s resistance is not asked to perform optimally. The food is presented on a tray and may contain the correct nutrition’s, but not in the correct natural composition, so the resistance is reduced.
And a reduced resistance leads to a variety of complaints that we call “typical” pet problems: dull fur, a lot of hardening, or even itching, hotspot diarrhea etc. Not fun for your pet and not fun for you.
If the dog or cat does not get optimal food, he can not feel well. We people are becoming more and more aware that healthy nutrition is essential to our health, how we feel and what we perform. Why do not we also give it to our dog or cat?
The non-value of Cereals
Generally in chunks there are a lot of cereals. Cereals contain a lot of carbohydrates, which is an unnatural source of energy for a carnivore. In nature, a dog is eating at most corn as a stomach content of a prey and thus in small amounts and always in combination with more fresh meat. Dogs that react allergically to chunks often have an allergy to cereals or for the artificial additives used. Chunks also contain low-biological proteins, while in raw foods, proteins are of high biological value. The protein in fresh meat is rich in essential amino acids and in a combination closest to the body protein.
Often it is claimed that chunks are good for the teeth because it is hard. The chunks are indeed hard, but stick with admixture with saliva, think of the biscuits that we often eat. We brush our teeth, but with your pet there are definitely leftovers in the teeth resulting in teeth issues. In nature, a wolf brushes his teeth by tearing bones and tearing big pieces of meat. When feeding grinded beef meat it will not stick to the teeth.
The teeth
The teeth of carnivores such as dogs and cats betray that it is made for food to be torn and consumed in large pieces: it moves up and down. The teeth and the molars of an omnivorous or herbivore, on the other hand, move precisely back and forth or in ’rounds’ suitable for grinding feed.
No matter how big your dog or cat is it is and remains a carnivore and therefore best for food like nature ever meant: raw meat, raw organs, raw bones.