Why kibble, Why wet?

Namgupehtnad32 1/19/2011, 11:08 am

I have always owned dogs. When i was a kid we had a German Shephard and a Black Lab. We always gave some dry kibble in the am wet down and soaked a lil bit. At night it was always kibble and wet mixed. I never even gave any thought to it that is just how it was. When i got my first Pug Otis he always got wet and kibble and plus table scraps. I always shared with him. When i was done i would put whatever it was in his bowl. Nowadays i feel im a little more sophisticated and educated. Between me, my daughter and the pugs, i feel i spend half my life reading and comparing mind numbing label info. Sigh! Anyway lol my understanding is kibble costs the least, then wet food , then high quality stuff like raw(which i am currently feeding). I have been told that kibble is good for dogs teeth and its good for them to chew(mine chew on stuff all day and dont need kibble). What im wondering is do we feed kibble because of cost. Is it better to just feed wet food every meal. For me it wasnt a money issue i just never ever even gave it a second thought. kibble then kibble/wet at PM. I think wet is more nutritious then dry isnt it? When i took my puggies home in september i started feeding them 5 star kibble and wet. I switched a few brands and settled on Taste of the Wild, my guys loved it and had super energy and great coats. Im just curious as far as dog knowledge goes what is kibbles purpose and why doesnt everyone just feed wet every meal... Or do you? Thank you for input, just something I think about alot lol why didnt my family feed more wet food back in the day?

Saira 1/19/2011, 11:28 am

I think there is a big convenience factor in kibble and there are some high quality ones out there. I also think pet nutrition has come a long way too which is why we are seeing more of a variety and more people choosing other methods of feeding (raw, etc). I feed dehydrated raw (Honest Kitchen) but when traveling I do kind of miss kibble. Very Happy

Personally though I think just wet versus kibble isn't the only part of the debate, it's more about the ingredients. Feeding a high quality kibble would be better than feeding a low quaity wet food, so labels and research are important. Just my two cents!

Tyson&LuLu'sMom 1/19/2011, 11:36 am

I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned education. For me anyway, that's what it's about. Like Saira, I feed The Honest Kitchen-which isn't always the most convenient time wise, but I feel good knowing I give my pugs nutritious meals.
A lot of it is the information we're fed-TV commercials, vets who push Science Diet or other "prescription" foods, or just "what our parents did". I agree with Saira that pet nutrition has come a long way, along with valuing our animals as living, breathing beings that deserved to be treated well.

I did have a thought a while back, seeing people at the grocery store with Purina or Beneful in their carts. I hate to think of people feeding their animals that stuff, but in a society and economy where people starve their animals or horrifically neglect them, at least these people are feeding their pets.

MandyPug 1/19/2011, 11:40 am

Kibble is for convenience, that's it.
It doesn't clean teeth, if anything it contributes to tartar build up if they chew it because it's got lots of carbs in it and dogs don't have enzymes in their mouth to start breaking down food so the carbohydrates just accumulate on the teeth. Besides, most dogs and cats don't chew their kibble anyways.

Good ol' Dr. Marty Goldstein said it best when he ranked ways of feeding.

Ideal - Healthiest

1. Hunted, raw prey (not realistic in modern society)

2. Fresh raw meats, bones, organ meats with very small amounts of fresh vegetables. Include a well-rounded vitamin/mineral mix and omega 3 essential fatty acids (salmon oil). You can prepare your own raw diet using meat/bone pieces and parts, or you can use pre-prepared ground products such as Bravo! and Nature’s Variety.

3. Fresh cooked meats, calcium, organ meat, with very small amounts of fresh vegetables. Include a vitamin/mineral mix, and omega 3 essential fatty acids (salmon oil). There are several books on the market that help you create your own home-cooked diet. It’s best to follow the recipes in these books.

4. Ultra Premium commercial canned foods and augmented with some fresh, raw foods. Canned foods, which are lower in carbohydrates, are much better for your pet than dry kibble. Some of the brands I like are Nature’s Variety, Merrick, and Evanger’s. These products are mostly meat, are usually grain-free, and very low in carbohydrates. The meat they use is human quality and they do not use by-products or chemical preservatives.

5. As in #4 above, but adding fresh cooked foods

6. Ultra Premium canned commercial foods WITHOUT fresh raw or cooked foods added

7. Super Premium canned foods are very much like the brands above, but they use more grains. They still use good quality meats and don't contain by-products. Brand examples: Solid Gold, Innova, Pet Promise.

8. Super Premium grain-free dry food (kibble) like Instinct by Nature’s Variety

9. Premium canned foods. These brands use substantially less meat. Water is often the number 1 ingredient (in the Ultra Premium brands meat is the number one ingredient), they use meat by-products (poor quality waste parts) and they usually contain significant amounts of grains and chemical preservatives. Often, if all the grains are added together, they would equal or exceed the meat. The meat quality is OK, but just barely.

10. Super Premium kibble like Innova, Prairie, Canidae, and Timberwolf

11. Grocery store brands – canned or dry. These contain very little meat, are made with substantial amounts of meat by-products, and primarily consist of grain and grain by-products. The rendered meat used in these products came from condemned animals, ie – animals that were deemed unfit for human consumption. These products normally contain artificial colors, flavors and chemical preservatives.

Worst - Unhealthy

http://www.drmarty.com/feeding.htm

northernwitch 1/19/2011, 11:44 am

Like you, I feed raw and have done for many, many years. I'm increasingly leery of kibble for many reasons--one is my concern that the industry isn't terribly well regulated and many companies source their ingredients from not terrific places. Same can be said of canned, but at least with canned you can find foods with fewer ingredients (easier for those of us with allergy dogs).

And the whole "kibble is better for the teeth" is a bit of a myth. The theory is that dogs chew their kibble and that keeps tartar down. Well, most dogs DON'T chew their kibble unless the kibble size is huge. Certainly, most pugs don't. Personally, I think there are better ways to maintain their teeth.

BUT kibble is often cheaper, depending on what kind you use and it is convenient. But it's also relatively new. Kibble has only been used extensively in the last 50 to 60 years. And Lord knows, it's alot better now than it was. At least now there are no grain options and a variety of proteins to use.

Not Afraid 1/19/2011, 11:55 am

Many great points have been covered. I only have one thing to add.

Kibble is the least nutritious of the types of food. It is much more processed than any of the other types and has more additives because it needs to get through the extruder to make the little pieces without gunking up the machinery.

SacramentoPugs 1/19/2011, 2:05 pm

My mom talks sometimes about the "old days" when the dog food delivery guy would come to their house every week and drop off chopped horsemeat. Shocked

But you know what? In hindsight, fresh chopped meat, plus veggies and other tidbits from the family table, was probably a pretty decent diet for those dogs.

I'm a canned/kibble person (currently Taste of the Wild) for convenience and cost, but I'm big on supplementing with veggies, fruit, eggs, yogurt, etc. when available.

Namgupehtnad32 1/19/2011, 2:20 pm

I can remeber exactly how I felt when I read that there is absoloutley nobody or board or agency that tests pet food companies claims and advertisments on their produtcs. In otherwords They can put anything they want on there that says all natural or good for teeth and coat and it doesnt even have to be true. With blueberries and esseintial omega 3. Then you read the label and it has blueberries as the 18 ingrediant and the smallest tinest amount of omega 3 it could not have survived the cooking process. I felt violated, cheated, and lied to!

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