Well as they say 'one man's junk is another man's treasure', or in this case dog's. You can't deny the fact that although dogs are mammals like humans, they have completely different dietary needs and sometimes can't even digest or process what normal human bodies can. I don't know what kind of dog food you're buying but I don't buy dog food made from "recalled foods, road kill, and euthanized pets." The bottom line is: dog food (the good kind) is much better suited to fulfilling your pet''s caloric and nutritional needs than normal people food can. Sure there might be "slaughterhouse scraps" in there, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad for the dog. It's still organic protein.You or I might be inclined to call it gross, but dogs don't share our delicate, 'civilized' tastes. Dogs lick other dogs' buttholes for fun, remember?
My dogs are fed a mix of dry food , which is kept out so they can snack anytime they want it, and regular cooked food. Sometimes when we have leftovers, I make a special meal just for the dogs, but usually they just enjoy whatever we are eating. It always puzzles me why people would think that processed dog foods are the best thing for your dog. Dogs food, as such, didn't even exist until early in the 1900's. Before that time, most people raised all (or at least most) of their own food, and pets lived on whatever wild animals they killed and on table scraps. When the nation became more industrialized and people moved into the cities and had to purchase food rather than grow it themself, then manufacturing companies came into being. They realized that they could use the wasted food scraps and make pet food, and that is how we came to have processed dog foods. The Ralston Purina makes cereals under the Ralston label, and animal foods under the Purina label, as an example. Most of the other dog and cat foods are also made as a byproduct of human food manufacturing, they just use a different name for the pet food.
I'm well aware of all that.. but I'm also well aware of how the industries work and you don't actually see what goes in many of the foods. I feed my animals one of the best on the market.. but a label, nice packaging, a professional website and a higher price will never blind me. Meats unfit for human consumption may be ok coming from a slaughterhouse (any meat is more fit for your pet than for humans ), but the rest is nothing to ignore because you didn't see it in the commercial.
I personally only feed my cats store bought dry food, only because they don't really seem to like anything else. I have tried several different brands, but they just are not interested. As for feeding them human food, I only really do it as a treat. My cats love chicken and beef, which is really odd considering they don't eat it when it is part of the canned wet food. For me, the dry food definitely seems to be the most cost effective. Reading the posts here though has really got me thinking about what I will feed my dog when I eventually get him/her. Making your own dog food at home certainly seems to be cost effective and fairly easy!
I usually prefer to use normal food rather than pet food. I do not remember he last time the pet food was bought into out home . I do believe that normal food is more than enough.
I don't longer have pets, but I had one throughout my teen years. And I only used to buy a bond-shaped type of dry food, said to be ideal to get my dog's teeth clean. Other than this, he ate leftovers for his whole life, which were reworked by cooking them with chicken broth, plus meat leftovers that our local market butcher used to give us for free.
We have 3 dogs and I cook food for them. I mix meat, rice and vegetables. I tried giving them dog food but they don't like it. The only problem is that they can consume a large amount of rice. Their capacities are twice ours. One of our dog loves ripe mango. I feed him every now and then.
I didn't really think about it before, but pets are not supposed to eat certain foods that we humans eat. Through being on Tumblr and being subscribed to quite a few pet blogs - because they are cute lol - I have seen posts that are quite informative too. There are posts about which fruits, and foods you can feed pets, versus the foods that are dangerous for them. I think that unless you know what you are doing, you should just stick to feeding pets pet food.
If you choose not to use a decent grade of commercial pet food you need to do some research. Dogs, and especially cats, have some specific dietary needs that you might not be covering. The easiest way to do this is by adding something like Earth Animal Raw Complete Powder. In the absence of some proteins a pet cat can actually go blind. I add veges and meat scraps etc but use a mid-quality high protein kibble as a dietary base for my dogs.
As others have pointed out, I'd be really careful with what "People" food you're giving your dogs. Often times, there are spices and other assorted things in our food that aren't good for their digestive system at all. The big advantage you have with dog food is that its specifically designed to meet the dietary needs of your animal. You can't be certain you're meeting those needs when just feeding them normal food. Perhaps checking with a Vet would be a good course of action to take. That way, he can make recommendations as to what to you can feed your dog and what you should be avoiding.
There's definitely a give and take relationship that comes with feeding dogs normal food. Studies suggest that people food can have deteriorating effects on household animals due to excessive fat, salt, or vitamin content leading to degenerative diseases and conditions. However, it sounds like you are feeding your animals a great balance of meat and vegetables, which is key to having a healthy best friend. In addition to this, traditional dog food is often cheaper than serving your household pets normal food. A $20 bag of dog food can feed my rat terrier mix for a month!
I'm not a dog-owner, but I have a cat. I'm feeding her both normal food such as meat, and pet food, and she's healthy and in shape. And she enjoys both of those as much, so I wouldn't say it's bad for her.
When our 2 youngest dogs were puppies, they were fed dog food because that's what their owners started them with. All our dogs were given to us, we never buy dogs. But at 3 months old, we wean our dogs away from dog food and start giving them cooked food. Dog food is not that delicious unlike cooked food which has flavor that our dogs truly enjoy. So they grew up in boiled fish or chicken, broiled fish or chicken and even boiled pork. Sometimes we give them beef. But all those cooked food are not flavored with salt.
