Why I No Longer Feed My Dog Kibble

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The debate on what food is healthiest for dogs is never ending. Every veterinarian, dog owner, and breeder has a different opinion on whether or not you should feed kibble or raw, grain or grain free, homemade or factory produced. At the end of the day, every dog is different and they all have different dietary needs which is why you should always speak with your vet about what diet will be best for your pup. For my dog, I choose to feed her Darwin’s raw food and today I’m sharing 5 reasons why I no longer feed my dog kibble.

Why I No Longer Feed My Dog Kibble

Before bringing my Siberian Husky, Luna, home three years ago I did a ton of research on the best diet for her. I had wanted to put her on a raw diet from the beginning but was scared of balancing it wrong and doing more harm than good. Eventually, I decided on the Kirkland grain free kibble from Costco. I would later switch her to American Journey kibble and then Earthborn Holistic unrefined kibble. A ton of research went into each of these kibble choices but I was never happy with the results I was getting.

For starters, Luna didn’t like her food. It didn’t seem to matter what brand of kibble I gave her or what protein I chose, she never wanted to eat. While most puppies excitedly scarf down their food, Luna would pick at it and would often go over 24 hours without eating at all. 

On top of not even liking the kibble, I noticed that she was getting a decent amount of tarter on her teeth at a very young age. In fact, she had a cavity and had to have a tooth pulled at just two years old. 

I also was not happy with the quality of her coat, it felt dry and never looked as shiny and smooth as some other huskies that I would see. For all of these reasons, I decided it was time for a change in her diet and shortly after her third birthday I switched her to a completely raw and nutritionally balanced diet of Darwin’s raw food and the results have been incredible. 

Why I’ll Never Go Back to Feeding My Dog Kibble

Putting Luna on a fully raw diet changed her life for the better and she is now a super healthy and happy dog. There are many reasons I will never put her back on a kibble diet, but these are my top 5:

1. Kibble causes tartar

As I mentioned before, despite eating high quality kibble, having her teeth brushed daily, and being given many different toys and bones to chew on, Luna still got a ton of tartar on her teeth at a very young age. Many vets will tell you that kibble actually helps clean your dogs teeth because the kibble scrapes tartar as they chew. In my experience, this is not at all the case.

Saying that kibble cleans your dogs teeth is similar to saying that potato chips clean our teeth just because they’re crunchy. It just doesn’t make sense. While I have met dogs who eat kibble and have fairly clean teeth, those clean teeth are a result of genetics or owners practicing proper dental care for their pup. Feeding kibble and not using any other teeth cleaning techniques is eventually going to cause a build up of tartar.

Luna had a dental done shortly before I switched her to Darwin’s. Since then, her teeth are beautiful and her vet comments on them all the time. Raw food contains live enzymes and good bacteria that help prevent plaque and tartar build up. Kibble doesn’t contain these enzymes and bacteria, so as a result, any food particles left on or between a dogs teeth after eating will eventually turn into plaque and tartar. 

2. Kibble promotes obesity

Kibble is extremely high in carbohydrates and as a result it promotes obesity. Obesity is the most common preventable disease in dogs in North America with 40-45% of dogs between the ages of 5 and 11 being overweight. Kibble is partly to blame for this. 

Dogs that eat a kibble diet and don’t get enough exercise are bound to become overweight, even if just by a few pounds. Before switching Luna to a raw diet she was several pounds overweight. Since going on raw she has lost those pounds and is at a very healthy weight for an active dog of her size and breed.

3. Kibble is not high enough in protein and other necessary nutrients

To make kibble the hard, crunchy, dry food that it is, it has to be cooked at an extremely high temperature. Cooking the food at temperatures of up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit drastically changes the nutritional value of each ingredient in the food. 

Kibble is also full of filler items such as corn, potatoes, and rice. These ingredients are not nutritionally beneficial to dogs and knock down the nutritional value of dry food by a lot. When you read the ingredient label on a bag of dog food, the ingredients are listed in order of how much is in the food. So if your ingredient label lists “chicken” as the first ingredient and “corn” as the second then there’s probably just as much corn in the food as chicken. This means your dog is eating more corn than they are other vitamins, meats, and veggies that are actually good and beneficial for them.

Foods are at their highest nutritional value before they are cooked, meaning the raw meat, fruit and veggies in Darwin’s raw food is extremely nutritionally beneficial for dogs. The lack of fillers means that they are truly using all of the food they are consuming. Luna’s bowel movements are much smaller now than they were while she was on kibble simply because her body is using everything that she is eating.

4. Preservatives are bad for dogs

Kibble is full of preservatives to make its shelf life longer. Because dogs and humans have different guidelines on what can and can’t be used in food, the preservatives in kibble aren’t necessarily approved for human consumption. These preservatives can cause all sorts of illnesses and allergies in our pets. I don’t even like preservatives in my own food, so I definitely don’t want to feed them to my dog. 

5. Kibble is low in moisture

When Luna ate a kibble only diet, her coat was super dull and dry. Once I switched her to raw food her coat became super shiny and she all around looked like a healthier dog. Because kibble has to be cooked at such a high temperature, its moisture content is incredibly low. This can cause issues from a dry coat to dehydration. 

You can always add oils or even water to your dogs food to help with the moisture content, but I prefer to feed a raw diet as it has a naturally high amount of moisture.

I’ve seen nothing but positive changes in my dog since switching her to Darwin’s raw food. Do you feed your dog a raw diet?