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One great hurdle to getting pet parents to switch to a fresh food diet is overcoming the convenience of shelf-stable pet food in a bag. On the other hand, with the growing humanization of our pets, pet owners have adopted the same health concerns for their dogs as they do for themselves. Leading more people to ask whether dry dog food is bad for dogs. When you think about it, how did we ever come to believe that ultra-processed dry dog food could be the right way to feed our fur kids?
As dogs became domesticated alongside humans, they evolved away from their wolf ancestors. In part, by eating human food scraps! Why did we move away from feeding human-grade, fresh food to low-quality dry kibble? (Hint: it’s no coincidence that kibble is manufactured like cereal!)
Similar trends appear in the pet food industry as in the human food industry, both good and bad. As the industrial revolution influenced our own food industry, moving away from fresh, locally-sourced food towards shelf stable, ultra-processed and overcooked convenience food, the same occurred in the pet food industry. Here is how modern commercial pet food came to be.
The Early History
Dogs have been keeping humans company for more than 30,000 years. By 2000 BCE, a Roman philosopher, Marcus Terentius, wrote the first farming manual, which suggested feeding meat, bones, and barley soaked in milk to dogs.
By the Middle Ages, royals and grand houses kept domestic dogs mainly as guard animals, as well as pets. The 13th century scientist, Albertus Magnus, cautioned that dogs should not be fed food right off the dinner plate, or else they might not be effective guard dogs, as they will “keep one eye on the door and one on the generous hand of the master.” And, by the end of the 14th century, Gaston III, a Count in France, wrote a book, which included a reference to what he fed his greyhounds: bran bread, some of the meat from the hunt, goat’s milk, bean broth, and buttered eggs.
Notably, meat was not predominant in dogs’ diets, as it was considered a waste of food that could have gone to the poor! Rather, a dog was fed what could be spared, which was often cabbage, potatoes, onions and crusts of bread!
Pet Food in the 19th Century
Modern day commercial pet food can be traced to 1860 in England. In the 19th century, middle-class families with disposable income began to keep dogs as pets, rather than just working animals. When an electrician (hardly a veterinary nutritionist!) named James Spratt visited London, and saw crewmembers from his ship throwing leftover stale biscuits to dogs on the dock, he instantly saw a business opportunity.
These were hardly the soft, flaky biscuits that come to mind when we hear that word. Rather, these biscuits – made from flour, salt and water – were baked and left to harden and dry, so that they could last for months on ships without refrigeration! Spratt formulated the first “dog biscuit,” a mix of wheat meals, vegetables, beetroot and beef blood, and called them Spratt’s Dog Cakes. Selling the biscuits to English gentlemen, Spratt created a new market and was an instant success. He brought his invention back to New York, launching the commercial pet food industry!
Spratt marketed his dog biscuits as a complete meal source and he called on his early adopters, the wealthy English gentlemen, for testimonials. It wasn’t long before Americans forewent their fresh food table scraps in favor of Spratt’s biscuits.
Interestingly, Spratt’s biscuit didn’t contain meat!
It wasn’t until 1920 that meat took center stage in commercial pet food. As cars replaced horses, another entrepreneur saw an opportunity to buy cheap horse meat and created the first canned pet food called Ken-L-Ration. Similar to marketing tactics today, they called the horsemeat “lean, red government-inspected meat,” to obscure the actual source of the horse ingredients.
Why Dry Kibble?
During WWII, the metal used to make cans for dog food was rationed for the war effort, forcing the commercial pet food industry to pivot. The solution? Pet food companies began using by-product from cereal manufacturers to create a shelf-stable dry dog food product that could be sold in bags rather than tin cans.
In 1950, General Mills acquired Spratt’s and, in 1959, Purina acquired the American Crab Meat Company who made cat food – even though the food didn’t actually contain any crab. With the introduction of these big players in commercial pet food industry, they drew on their cereal experience to expand their shelf stable dry dog food products. Purina was the first company to use extrusion – a method of mass-producing shelf stable products, such as cereal, by mixing wet and dry food ingredients that are fed through a machine, subjected to extremely high temperature and pressure and then pushed (extruded) through a die-cutting machine to form dry kibble, which is then coated with fat and sugar to increase palatability.
Extrusion is still the predominant process employed by the commercial pet food industry to create dry dog food today. The problem with extrusion is that the extreme high-heat and drying squanders the vitamins, nutrients and moisture from even high quality ingredients. What’s more, just like with cereal, the final product would be pretty tasteless and odorless if not for the salt, sugar and fat coated at the end.
These larger food companies spent heavily to convince people that commercial pet food should be the exclusive diet for our pets and that a kibble diet was the healthiest option. It clearly worked. As the pet food industry boomed, the competition only led to more cost cutting and the use of high carbohydrate fillers and preservatives, leading to health concerns, such as obesity, and frequent recalls.
How Does Dry Dog Food Affect Pet Health?
How does a dry kibble diet consisting of low quality protein, refined by-product carbohydrates, and very little moisture affect well-being? After all, pets have been surviving on dry dog food for decades. Really, is kibble bad for our dog’s health?
Surviving and thriving are two different things. Chronic diseases, diabetes, obesity, kidney and liver disease, and cancer rates are all rising among our pets.
Indeed, studies support feeding a fresh food diet. A 2019 study at the University of Illinois showed that fresh food made with human-grade ingredients is more digestible than dry dog food. And, a 2003 Belgian study by researchers, Gerard Lippert and Bruno Sappy, surveyed 500 dogs over a 5-year period and proved that dogs fed with industrially processed food (kibble) live an average of 10.4 years, while dogs fed high-quality, homemade food can reach an average age of 13.1 years — almost 3 years longer!
From a scientific standpoint, it can be very difficult to isolate what we eat from all kinds of other environmental factors and show conclusive causal connections between diet and health issues. To some degree, we must also rely on common sense and what we know about the sourcing and manufacturing of dog kibble. In our own diets, more and more people are waking up to the fact that ultra-processed food is not beneficial for our long-term well-being — and it is no different for pet health. We love this video, where holistic veterinarian, Dr. Doug Knueven, considers whether we would believe that we could get all of our nutrition and dental health from eating the same bag of “People Chow” at every meal for our entire lives, simply because the marketing claims to provide a complete and balanced diet. Nonetheless, dry dog food is still the largest category in the pet food industry, despite the rising popularity of raw food and fresh food diets.
Is All Kibble Bad for Dogs?
This is tough to say, because many well-meaning pet owners spend more money on higher priced dry kibble that is marketed as high-quality, all-natural, organic, holistic, grain-free and every other buzzy term. The fact is that no matter how high quality the ingredients, the intense high-heat extrusion process denatures the ingredients to the point of a nutritionally dead food, but for the synthetic vitamins and minerals added to the kibble.
For many pet owners, cost is the overwhelming reason for continuing to feed dry kibble, which is completely understandable. Purchasing commercial human-grade, fresh pet food is obviously going to be more expensive. Our advice would be to supplement your dry dog food with fresh food when you can. Fresh food with vegetables and fruits rich in antioxidants, even just in part, can make a huge difference to your dog’s health. At the end of the day, every pet owner is doing their best!
Here is How Bramble’s Fresh Food is Different
At Bramble, we believe nutrition is the greatest long-term health plan. When asking yourself whether dry dog food is bad for dogs, consider that dogs aren’t meant to be eating highly processed, shelf-stable, dry kibble any more than we are meant to eat cereal all day every day! Bramble is committed to providing pet owners a dog food they can trust, full of high quality ingredients, gently cooked to maintain maximum nutritional value (and taste!), and frozen without preservatives. Free from all the common pet food allergens of beef, dairy, chicken, soy, and wheat gluten, Bramble is a hypoallergenic fresh food that addresses health issues such as allergies and sensitive tummies. You can sign up for our fresh recipes made of whole food, plant-based ingredients here.