When looking at feeding your dog dry dog food vs fresh dog food, you are going to find that there are some big differences in what you are providing your dog with regard to nutrition.
In the United States alone, there are over 300 manufacturers producing more than 7 million tons of dog food each year. Dog owners have more than 3000 different dog foods to choose from including dry dog food, canned, semi moist, fresh and raw dog food.
I will show you how dry dog food is made and what it is made with compared to how fresh dog food is made and what ingredients go into fresh dog food.
Then you can be the judge on what you think is best dog food to feed your dog.
Table of Contents
How Dry Dog Food Is Made
A mixture is made of the protein source, carbohydrates, fats of various quality (and unspecified sources), grains, cereals and vitamins are mixed together and pulverized to make a paste that can be cooked.
They then use an extrusion process, where a pressurized machine cooks the food with either steam or hot water and forces these ingredients together that processes them. They are pushed out of the machine and cut with a knife into the nuggets of dog food that you are familiar with.
Next the food will pass through a dryer to remove the remaining moisture.
An animal fat is sprayed onto the food, to increase an acceptable taste. Also, some vitamins and minerals are sprayed on the food and then it is sealed in packages before the oils and fats can spoil.
Ingredients In Dry Dog Food
Not all dog food is made the same way, and they use different recipes. Some brands use more grains and animal byproducts than actual meat products.
Ingredients are always listed in descending order. The first ingredient listed will be whatever has the largest concentrate in the food. If you want to feed your dog more meat than grain, you will want to look for a dog food where meat is the first listed ingredient.
I really don’t want this in my dry dog food.
Although all dog food isn’t made the same, the primary ingredients do remain consistent in most of them.
The primary ingredients are byproducts of meat, poultry and seafood. They also include feed grains and soybean meal.
Animals used in rendering are livestock, horses and house pets which have been put to sleep. Animal parts used include damaged carcass parts bones, and cheek meat. It also includes organs such as intestines, kidneys, liver, lungs, udders, spleen and stomach tissue.
Along with the meat will be cereal grains, such as soybean meal, corn meal, cracked wheat and barley are used to improve the consistency of the product as well as reduce the cost of raw materials.
The dog food will need some moisture which include water, meat broth or blood. Gelling agents are often necessary to help control the moisture content.
Most dog food manufacturers will supplement the dog food with vitamins and minerals, since some may be lost during processing the dog food.
Antioxidants are often used to prevent the fats from becoming rancid. To prevent mold and bacterial growth they will also add sucrose, sorbic acid or potassium.
Shelf life of dry dog food is 10 to 12 months and it will require the addition of artificial preservatives to make it last this long, which isn’t healthy for dogs. Even with all these additives, you still should be careful on how you store your dog’s food, to keep it fresh.
Pros And Cons Of Dry Dog Food
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Convenient | Made With Many Things We Would Never Consider Eating Ourselves |
| Affordable | Artifical Flavors |
| Many Flavors And Manufacturers | Preservatives |
| Antioxiadants | |
| Repeated Recalls | |
| Highly Processsed | |
| High In Calories |
How Fresh Dog Food Is Made
Fresh dog food is produced with human grade food that we could eat ourselves. It is prepared in FDA compliant kitchens. The ingredients are never frozen and after the food is prepared it isn’t frozen unless you decide to freeze it once you receive the product.
The food is cooked, it isn’t a raw diet. Cooking of the food helps prevent bacterial content and cooking the food helps with digestion of the food for your dog.
Ingredients In Fresh Dog Food
Fresh dog food has a pretty short list of ingredients. Because it is prepared fresh and intended to be eaten relatively soon, there are a lot less things that are required to preserve the food.
This food is prepared with human grade food. Fresh dog food is made with the protein of choice, usually pork, chicken, turkey or beef. They also include vegetables, healthy oils, vitamins and a nutrient blend.
There are no additives, no artificial ingredients, antioxidants or byproducts ever added.
Pros And Cons Of Fresh Dog Food
| PROS | CONS |
| Made With Human Grade Ingredients | Shorter Shelf Life Unless You Freeze |
| Fresh Ingredients Only | More Expensive Than Dry Dog Food |
| No Preservatives | |
| No Artifical Flavors | |
| No Antioxidants | |
| No Byproducts | |
| Healthier Dog |
If you have an interest in checking out fresh dog food, I would recommend taking a look at NomNomNow Dog Food. Their website will provide a lot of information about fresh dog food and you can look around without being pressured to buy anything.
Conclusion
When you take a look at dry dog food vs fresh dog food it is easy to see that fresh dog food is a much healthier choice for your dog. Comparing the ingredients that are in dry dog food with fresh gets pretty scary looking at the body parts that are ground up and included in dry dog food.
There are so many more additional ingredients that are added because of the quality of products that are being used. Most of the ingredients that are listed on a bag of dry dog food I don’t even know what the product is or what it does. That is a bit frightening.
Fresh dog food only uses a few ingredients, and it is safe enough that humans could even eat the dog food.
The controls for fresh dog food make me feel safer, since they are produced in FDA kitchens, and the number of dog food recalls makes it harder to know what dog food is safe. I know I don’t want to feed my dog anything that could cause him any illness or anything that would shorten his life.
Fresh ingredients from fresh dog food
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. You can follow justforyourdog.com on Pinterest, FaceBook or Twitter for all your latest dog updates.
Some of the links within this post are affiliate links of which I might receive a small compensation from sales of certain items.
