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Let me start by saying that I’m no zoologist, but the last I checked, dogs aren’t “omnivores”. Dogs are in fact “carnivores” and have been that way since they came into existence as the predators that they are. The fact that we have domesticated them and think we know what’s best for them, has changed what many recommend that we feed them. A dog has a different system than a human does, as is obvious when your dog tries to eat some dead rotting thing in the road that peaks its appetite. Of course you want to avoid your dog eating some worm-ridden thing like that, but my point is that dogs need different enzymes than humans, and therefore have different needs in their diet.
So to address what a dog should be eating, I’ll first start out by saying that a dog should never, NEVER, eat cooked meat. Dogs went thousands of years without firing up the grill folks. No need for us to start for them now. Raw meat is one of the best things for a dog. However, pork, is not. Furthermore, contrary to the article posted, cooked chicken bones have been proven to shard in a dog’s stomach, leading to a number of problems. Raw bones with marrow in tact, and raw meat are what dogs are designed to eat. “But what about bacteria,etc?” one might ask. Again, a dog’s stomach isn’t a human stomach. I’m somewhat shocked that our previous author recommended cooked meat. It’s the quickest way to ensure poor nutrition in a dog, and usually diarrhea.
Lastly, dogs aren’t seen in the wild eating rice, green beans, and cereal. So while most dry foods contain these things, they are mostly filler for the manufacturer that has been “spun” to the public as being hip, or “green”. Dogs don’t eat green beans in the wild. Not sure if you knew that. You can find “recorte para perros” in most grocery stores or carnicerias, which is ground up dog meat comprised mostly of the fatty spare parts and organs from cows. It’s a great alternative to buying the expensive bagged food all the time. It costs less, is good for the dog, and gives him or her a nice break from eating rice and green beans. I recommend looking past the hype that humans have created regarding diet for dogs, and take a look at the animal itself. Common sense will prevail.
Thanks adusta
I’m sure Gloria is aware of this but for the sake of clarification for us dog lovers, I will email her and ask for her feedback.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comi bought some of that “stuff” at perimercado. it was the most disgusting bag of goop i have ever seen in my life. it also had a lot of fillers in it like soy, which i don’t feed my dogs. and the water content was about 20%. ugh. how many thousands of years has it been that dogs have been domesticated and ceased to hunt in the wild? the notion that dogs should eat what they ate 10,000 years ago is ridiculous. i have two dogs. one is 14.5 years old. he has had his organic kibble supplemented with brown rice, fresh meat, chicken or fish and vegetables, along with flaxseed oil, brewer’s yeast, and yogurt for his entire life. he has never been sick and only goes to the vet to get a rabies shot so he can come to costa rica. my other dog is 3; he was a rescue and it’s taken better part of a year to get his diet adjusted after he ate god only knows what for the first two years of his life. most of the dog food in costa rica is loaded with all kinds of things dogs should never eat — corn, wheat, animal by-products. my neighbors who feed their dogs this garbage have dogs with allergies and skin problems of all kinds. i only found one dog food in the vet’s office that i would feed my dogs in costa rica — it’s a lamb and rice formula that costs $12 for 4 pounds. because meat is so cheap in costa rica, i do give them more than they would usually get in the states, but i try not to exceed the 20% limit on protein.
Well, I will say that my humble article on basic dog nutrition certainly generated a lot of passion. That just shows how much we love our pooches and that is a good thing.
Let me try to clarify a few of the comments of some of the readers. I believe a few of them are simple misunderstandings based on hurried reading. I have certainly been guilty of that in the past as well.
One person made reference to dogs being carnivores as though perhaps that had slipped my attention and seemed to misunderstand when I mentioned that we all know dogs are Carnivores. I thought I made that pretty clear. I then went on to mention that dietary speaking that they actually are slight Omnivores. Actually, the order Carnivora includes a wide variety of animals from raccoons to polar bears. The diet of each species is actually a sliding scale of meat and vegetables with some of them more meat eating than others and in the wild, can even vary with the season. The science of the evolution of carnivores and their anatomy and dietary preferences is way too long and dreary to go into right now. Just hit the textbooks for more info. The domestic dog of our discussion actually consumes some vegetable matter and most likely that originated from eating some of the stomach contents of their prey who themselves were vegetarians.
I think the same person mentioned never to feed cooked meat to dogs. Now, this I think is personal preference. I personally choose cooked meat here because it completely takes out of the picture any problems involving any possible parasitic cysts or larvae, or other potential contamination in the meat that could involve health problems. Again, that is my reasoning and personal preference. I think today that issue is still controversial. The reasoning of the person who objected to cooked meat was something to the effect that ancestral dogs didn’t cook their meat. I am sure the wolf like ancestors did not cook their meat. However just as Homo sapiens no longer gather around the old cave munching on raw thigh bones like Homo erectus did previously, Fido has moved away from the ancestral diet of his wild ancestors.
Another oversight was that the person mentioned chicken bones in the diet. I hope I made it clear to be sure any meat did not include any bones in it. I would never recommend a dog be given chicken bones for the very reason mentioned: the shards can be lethal if they puncture vital organs. I have vet friends who have shared radiographs of such tragedies.
I mentioned the canned veggies because they are a safe (can’t overdose) source of vitamins and minerals and probably in just the right amount. Also, especially for the older dog that doesn’t eliminate as well as they did when they were young, the veggies provide a little extra fiber to help ease that problem. And veggies can’t hurt them.
Lastly, I also mentioned that the diet I recommend and use (and modify as I learn new information) is just one of perhaps dozens of equally good and nutritious diets. I certainly wasn’t advocating that my diet is the one and only – far from it. If you have your dog on a diet and see he/she is blooming with health, disease free and full of energy, you are obviously on the right track. Keep doing what you are doing and smile with satisfaction. I simply wrote this article in answer to requests from people and to be helpful to those who don’t care to do the research.
Let me say for future purposes, I write articles I hope will provide quick information for busy people who would like something short, concise and useful and don’t care to make an in depth study on the subject. . I find the need for simple and basic animal information in great need here in the tropics and the subject matter is wide and diverse. I feel sympathy for those struggling to keep their pets helpful and so I try to provide very practical, (free) useful information that people can read quickly and help them out without going to the net and facing volumes of information. Anyone who would like more in depth information or would like to compare various philosophies on any subject obviously has the time to search the net.
I hope you all have happy and healthy dogs. And thanks for your comments.
Gloria
Thank you, Gloria. I have a couple of dogs I rescued here in Miami. They will come with me when I move to Costa Rica and I intend to bring on board a couple more down there.
I never let my dogs run free off my property. I walk them on leashes when we hit the streets and parks of Miami. In Costa Rica, it will be a different environment and I am concerned about parasites and other tropical problems.
I just brought my two dogs back from CR. One fared better than the other. My cattle dog got into the brush the day we left CR and picked up some teeny tiny ticks. The day before that he broke out in hot spots which we treated with an OTC calamine cream from the farmacia. I didn’t discover the ticks until we got back to the States and even though only one attached, it wasn’t engorged, but as a precautionary measure given that Erlichiosis can be fatal, the vet put the dog on doxycycline for two weeks. The hot spots are healed, and the suspicious bald spot on his head, which I thought might be mange, has responded well to benzoyl peroxide and tea tree oil. The list of things dogs can pick up in CR is as long as my arm. You can’t be too careful about where they go and what they eat and how often they are bathed. My cattle dog went to the vet so often in CR for all kinds of minor things — bug bites, sprained leg, allergic reactions — that the vet told me, (after spending $200 in vet bills) “es un perro para un milionario!”
The best dog foods in he US ae the ones recommended and sold at cost by your veterinarian. We feed our 3 Natural Balance Duck & Potato, which is hypoallergenic. Another good hypoallegrneic brand is Flint River Ranch baked kibble. Most of the best dog foods are lamb, duck, venison, trout or salmon based, all of which have hypoallergenic properties. The potato or sweet potato that is used as a natural filler aids is a simple carb with vitamins that aids in digestion. Wild canines eat grass to aid in digestion. I disagree with the cooked meat slam, for salmon is excellent for dogs, but can never be eaten raw. NO SUSHI FOR DOGS!!! Cooked fish in general is extremely healthy for dogs as it is for humans with omeaga 3 oils, high protein, low fat and low cholesterol.
Domesticated dogs eat grass as well. One of my dogs chews up some grass once in a while. I know he has digestion problems because infrequently, he will vomit a small puddle.
I usually buy Timberwolf Organic dog food, which is not avaialble in Costa Rica; however, a friend of mine is looking into importing the high-quality brands as part of his doggie daycare business that he plans to open near Alajuela. My dogs love the Elk and Salmon combo, and we always give our dogs the cooked skin when we eat salmon ourselves. I have several recipes for making kibble, but never seem to have the time to take that on.
i’ve raised dogs all my life and owned tosa-ken kennels and bred japanese tosa dogs. i fed them nutro (a decently formulated kibble) and supplemented it with fish chowder cooked in a pressure cooker. this softened the ALL the bones in the fish carcass and the dogs loved it. cheap, simple and healthy. my dogs (unusual for very large dogs) NEVER went to the vet except for physical injuries due to their active lifestyle. for chewing,use cow knuckle bones which are large, don’t splinter (only get ground into small rounded particles that pass thru them harmlessly). for those who don’t know, knuckle bones are the ball part of a cows joints, similar to your own hip and shoulder joints. as far as vegies, well, all predators will attack the intestines first and foremost for the organ meat and the intestinal contents, which in their commonly vegetarian prey is vegetables
(well,o.k. greens). see farley mowat ( wrote “cry wolf”) for realistic info on the actual diet of wolves.i had two tosa dogs (145 fit pounds each) that ate my asparagus shoots regularly before i could harvest any of them. also bananas, acerola, persimmons, watermelon, and avocados; by choice. dogs are NOT OBLIGATE carnivores! cats are! i’ve never had a dog that would even eat raw meat, but i’m sure there are dogs that will. heck, i’ve never had a dog that would learn to fetch (well, one dim-witted chihuahua), not that i tried real hard. they learned all the obedience i needed from them for safety, but fetch, nah.also, i doubt pressure cooking will work with other meat, but you can try it with chicken meat (it may soften the bones?).i’m sure there’s a fairly wide range of feeding strategies that will work well with the diversity of canines available.
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