Distributor for Animal Food Services
"The Original Meat Diet for Your Pet"
3705 Arctic Blvd #2553
Anchorage, AK 99503
907-229-4263
info@shilohtlcpetcare.com
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Why Your Dog Benefits From Feeding A Raw Diet
Energy / Protein / Digestibility
By Cheryl Richardson
Raw diets are still considered an unconventional method of feeding, yet more and more pet health professionals, breeders, and pet owners see the benefits in their animals. If properly processed, meeting or exceeding Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) standard your dog will benefit from the nutritional value raw diets offer.
Why is the nutritional value so important in our pet’s diet? First and foremost the nutritional value has a specific function in your pet’s body. There are (6) major categories: water, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, and vitamins. There are two kinds of nutrients, essential nutrients, those that cannot be produced by the body and non-essential which “can be synthesized by the body and can be obtained through production within the body or by the food they eat”. Nutrition is what generates dietary energy. Dietary energy is the (6) major nutrients needed for normal growth, physical work, maintenance and reproduction, or to summarize it is the metabolic function within the organs and tissues of our pets.
Our pet’s bodies produce energy from their food sources. This means that if the digestibility of your pet’s food is 70% then 30% is going into fecal and urinary waste. All of Animal Food Services (AFS) Raw diets are 90% digestible. Only 10% is being expelled as waste from your pet. The other 90% is digested or absorbed in the intestines, and then it is metabolized as energy making it available to tissue and organ function. This is why AFS states their food is a “health improving” pet food. If more of your pet’s diet is going towards organ and tissue functions then the immune system of your pet is improved making your dog look and feel so much better. According to the research found in “Canine and Feline Nutrition 2nd edition, Case, Carey, Hirakawa, and Daristotle” most of the protein sources used in today’s commercial pet foods has comparibably low digestibility coefficients”. High digestibility is considered 90% or higher, low digestibility is considered 75% or lower.
Our pets cannot regulate the intake of essential nutrients, essentially they will eat what they need to achieve the necessary energy requirement; as a pet owner you have to be sure that the quality of the nutrients are determined since our pets cannot do this for themselves. You might buy, what you think is a good quality food, yet when you research the source of the protein (major dietary nutrient) you find that most of the protein is soy or a grain, which although your pet has the ability to digest, prolonged feeding can build toxins within the intestines, and though not life threatening to your dog it does not provide the highest quality of amino acids or protein molecules as found in a raw diet. Raw diets contain the 22 amino acids (protein chains/enzymes), 10 are classified as essential to your pet’s diet, and the other 12 are classified as non-essential and must be supplied in their diet (see additional information further within this paper for details). AFS diets contain the highest quality of protein (animal) thereby providing your pet with the necessary amino acids needed each day. When foods are cooked many of the amino acids are eliminated, or cooked out, in your pet’s diet reducing the quality of the protein chains typically found in commercial dog food. Feeding your pet a raw diet gives your pet all amino acids needed for long life, allowing your pet the ability to sufficiently meet the energy needs for a life time. Our dog’s immune system relies on protein substances to build antibodies to resist disease therefore diets with quality proteins and high digestibility improves your dog’s health. Feeding a raw diet essentially works with your dogs normal metabolic functions thereby providing your dog with health benefits noticeably seen by the human eye. Quality protein sources allow your dog to build noticeable results with their structure, hair, skin, nails, tendons, ligaments and cartilage.
Let’s suppose you feed a commercial pet food with a relatively high percentage of protein, yet the source of the protein is a combination of protein grains and animal, you might have a 75% digestibility factor, meaning your dog would require more of this food source to maintain the required energy needed for metabolic function than from a raw diet containing just animal protein with a 90% digestibility factor. In short the more digestible the food the less food is needed to maintain the required energy levels your dog needs each day.
When a dog is unable to digest the required amount of food to supply their energy requirement for normal organ and tissue function and there body passes the unabsorbed food into the colon bacteria attacks this waste which results in intestinal gas (flatulence), or your dog may have a noticeable foul odor about them. When a dog has chronic gastrointestinal problems you may want to explore another food source that is more digestible and of a higher quality protein to eliminate some of this problem. Since no food is 100% digestible your dog may from time to time have gas, but chronic gas is a sign of undigested food and although you may be buying a higher quality food product it is not highly digestible.
Someone asked me at a dog show what the percentage of nitrogen was in my food; I honestly told this person I couldn’t answer this question. That got me to research further what nitrogen actually was. In simple terms nitrogen is an estimate of crude protein. I had the answer all along and didn’t know it. Because of this question I set myself on a fact finding mission about the dog food I sell. Had I been up on my biology I would have been able to answer her question with a very simple, “in order to answer that question I would need to know which of my food products you are inquiring about”.
Let’s explore one reason commercial foods may not meet your dog’s dietary requirements.
High in plant protein, although palatable it fills your dog up fast signaling their dietary energy has been met. Actually all this has done is fill the maintenance requirement (simple continuation of normal life) of your dog before any of the amino acid, vitamin and mineral requirements for dietary energy has been met.
According to “Principles of Companion Animal Nutrition, 2006, John P. McNamara, the term protein quality is used to describe diets that meet the exact amino acid needs of the animal, in all practicality “an animal would never consume exactly the same pattern of amino acids that it needs (although in some situations it can come pretty close)”. AFS products contain all the amino acids within their diet combined with the quality of animal protein and the digestibility of the protein indicates AFS is at the higher end of “exactly”.
Let’s list the 22 amino acids; their chemistry and the uses: Although most of us will not know how to pronounce the names, much less understand the chemistry, we all can benefit from understanding the uses the amino acids have within our dog’s diet.
|
Essential Amino Acids |
Chemistry |
Uses |
|
Arginine, Lysine |
Basic amino acid |
lipoproteins, urea cycle |
|
Methionine, Cysteine |
Sulfur amino acid |
Cell Structure, hormones |
|
Valine, Leucine, Isoleucine |
Hydrophobic, branch chain proteins |
Lipid transport, muscle and milk |
|
Histidine, Tryptophan |
Cyclic amino acid |
Lipid transport, membranes, connective tissue, milk |
|
Phenylalanine |
Phenolic amino acid |
Thyroid function, Neurotransmitters |
|
Non-Essential Amino Acids |
Chemistry | Uses |
|
Alanine, Glycine |
Simple amino acid |
Glucose synthesis, energy |
|
Glutamate, Glutamine |
Discarboxylic amino acid |
Energy, metabolism, urea cycle, milk |
|
Aspartate, Asparagine |
Dicarboxylic, diaminic Amino acid synthesis |
Nitrogen exchange, transport |
|
Threonine, Serine |
Hydroxyl amino acid |
Mucus, intestinal lining |
|
Proline |
Cyclic amino acid |
Lipid transport, membranes, connective tissue, milk |
|
Tyrosine |
Phenolic amino acid |
Thyroid function, neurotransmitters |
|
Ornithine, Citrulline |
Special amino acid |
Used in the urea cycle |
A general rule of thumb when buying a marketable product you get what you pay for. So although a raw diet may cost you more to feed the results to the dogs overall health is the return for the price. Quality drives price, finding the balance between quality and cost is one reason AFS created different product lines for the consumer. A multi dog household may not be in a position to feed 100% raw, although with AFS products you can still get the benefits, due to the quality, on a limited budget.
• B-Complex
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin E
• Vitamin K
Vitamins are organic molecules needed for the body’s metabolic function
v Vitamin C - (Absorbic acid) - Forms the structural protein collagen
v Vitamin D - Necessary for normal calcium absorption
v Vitamin E - Antioxidant which protects the cells & tissues
v Vitamin K - Allows for normal blood clotting
B Complex
v B2 Riboflavin - Provides a normal oxidative reaction
v Niacin - Helps to metabolize nutrients
v Pyridoxine - Metabolizes protein & amino acids
v Pantothenic Acid - Co-enzyme needed for carbohydrate fat, and amino acid metabolism
v Biotin - Metabolizes fats and amino acids
v Folic Acid - Necessary for red blood cell development and DNA synthesis
v B12 Cobalamin - Supports the functions of folic acid
v Choline - Supports cell membranes
v Menadione Sodium - Form of Vitamin K (vitamin K3) helps with blood clotting
Minerals are essential for normal growth, development, and maintenance of the body
v Phosphorus - Responsible for storage & transfer of energy
v Magnesium - Necessary for muscle contractions and nervous impulse transmission also helps to
metabolize protein
v Iron - Supports oxygen carrying proteins of the blood and muscles
v Copper - Necessary to form the activity of the red blood cells. Necessary for normal pigmentation of
the skin
v Zinc - Supports the enzyme system necessary for maintaining healthy skin & coat
v Sulfur - Needed for cartilage
v Manganese - Carbohydrate and lipid metabolism helps with the formation of cartilage
v Iodine - Essential for thyroid hormones, helps regulate the body’s metabolic rate
v Selenium - Cell membrane antioxidant interrelated to Vitamin E
v Colbolt - Component of B12
v Electrolytes - (Sodium, potassium & chloride) supports nerve & muscle function, aids energy
metabolism
WHAT IS DIETARY ENERGY?
It is the amount of energy containing nutrients stored in your pet’s body. The two major sources of energy are protein and fat. Energy is necessary for the pet’s metabolism..
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