Cutting Edge will cover many subjects, but this edition looks at the hard sell of convenience kibble foods to our clients.

The veterinary industry has long promoted kibble foods to our clients, with claims of 'Veterinary Recommended' and 'Scientific'. The evidence for improved health in our pets by the sale of 100% convenience food to our clients is dubious.

More importantly, advising a totally unnatural diet could be deemed very 'unsound science'. This practice is the antithesis to all advice in human medicine and nutrition.

Doctors advise '5-a-day' raw portions, and a variety of fresh and unprocessed food. Latest research into the microbiome suggests variety is particularly important. So why are we advising our clients to feed processed, never changing, never fresh and unnatural foods? Is there a collective closing of the eyes to the obvious because of the income generated by our clients trusting us as 'scientists'?

This autumn will see the publication of a long awaited, two-year research program into species appropriate feeding of dogs, including food trials involving 26 dogs.

The study provides the scientific evidence and reassurance that many veterinary professional have been seeking and underlines the safety and benefits of a raw food diet. If you are interested in receiving a copy of the research paper as soon as it is published please email [email protected]

“Raw feeding in pets is a funny thing. A zoo animal nutritionist, describing the raw food vs kibble debate, said recently, 'the surprising thing for me is that we are having this debate at all!'

Raw feeding, for me as a practising vet, and hundreds of thousands of dog and cat owners all over the world, offers so many benefits. There's the rapid, obvious health benefits when you change, the long-lasting disease prevention as pets age, incomparable daily meal-time satisfaction and continual owner delight at taking responsibility for feeding your precious pet.

If a Martian came down to earth and you were tasked with explaining animal nutrition, you might start with cows and say, 'cows eat grass'. You'd move on to sheep and say the same. You'd talk about wolves scavenging and eating raw carcases, or wild cats hunting for fresh prey daily. Then you would come to domesticated cats and dogs. You'd have to explain that most people, including vets, think that feeding dry biscuits is the way to go. You'd say that processed proteins are combined with loads of stodgy carbohydrates to stick the whole biscuit together, that the kibble pellets are later sprayed with fats and flavour enhancers, and then bagged and placed on shelves for weeks and months on end before serving. This, you'd have to admit to your martian friend, is widely recommended to be the very best way to feed our most precious family members.

I still find it hard to see how the establishment can suggest this process is better, more nutritious and more 'correct' than feeding our pets the real thing. But they do. And that's why I'm going to tell you why I love raw and advocate it wherever and whenever I get the chance.

Don't believe me. I'm just a vet. You just need to talk to a new raw food feeder to be bombarded by the changes they quickly notice once their pet is on raw food. They'll talk about sweeter breath, cleaner teeth, better digestion, solid, healthy pick-up-able poos, better weight management, glossier coat and healthier overall smell.

If you talk to owners who've been on raw food for a few years, you'll hear a similar story. They will tell you they need to visit the vet much less than they used to. They'll talk of increased vitality in their pets, who seem to age more gracefully with fewer niggles from sore joints, gut and anal gland problems, to mention but a few.

Dogs have eaten meat for thousands of years. I do not think anyone could dispute this. They are not obligate carnivores, like cats, but they have been eating herbivore flesh-rich diets before humans first made fire and stone weapons.

Species Appropriate Raw food feeding is once again becoming popular. Is it the best way to feed? Is the domestic dog still wild at heart? Do we really think scientifically formulated dried food is the new answer to all our nutritional problems?

Arguments for raw food include increased health, fewer vet bills, greater satisfaction at meal times, better stamina and athleticism, smaller, less smelly, more 'pickupable' stools and ease of feeding...the list goes on. But how does it stand up against the industry standard, kibble?

Concerns about bacterial and parasite contamination, balanced nutrition, bones getting stuck and the expense of raw food need to be addressed.

The prime argument, however incorrect, against species-appropriate feeding in dogs is the risk of picking up infections from raw meat. Kibble is sterilised and generally has a low level of contamination. However raw meat, or complete raw foods containing raw meat, are frozen in production and storage, diminishing disease organisms to minimal, often zero levels. In the UK infectious agents in raw dog food are better regulated than human food! Worldwide, there are many more reports of human and animal infection from kibble than from raw food by a factor of hundreds.

This is easy to do with an ultra-processed, high starch kibble because every single element of the diet can be manipulated to give the approved 'scientifically formulated' end result. Raw food producers, on the other hand, even though they are able to manipulate the food less, can use technology and science to create diets that meet FEDIAF, the European pet food industry watchdog, standards.

Many critics of raw food, when trying to denigrate the practice, quote from the 2013 review 'Current knowledge about the risks and benefits of raw meat-based diets for dogs and cats', that appeared in the prestigious Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. The review quotes four papers on bone obstruction in pets, totalling 229 cats and dogs. The word 'raw' is not mentioned anywhere, suggesting that most foreign body blockage cases studied were not due to raw bones.

Bones are generally very beneficial to the gut, teeth and mind of pet and working dogs. Problems are rare. Kibble does not clean teeth, contrary to popular myth. The same goes for bloat, dilation and stomach rotation in dogs; most cases are not associated with raw food feeding. By far the majority are fed kibble-based diets. A colleague of mine tells a story of dealing routinely with an Old English Shepherd rescue at his practice. He eventually persuaded them to put all the dogs on raw. His income from bloat cases from the rescue all but dried up.

The hassle and cost of raw are always a contender when I talk to clients and give talks on raw food nutrition. But they need not be. Kibble is the ultimate convenience food. That is why it is the world's most popular method of feeding. But convenience has nothing to do with nutrition, it's a sales pitch! Do our doctors advise us to eat only convenience foods?

Just Google 'complete and balanced raw foods for dogs', to see the options. Raw food is now as convenient as kibble! It is also easy to incorporate into your practice, so you don't need to lose that income stream, currently provided by kibble.

Prices for quality raw foods match prices, per meal, of the mid- to upper ranges of the kibble market. You get what you pay for. You cannot expect Range Rover performance if all you buy is 2-stroke fuel.

However raw food is not for everyone. Some dogs, if they have been on high-carb foods (all kibbles, grain-free or otherwise) all their lives, cannot maintain weight initially when moved onto quality raw. Some dogs, and they are rare, can't cope with the new texture and flavours. Labradors, needless to say, are rarely in this group. If you cannot bring yourself to go the whole hog and go raw, then moving up the 'spectrum of nutrition' is the key - feed the best kibble you can, or introduce some raw meat and bones once or twice alongside the kibble.

Kibbles go from super-economy to ultra-premium brands. If you are set on kibble, look around for producers who are careful when sourcing raw ingredients. Low-temperature processing is another desirable feature. Also, when you buy kibble, buy quantities you will get through quickly, from a wholesaler with a good turnover of diets to ensure freshness.

There are, as with everything, pros and cons to raw food and kibble feeding. Look at the arguments for both. Consider both. You, and your dog are, after all, what you both eat.

Nick Thompson President of the Veterinary Raw Feeding Society

Copyright 2018, British Association of Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons