freshfetch Village

This seems like a great first question for our discussion area about dogs and their foods.

You may have read the following in our online FAQs to answer the question we get frequently: “Isn’t meat a dog’s natural food?”

Yes and no. The argument that dogs should eat only meat is based upon the idea that primordial dogs, as hunters, preyed upon game and fish, and consumed virtually no vegetation. Proponents of including fresh vegetables and grains often suggest that these foods are beneficial and point to examples of skin changes, coat degradation, and other adverse symptoms when carbohydrates from grains or vegetables are not fed to several breeds. Eventually, the question of meat vs. meats & vegetation may be answered by more complete physiological and biochemical research of various breeds, but today it is considered an open question. In the wild, Dr. James C. Halfpenny, Ph.D, the noted naturalist and documenter of canids (foxes, jackals, wolves, coyotes) in Yellowstone National Park, documents — with some detail not for the squeamish — that droppings reveal that wild canids do, indeed, eat vegetation, and that ingestion varies seasonally, based on available food supplies.

But, modern dogs are NOT wolves, just as humans are not chimpanzees. Domesticated (and, especially purebred) dogs’ dietary needs are varied and differ by breed.

freshfetch incorporates this knowledge when we create our recipes, and we add a little common sense that relates to, especially, purebred dogs. Working from the understanding that we can trace the ancestry of many breeds, we realize that many breeds are relatively recent additions to the canine family. We can research the foods that were very likely used during the development of the breed, based on the area of the globe in which the breed developed. Some records exist and many breeders already know what foods the breed’s ancestral lineage was fed, so we build on those foods, knowing that those foods allowed the ancestors of today’s dogs to flourish, procreate, and give us the gift of our dogs today.

What does your personal experience tell you about your dog’s diet?

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