A Dog's Natural Diet
Dogs, by nature, are scavengers, and they are designed to eat meat as the main component of their diets. A wild dog’s diet includes almost any food that provides calories - but very little, if any, grain. A major factor in the domestication of dogs was the food that humans left over. It is thought that the wolves who were least afraid of humans, over a period of tens of thousands of years, became our close companions.
A dog's natural diet includes high levels of protein, fats and water, and very little carbohydrates. The "recommended" diet of dry foods, which is the diet of most cats and dogs, is the complete opposite of this natural diet: high in carbohydrate, low in protein, fat, and with almost no water.
The Effects of Commercial Diets on Dog Health
A highly processed, grain-based diet fed to an animal designed to thrive on a meat-based, fresh food diet is likely to produce symptoms of ill-health over time. Diets to address disease most frequently deal with the symptoms that are the result of a lifetime of inappropriate food, not the true cause of their symptoms. The optimum diet for a dog or a cat should closely resemble their natural diet.