Not all pet food comes dry or bite-sized. There’s variety out there for you and your favorite pooch to choose from such as raw, freeze-dried, dehydrated, and canned food.
Raw Pet Food
Cooking reduces the potency of many essential nutrients and minerals while completely destroying other vital nutrients. A diet consisting of real raw, uncooked food is the most nutrient-dense and easily digestible pet food diet. You can supplement your pet’s kibble with raw foods, or feed entirely in raw. Unlike humans, our pets can handle the natural bacteria found in raw foods within reason, so little concern should be given there. Regardless, raw food brands pressure pasteurize their products. Pressure pasteurization is a sophisticated technique that kills most bacteria and viruses without the need for heat.
The following are a few raw brands:
Freeze-Dried and Dehydrated
Freeze-dried and dehydrated pet food offer another way of feeding raw but without moisture. Freeze-dried is produced from freezing meat in an extremely cold vacuum and then adding in low levels of heat to allow the ice within the meat to sublime directly into water vapor. Dehydrated food is created in a similar manner. Both types preserve high amounts of nutrients and essential vitamins. You can rehydrate freeze-dried and dehydrated foods with warm water, or serve as-is as either a supplement to other foods or as the main entree.
The following are a few freeze-dried and dehydrated brands:
- The Honest Kitchen (Dehydrated)
An overlooked food option...Canned Food
Compared to popular belief, canned food isn’t all that bad. In many ways, it can be superior to your basic kibble. It generally contains more wet meat protein packed with important vitamins and essential minerals compared to dry foods. They're made with fewer carbohydrates, contain no synthetic preservatives thanks to air-tight packaging, and contain no artificial flavorings or colorings.
The following are a few canned food brands:
