Your pets are members of the family, so you want to treat them with all the love they deserve. One of the best ways to keep your pet happy and healthy is to feed them the best food possible!
Sadly, many grocery kibble's on the market use filler grains that don't provide nutritional value and might even harm your pet. Your cats and dogs aren’t meant to eat that way.
Dogs and cats are carnivores. Carnivores use protein & fat, but not carbohydrates. Dogs can handle some carbohydrates in their diet, however cats, being obligate carnivores, do not need extra carbohydrates.
Our philosophy is “a better diet for a healthier pet.” One of the easiest ways to keep your pet healthy is through a wholesome, natural, and nutritious diet!
Types of kibble
All kibble must contain a binding agent in order to be that perfect kibble shape. However, its quality is determined by what is used for binder.There are three basic qualities of kibble.
1. Cheap kibble uses filler grains: Cornmeal, wheat middlings, brewers rice.
2. Higher quality grain kibble uses binders with a purpose: rice, barley, oatmeal.
3. Grain free kibble uses peas, other beans found in the legume family, potato, tapioca or sweet potato.
What to avoid
Since kibble needs to have some binding agents, this means something other than meat is in your kibble. (Think of it like meatloaf which uses breadcrumbs or eggs to make it all stick together and keep its shape.
That product, whether it be low quality grains, higher quality grains or grain free, will create its carbohydrate percentage.
Why that's important?
Grain kibbles may have up to 50% + carbs in their food!
The high quality kibble and some grain free kibble will yield a lower carb percentage, approximately 25%.
Kibble vs Raw?
Raw diets don’t have all those unnecessary carbohydrates. Raw diets without synthetic vitamin packs (meaning they get the nutritional value out of ingredients) will have less than 20% carbohydrates.
Raw diets using synthetic vitamin packs will see carbohydrates in the value range as low as 3%!
Look at it like this:
Raw = a nice raw apple
Low quality kibble = Apple Jacks
Which would you rather feed your pet?
Let’s check out some of the benefits you may see when switching to a raw diet:
•Higher nutritional value
•Fixes allergies
•Allow dogs and cats to lose weight in a healthy way
•Better teeth and gums
•Shinier coat
•Healthier skin
•Stronger heart
•Stronger immune system
•Better digestion
•Lower medical bills
•Firmer stools
•Builds, repairs and maintains muscles
•Stronger bones
•Fights off illness
•More energy
•Helps with brain function
•Prevent disease
How to get started
Here at Bend Pet Express we know there are a lot of food options for your pets and it can be overwhelming. We’re here to help. We’ll take the time to analyze your specific needs and find the right options for your budget, time or specific condition. A raw diet can be easy, fun and affordable!
Our staff reviews each food and does feeding trials on our own pets before we decide to bring a line into our stores. We are constantly reviewing new and innovative products because we know that you want your pets to participate in the Central Oregon lifestyle with you. We stand behind our quality, so will happily exchange any food that doesn’t work for your pet.
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