How farming changed the dog

[JudyN]

Interesting article: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/11/ ... hanged-dog

The summary is that in the last 15,000 (probably) years - since domestication - dogs have evolved to digest starch through developing extra starch-digesting genes. It is interesting that Siberian huskies, who lived alongside people who ate very little grain, have not evolved the extra genes.

We can't conclude from this that diets containing varying amounts of grain are better for dogs than meat-only diets or even good for them in general, but it has to be borne in mind when judging the quality of food that contains grain that it might not be the evil many of us think it to be.

Me, I'm still basing my opinion on empirical evidence, i.e. the number of people who say their dogs have been much healthier & happier on raw compared to the very low numbers who havee tried it and found it didn't suit their dog.

[Nettle]

Kind of embarrassing to those scientists that further research allegedly showed wolves with all those starch-digesting enzymes. I do wish I could show a reference to back that up. I think it's a red herring, meself. After all, modern cat food is full of cereal, and cats are obligate carnivores, so it would be interesting to examine if they develop those enzymes. It would also be interesting to check the difference between BARF fed dogs and processed food type dogs. I wonder what the dogs tested were fed?

[JudyN]

Kind of embarrassing to those scientists that further research allegedly showed wolves with all those starch-digesting enzymes.

Interesting... I've had a quick search but that only throws up similar claims that dogs have adapted to digest starch. Sadly, numbers returned by a google search are no guarantee of reliability so I'm not disputing what you say.

I wonder how long we'll have to wait for a decent trial of BARF vs grain-containing kibble diets? It could be a long time - I wouldn't trust anything funded by either camps (though the latter will have significantly higher funds), and we can't simply compare dogs as they won't be a random selection by any means (BARF dogs are also more likely to be vaccine free, exercised properly, etc., for instance). And we don't really know what the best human diet is either judging by all the fads and 'new wonder foods' there are.

[Suzette]

I also have to go by what I see. My cats became noticeably healthier when I switched them to a grain free kibble years ago. (I tried and tried, but could not get my cats to accept a raw diet. They just would not have it.) On grain free kibble they became a healthier weight (and I keep their bowls filled 24/7), their coats became glossier, their eyes clear, and their energy level increased.

At the time that I switched to grain free for them, one of my cats was quite ill. Old age was catching up with him. After the switch, he had all the same benefits as my younger cats, but not as dramatic of course. Still I know it increased his quality of life and I am convinced it also increased his life span by a year or two.

Piper has been on raw since she was 4 months old and is now 5.5 years. She continues to do great on this diet. Her vet (who of course was skeptical of her diet at first but never tried to talk me out of it) comments every time she sees her on her robust health, her gleaming coat and of course those pearly white teeth. (I think we have a convert! )

So whatever they find through their studies, I have seen the awesome effects of a grain free diet for my pets. I will not go back.

[JudyN]

My cat would eat raw, but invariably threw it up again so he's also on grain-free kibble. He's 18 and a bag of bones & the woman in the pet shop suggested I try him on kitten grain-free which I'm introducing now. I'm hoping last night's litter tray incident was a one-off.......

Just yesterday I met a couple of men who were rather worryingly interested in Jasper - 'Does he catch rabbits,' 'I bet he could bring down a deer' and so on (I start off wanting to brag and then switched to 'Nah, he's as nippy as a two-legged donkey.')They thought he was very young & were surprised when I said he'd be 7 next month. Again, I'm putting it down to his raw diet.

Oh, and he nicked a bread roll last night and he's limping today - there you go, proof