Not sure whether to feed your beloved pet dehydrated food or kibble? Let’s weigh the pros and cons of these two doggie diets.
How is it prepared?
As the name suggests, dehydrated food is a process of removing water from food, using warm air to slowly dry out the ingredients. The Honest Kitchen uses meat and eggs that are dehydrated at over 120 degrees to kill pathogens. The entire process still leaves the nutrients of the ingredients intact. Kibble, on the other hand, is made via the extrusion process. Extruders are machines that were originally created to produce puffed breakfast cereals. The process begins with dough that is a mixture of raw dry and wet ingredients. The extruder then uses pressurised steam or hot water to cook the ingredients. While inside the extruder, the dough is under extreme pressure and high temperatures before it is forced through a die-cutter to form the shapes of the kibble. Once out of the extruder, the kibble is passed through a dryer so that remaining moisture is drawn out. Then it is sprayed with fats, oils, minerals and vitamins and sealed in packaging before the fats and oils spoil. Some of these added vitamins are synthetic because the cooking process kills most of the natural goodness in the kibble.
What ingredients are used?
Most dehydrated pet foods use quality ingredients. The Honest Kitchen uses human grade ingredients in our recipes. These include beef, chicken, and turkey from suppliers who provide the same ingredients to restaurants for humans. Kibble manufacturers typically use by-products of the human food industry. This means they use waste and off cuts of meat from restaurants and eateries. Owing to the fact that most nutrients are depleted during manufacture, a lot of chemical preservatives and synthetic vitamins are added.
What are their shelf lives?
Dehydrated food can last up to a year in optimal temperature, whereas kibble can last an average of five years.
How easy is it to feed?
Warm water must be added to dehydrated food before serving, whereas kibble can be feed immediately after opening the bag.
As you can clearly see, the only thing that might make kibble more appealing to pet owners is the convenience of feeding. But think about it as giving your dog fast food every single day – how healthy would he be?
Now that you know for a fact that most of the nutrients in kibble are either destroyed or artificially applied, would you still want your precious pets eating that? Or would you rather feed your pooch a quality diet of gently dehydrated food, with most, if not all, of its nutrients intact?