Product Search

Why can’t dogs and cats digest grains and starches?

It’s time for a little biology 101 lesson.  Dogs and cats need a lot of good quality protein. The kind of protein and food found in a raw fresh food diet without any chemicals or additives.

So, it’s no surprise one of the main reasons is that dogs and cats can’t easily digest vegetables or grains unless they are partially digested first. As for the reason?  They don’t have a long intestinal tract like humans.  Since theirs is short, it doesn’t have the ability to digest vegetable matter. 

When starches are broken down, they must first be broken into sugars in order to be usable.  Primary sources of carbohydrates in most diets are barley, brown rice, oats and rye, cooking of cereal grains is necessary for your animal to properly digest starches.  Dogs and cats do not normally produce enzymes in their saliva to actually break-down carbohydrates and starches.  Essentially, it’s a no-brainer: dogs and cats can’t digest grains and starches.  Their pancreas is forced to produce large amounts of this enzyme to deal with the starches. 

Since dogs and cats are not efficient or successful at digesting and assimilating plant material as high quality protein, it’s apparent that feeding your pet as if they were humans is not a wise choice.  Instead, the BARF diet or raw food diet should be administered as soon as possible.  Instead of grains, ponder the possibilities:  beef hearts, lamb hearts, chicken, pork, finely ground beef bones, beef liver, egg, cultured kefir, broccoli, celery, spinach, carrot, ground flax seed, bok choy, dried alfalfa meal, beef kidney, unbleached beef tripe, apple, pear, grapefruit, orange, dried kelp powder, cod liver oil, garlic, capsicum, Vitamin E supplement, Zinc oxide, Mangenous Oxide.  

Feeding your dog and cat pure ingredients which are easily digestible is the ultimate way to go for your pet’s overall nutrition.   Since you know now that cats and dogs CAN"T digest grains and starches and that they CAN actually digest instead for a healthy diet get started now - click here to shop for digestable healthy foods for your pets.