The Dog Bowl Pet Supply and BARF Raw Food Blog

Most people are very confused about this.... They hear conflicting advice from the commercials, their friends, their spouse, their vet, etc. Most commonly they are advised to cook their dog's food. Rarely are they told why!

People cook their dog's food for all sorts of reasons:

• One belief is that dogs are "supposed" to eat cooked food. Somebody told them, or they "heard" it somewhere.
• Often the food is cooked "to prevent worms or distemper or... something.... ?"
• Some people cannot cope with their dog eating raw meat and offal.
• Many cook their dog's food because they believe it will become more nutritious and more easily digested.

Most people admit they have no idea at all what they should do. Sometimes they feed it raw and sometimes they feed it cooked.

So why is food cooked for dogs? There are some very good reasons why food is cooked.

1. Food is cooked to kill germs and the toxins they produce. Is there are any dangerous germs in your dog's food, proper cooking will destroy them.
2. Cooking your dog's food kills any parasites. Cooking prevents the transfer of parasites from the dog's food to humans. Particularly the hydatid tapeworm. Hydatidosis is a potentially fatal disease which can be transmitted to man from various animals including sheep, pigs, kangaroos, wallabys, cattle, etc.
3. Food is cooked so it can be stored and transported. Raw food "goes off" or self destructs due to the activity of it's own enzymes. Cooking stops this process by destroying enzymes. This allows food to be transported and stored.
4. Food is cooked to make it more nutritious and more digestible. It is that a valid reason? In general the answer is no. There are exceptions to this - grains and certain vegetables require to be cooked for various reasons, but in most cases cooking food does not make it any more digestible or nutritious. Cooking physically breaks food down, making it more easily "got at" by your dog's digestive enzymes. This includes meat and vegetables. Apart from that digestive aid, cooking does nothing to make food more nutritious. In fact, cooked food for a variety of reasons loses much of it's nutritive value. It is popularly supped that dogs cannot digest raw vegetables. However, if raw vegetables are physically broken down such as with a food processor or juicer, your dog can easily digest them.