Dry food or natural food

As you know, dogs and cats are carnivores, which means that their diet should be based on meat. An interesting fact is that cats are considered strict predators and cannot do without meat in their diet. Dogs are more omnivorous than cats, but an excess of fiber is also undesirable for them.

With a natural diet in mind, pet owners often feed their pets table scraps and cereals with minimal meat added. On the other hand, among dry feeds, there are a lot of those that are 60–80% grain. Neither option is good for pets.

We do not recommend combining natural nutrition and feeding with ready-made feeds.

You probably had time to ask yourself: why is feeding from the table so bad if we eat it ourselves? The answer to this question lies on the surface: the pet’s body does not work like ours. There are foods that can cause diarrhea or allergies in dogs and cats, and some can cause serious health problems. 

Remember that ready-made diets and natural nutrition should be at least a third of the meat. This is especially important for fluffy purrs because the meat contains the essential amino acid taurine. It is not produced in the body of cats, but without it, they will not actually survive. In addition, the ingredients themselves must be of high quality and properly balanced.

We have collected all the pros and cons of natural and ready-made diets and prepared some useful life hacks for you.

• High palatability. Due to the natural moisture of the products, such food is more interesting for most pets.
• Sometimes this is the only choice for finicky ponytails.

• Unbalanced composition. If you simply feed your pet what you have in the refrigerator, it is impossible to properly balance the nutrients in the diet. Even if you calculate the diet according to the tables and arm yourself with a kitchen scale, you will never know the exact analytical composition of the ingredients and you will not be able to be sure of the quality of the ingredients.
• Short shelf life. Meat products are not stored for a long time in the refrigerator, and in the freezer they lose most of the useful ingredients. In addition, any natural products are ventilated in a bowl. In the event that a four-legged picky lives in your home, they can be eaten incompletely and spoiled.
• Parasites. Raw meat products may contain worms. There is a possibility that when feeding raw fish and meat, the pet will become infected. Boiled meat and fish are safe in this regard, but are no longer as nutritious.
• A good natural diet is expensive. Keeping a large breed dog on high-quality and rationed natural food costs almost 2 times more than on super premium class dry food.
• Meal preparation time. You actually become a personal chef for your ponytail and, as a chef, spend a lot of time preparing the diet. 

• The perfect balance of ingredients in the diet. Any complete superpremium class food contains all the ingredients necessary for a pet in an ideal proportion. Each batch is controlled for the content of all useful substances, and the recipes are updated in accordance with the recommendation of the European Federation of the Pet Food Industry. The feed also contains special additives to improve digestion. For example, Monge Superpremium feeds contain a new generation of XOS prebiotics that take care of the pet’s intestines and, accordingly, immunity in general. With natural feeding at the same level of quality control at home, it is necessary to have your own laboratory. 
• Saving time. Feed does not require preparation, it is stored for a long time. They can be used in automatic feeders and do not spoil if left in a bowl during the day.
• The ability to use dry and wet food in the same diet. This is especially important for owners of picky pets.

• Switching from natural food to dry food. If the pet is already used to eating a natural diet or food from the table, it may not immediately switch to a ready-made diet.
• It is necessary to carefully study the composition. It is important to additionally read a few articles in order to correctly navigate the variety of dry food and understand which ones are really suitable for your pet. 

After all of the above, we can conclude that ready-made food is the only way for a pet to get a diet with a guaranteed composition. In any case, the choice is yours. Take care of your pets and remember not to feed them from the table.