As pet owners we want to make sure that what we feed our dogs day in and day out is good for them. Gone are the days that we feed them table scraps and whatever is on offer at the supermarket. These days owners are taking an active interest in what is in their dog’s food and rightly so! A pet’s diet must be balanced in order for healthy growth and development and this starts with ingredients. Ingredients are listed on the packaging in order of weight, so the ingredient listed first is technically the heaviest in the recipe.
Don’t let fresh meat ingredients fool you though as a lot of their weight is actually from water, so having dried meat ingredients listed in the top few ingredients can actually be more appealing! A balanced diet involves protein, fats, vitamins, minerals and dare we say it carbohydrates! Carbohydrates may have a bad reputation when actually, in the right quantities, they have SO many health benefits. Carbohydrates are the body's main source of energy which is essential for brain and muscle function as well as being a great source of fiber that aids the body with digestion and supports your pet’s microbiome (the good bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract).
Something else to consider is the digestibility of a diet. Digestibility refers to how much of a diet can be broken down and absorbed into the bloodstream. The digestibility of a diet directly affects how much stool is produced each day, the lower the digestibility of a diet the more faeces is produced and the more food a dog will need to eat to meet their nutritional needs. So, when it comes to digestibility the proof is in the poop- literally!
Digestibility can be measured in different ways, one of the more traditional methods uses a special cage in a controlled lab environment with dogs being fed, weighed and faeces monitored, nowadays we have other options that don’t involve dogs sitting in cages! At Buddy Bites, we measure the digestibility of our food in a laboratory using an enzyme called pepsin. Pepsin mimics the action of the digestive acids in the stomach of a dog and is usually reported as a percentage (%). As a rule of thumb, pepsin digestibility of a diet is considered poor if less than 75%, moderately digestible if 75-82%, highly digestible if over 82% and exceptionally digestible if above 88%.
Here at Buddy Bites, we pride ourselves on the fact that our diets average 88.7% digestibility. This means your dog will be able to absorb all those yummy nutrients to ensure they stay happy, full and healthy. We check the digestibility with every batch to ensure we meet the high standards we set ourselves as it is equally important to us that your dog loves to eat Buddy Bites as it is to ensure those nutrients are absorbed and not just passing through!
