Feeding - Raw or Commercial?

Why we feed raw:

All our dogs are fed on raw meat such as raw chicken wings, carcasses, rabbit etc. We do this because we believe it's a more natural diet for dogs than highly processed cereal based dog food, whether in flake form or pellets. We never feed cooked bones to our dogs. Cooked bones become very brittle and break up into sharp shards that can travel quickly through the dog's short digestive system and may end up piercing the intestinal wall, a potentially fatal condition. Uncooked bones, on the other hand, do not splinter in the same way, since bones are actually a composite structure of a gristly, elastic cartilage-like substance and the hard bone mineral, which affects the way the bones break up and also affects the way they are digested. We also never give them large load bearing bones, such as thigh bones or marrow bones, because these are too big for them to eat easily and may even damage their teeth.

The digestive process in any animal breaks the food down to produce Glucose, the fuel used by the body to do work with the muscles etc. The digestive system of the animal (carnivore, herbivore or omnivore) is optimised for various food types, i.e. proteins, fats and carbohydrates, including cellulose.
Carbohydrates include all vegetables, fruits and grains. Carbohydrates are made up of chains of sugar and there are differences in these chains from simple sugars (white refined sugar, honey, white flour and fruit juice) to complex carbohydrates (grains such as oats, rice, barley, and vegetables, beans, lentils, legumes and potatoes).

However, dogs don't actually need to eat vegetables, fruit or cereals. By design, they can get all the fuel they need from raw meat protein and fat.

Why dogs don't need carbohydrates

Compared to omnivores and ruminants, dogs have short and relatively simple digestive tracts, designed to process raw meats and fats rather than carbohydrates. A variety of studies, including one by the National Research Council (“Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats”, 2006 Edition, National Academies Press, Washington, DC ) show that no carbohydrates appear to be “essential” for the typical canine diet.

In the wild, dogs (including wild dogs and wolves) do consume some carbohydrates - either from the digestive organs of their prey or by eating grass (or similar) - both of which provide fibre, but the total carbohydrate content of their diet is only estimated to be between 7% and 14%.

Most carbohydrates are high in fibre, which does help to scour the intestines (a good thing in moderation) and helps give the dog's stools bulk and keeps them firm. When using vegetables sources, it is important to fully purée, blend or cook them, since dogs cannot digest grains or vegetables that aren’t fully cooked or puréed. This is because their digestive systems simply do not have the ability to fully break down the cell walls of carbohydrates, nor can they digest them well.

So in a raw diet, carbohydrates are not necessary. Raw diets contain bone, which provides fibre and helps to create firm stools. Some may wish to add some vegetables (cooked or puréed) to the diet for variety, but I would feed no more than 10% of these of the total diet. They may not add to the nutrition of the diet, but they aren’t harmful either. Adding more than 10% of carbohydrates to the diet will only increase stool size and in some cases may cause gas.

Carbohydrates are used extensively in dried dog food. Why? Because they are:

Cheap (much cheaper than protein or fat)
Abundant (simple to acquire)
Durable (long shelf life)
Necessary for the process of making pelleted dry dog food

Notice that all these reasons are based on finance and company profit, and not one of them has anything to do with canine nutrition.
And far from the 7-14% carbohydrate a natural diet contains, dry dog food averages somewhere between 46% - 74% carbohydrate.

Carbs aren't all bad

But carbohydrates aren't necessarily all bad (provided they are fed in moderation), because they do provide quick and easy energy. However, it is not 'carbs' that maintain health, but Glucose. In dogs, glucose can be obtained from simple carbohydrates, but also from both fat and meat protein through a process known as gluconeogenesis, where amino acids and fat (not fatty acids; those use a different cycle) are "converted" to glucose.

Too high a percentage of carbohydrate is a different story, though. Excess carbohydrates are stored in the liver and the muscles as glycogen AND in the body as fat. If carbs are present in the dog's food, they will be converted to energy FIRST before fat and protein, because they are easier to use. For this reason, the carb content regulates how much starch and fat will be broken down and utilised. However, since carboydrates are not the only source of glycogen (i.e. glycogen can also be obtained from proteins, meats and fats through glyconeogenesis, as explained above), they are not absolutely necessary. If there are too many carbohydrates, in fact, fat will be stored instead of used. If no carbs are present, then fat and protein are used to fill energy needs. In terms of energy requirements, if there are not enough carbs to fulfill energy needs, then fat will be converted to glucose and used.