Puppy owners are overwhelmed by food choices available for their new family member, according to a recent survey. This feeling might be in part because dog owners have to make all the food decisions alone: dogs lack the ability to order their own food on UberEats or communicate their preferences in a helpful way! Several recent research publications highlight factors impacting dietary choices for dogs. I’ll discuss those findings in the blogpost below.
What Your Dog’s Food Says About You
The Dog Aging Project is a citizen scientist research consortium with over 50,000 dogs enrolled in its various projects. Their most recent publication investigates the demographic factors influencing dog food choices. Out of 40,000 dog owners, I found it no surprise that 82% fed kibble, since kibble is the most commonly fed type of dog food. The popularity of kibble comes from its nutritional value, convenience and price point.
The interesting finding about kibble is that kibble is less commonly fed as owners age. The study did not determine the reasons behind that shift, but the authors speculate older owners have more time to feed diets other than kibble or, as the dog ages, a different diet helps manage health issues. Owner income did not seem to be a driver of this change. However, owner income was associated with feeding a raw diet. More owners with an annual income above $180,000 fed a raw diet than those below that threshold.
Grain or No Grain Dog Food?
Another recent study looked at owner preferences for feeding kibble, specifically grain free kibble. Over the past decade, grain free kibble has grown in popularity and comprises 40% of the kibble available in the United States. Of 3,000+ dog owners in the United States, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, more than half reported getting diet recommendations from their veterinarian. While I am likely biased, your dog’s veterinarian knows them best in terms of recommending an appropriate diet for their life stage, activity level and health conditions.
Grain free diets were selected by dog owners who perceived their dog had a food allergy. This does not make total sense to me, since the typical allergens in food are protein sources such as beef, turkey, chicken and other meats, not carbohydrate sources like grains. Although, it does make sense to me that owners choosing grain free diets also excluded grain from their own diet, since many pet owners project their own food preferences onto their pets, for better or worse.
Finally, owners choosing grain free diets also obtained their information from pet stores and online sources rather than from a veterinarian. For the record, I have serious concerns about feeding grain free diets due to studies suggesting it plays a role in some cases of heart disease in dogs.
What Do Dogs Want to Eat?
Since dogs don’t talk, researchers study dog food preferences by giving dogs choices between different foods. Despite their lack of verbal skills, dogs have an innate ability to understand human social cues and behave accordingly. In an article entitled “Is your choice my choice?”, dogs showed evidence of owner’s influence on their food choice and would even choose a smaller serving if the human showed preference for the smaller portion. Seems like we should easily be able to get our dogs to eat the food we want them to eat!
If you’re interested in more information about pet food, listen to our most popular Ask the Vet Podcast of all time—Pet Food and Nutrition with Dr. Lisa Weeth—which discusses the importance of nutrition on the health of pets, pet food manufacturing processes and quality assurance measures, what to look for when buying pet food, why to avoid vegan diets for pets (especially cats), misconceptions about cooking for your pet and precautions to take with raw food diets.