Is my dog a wolf? Five feeding myths, and what the science says

Yes, dogs descend from wolves. No, that does not mean they should eat like one. Thousands of years beside us changed how dogs digest, and most of the loud advice online ignores it.

Myth 1: dogs should eat only meat

Wolves eat mostly meat. Dogs need meat for its protein and amino acids. But an all-meat diet is short of calcium, several vitamins and fibre, and long term it causes real deficiencies. Even a wolf eats the part-digested plant matter in its prey's stomach, plus berries, roots and grass. Dogs are whole-body eaters, not steak eaters.

Myth 2: dogs cannot digest carbohydrate

This is the one the genetics settled. Compared with wolves, dogs carry extra copies of the gene for amylase, the enzyme that digests starch, and the enzyme is more than seven times as active. Dogs adapted to eat what people ate. Cooked potato, rice and maize are clean energy for a dog; the key word is cooked, which is what the milling and Thermostufenmix steps in our factory are for.

Myth 3: grain-free is healthier

Grain-free is a medical tool, not a health measure. It is the right choice for a dog with a proven cereal allergy, and a temporary low-carbohydrate diet can help a dog with confirmed giardia. For everyone else, a grain-free recipe simply swaps one starch (rice, maize) for another (potato, sweet potato). Wheat is among the more common triggers in food-allergic dogs; rice and maize rarely are. We make grain-free recipes for the dogs that need them and rice-based ones for the dogs that do not.

Myth 4: more meat on the label means more nutrition

"80% meat" mostly describes water. Fresh meat is around three quarters water, so once the food is dried the meat contributes far less than the number suggests. What matters is how much of the total protein comes from animal sources and how digestible it is. In our dry food that figure is up to 90%. The full explanation, with the maths.

Myth 5: raw is closest to nature, so it must be best

Raw feeding can be done well by people who calculate rations properly. Done from a recipe on a forum, it is usually short of calcium or vitamin D and long on risk: the vets who write our articles advise against raw for any dog that is acutely ill, and for dogs with kidney disease, bladder stones or liver disease. If your dog is thriving on a balanced raw diet, we are not here to talk you out of it. If you are considering it because you have heard kibble is "processed", read how ours is actually made first.

Read what each ingredient does, or how to read a dog food label.

Based on the Happy Dog veterinary team’s guidance on feeding myths and on "Gastrointestinal disease in the dog: feeding tips" by Pascale Huber, veterinarian.