Kibble, Carbs & Fat

I wanted to expand a little on our experience about feeding Raw vs. kibble. The top photo above is a picture taken right after our start to feeding Raw Keto after my dog Emie’s MCT cancer surgery, and the photo right below that was taken in July 2019, 2 years after our journey feeding Raw Ketogenic. We first started at a high fat 2:1 Ketogenic ratio and have since been on 1:1 for the past 1.5 years. ( 2:1 is approx 80% calories from fat and 1:1 is approx 70% calories from fat)

I didn’t even start my dog on keto for weight loss, I started her on keto in an effort to try and prevent her MCT cancer from returning. Which it is notorious for doing once a dog is diagnosed with it. As of May 2020 I am happy to say we are approaching 3 years “cancer free” and we’ve adhered to a very strict Raw Keto diet the entire time. We followed it very strict, monitoring glucose and ketone levels at home with a meter. Her glucose levels plummeted (a good thing in what we were after!) her lowest glucose level that I tested was 30 mg/dL*. Now, had she NOT been keto/fat adapted and in ketosis, that low of a blood glucose level would have put her in a state of hypoglycemia. very bad. A glucose reading of less than 60mg/dL is considered hypoglycemic and is a cause for immediate care. But when the body is in ketosis, low blood sugar levels are welcome.
*By comparison, a kibble fed dogs glucose level could be expected to be well over 100 mg/dl

I’ve had a few Raw feeding naysayers (aka kibble supporters) tell me that the before and after pics of my dog aren’t a fair comparison of Raw vs. Kibble because my dog was simply “over fed” on kibble.

let me debunk this.

We all know some people are extremely sensitive to carbohydrates and weight gain while others seem to be able to eat all the carbs they want and never gain a pound.
The same thing can happen with our dogs.

Some dogs can eat a lifetime diet of carbs (kibble) and remain lean, others aren’t so fortunate. If the carbohydrates aren’t utilized by the body and used in the body as energy/fuel, the carbohydrates are then stored as fat in the body.
When my dog Emie was fed kibble, she was fed on the low end of the manufacturers recommended amount. which equated to just at 1,000 kcal a day. But that food had a whopping 30+ % carbohydrates. Her Raw ketogenic Diet now is currently about 1% carbohydrates. So on her kibble diet she was fed approx THIRTY TIMES the amount of carbohydrates.
–And as high as our old dog food was in carbs, there are plenty of kibbles on the market that are even higher! some upwards of over 50%. Even some prescription kibble foods are this high. (checkout the videos below for more info on that)-

She was exercised regularly her entire life, I took her on 4-5 mile runs on a regular basis, always taken for walks- usually 2x a day, swam in the pool daily in the summer months, always went on hikes with us. I am a very outdoor type person, so she came with me everywhere I went. She certainly saw more activity than any other dog I personally knew, she was ALWAYS on the go.

Our vet at the time never told us she was overweight, and back then I didn’t know a thing about Body Condition Scores (BCS) or anything about canine nutrition. So to me she was normal. but looking back now at photos is shocking how much she’s changed from ditching the kibble.

Now, Some may say, well. Just feed the dog LESS kibble. but guess what? now we start robbing the dogs body of essential nutrients. All Dog food in the U.S. is formulated at 1,000 calories. So if we start feeding less food, less calories, we are also depriving the dogs body of key nutrients/vitamins/minerals/essential amino acids etc.

When I started Emie on Raw Keto, We started around 975 kcal and the lowest we went was just about 900. Not a whole lot less than she was being fed on kibble if you do the math. But eliminating the carbohydrates had a huge impact. She was literally burning off all her excess fat in a quick manner. In the course of 8-12 weeks she managed to lose 17 pounds. Once we hit our target weight we increased calories to around 1,300 per day where she has remained very consistent in her weight ever since for the past 2 years.

So we’re now feeding MORE calories on Raw Keto than she was fed on kibble, but her body has managed to stay 17 pounds lighter. What changed? We’re feeding Real food for starters, and we eliminated the carbs.

And, on top of the huge transformation in her weight, we also eliminated her lifelong issue with yeast. caused by the kibble. My poor dog dealt with terrible yeasty ears for the first 5 years of her life. let me repeat that. FIVE YEARS. hundreds upon hundreds of dollars spent on vet visits, medicines, cleaners, ear drops, painstakingly cleaning her ears all the time all the while not one single vet EVER mentioned or asked what I was feeding for food, let alone even mention to possibly change the food. Luckily we were never advised to put her on any prescription allergy meds like Apoquel because back then I knew nothing about it and it’s *hidden dangers*.

So, this has been our experience with how diet, carbs, kibble, Raw Keto has impacted my dog’s life. And I hope that She/we can be some sort of an inspiration to others looking to improve their dog’s life/diet/health 🐾🐾🐾

Looking for Custom Balanced Keto recipes? visit my page here to learn how to feed a Raw Balanced Keto diet like we’ve been feeding.

*why is apoquel bad?

How to calculate how many carbohydrates are in your dogs kibble?
Manufacturer’s purposely hide this information so the consumer must do some simple math to figure this out. The video below explains how to do this. I linked the video to start 5 minutes in right at the point where they explain this