Cats and dogs are not humans and have special dietary needs to keep them healthy. Their needs are very different to those of humans. Throughout their entire evolutionary history dogs and cats have been carnivores making their need for meat a biological necessity and an ancestral trait.

Dogs are predominantly carnivores but also derive their nutrition from both plant and animal sources. From DNA studies, we know that dogs evolved directly from the timber wolf somewhere around 15,000 years ago. So, by their genetic makeup, dogs demonstrate similar and noticeable carnivorous traits with their teeth, digestive system and their behaviour.

Their omnivore’s ability to digest carbohydrate-based food has been known for many years, but dogs show unmistakable evidence that their body is optimized in eating meat. Many of the modern-day joint problems and allergies and other ailments have been directly linked to the excessive carbohydrate content of modern-day dog food.

Cats are obligatory carnivores and their gastrointestinal tracts and metabolism have adapted to eating meat. They can’t digest plant material well and require essential nutrients that only meat can provide them. An alarming number of cats suffer from diabetes these days due to the amount of carbohydrates in their food. It has been proven that changing their diet to raw meat has turned these situations around permanently.