Do dogs like carbohydrates

By Isabella Storyclaire

last updated November 19, 2024

Contributions sourced from

Carb Confusion Part 1: The Role of Carbohydrate in Pet Foods

It has become trendy to advertise pet foods as being low in carbohydrate (like a wolf or a wild cat would eat) and to emphasize the type of carbohydrate sources excluded or included in diets: grain-free, potato-free, with ancient grains, or with wholesome grains. Depending on the manufacturer and the diet, carbohydrate sources such as grains, potatoes, tapioca, and legumes (e.g., peas, beans, and lentils) may be portrayed as either inexpensive fillers or wholesome, nutrient-rich and desirable components of a pet food. These two different viewpoints cant both be true, can they? Lets review some of what we know about carbohydrates and separate the facts from the fiction (or maybe the wheat from the chaff?)

What are carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are digestible sugars (for example, glucose) and starch, which is made up of long branching chains of glucose molecules. The vast majority of carbohydrates in pet foods are provided by plant-sourced ingredients. Digestible carbohydrates are separate from fiber, which while biochemically is considered a carbohydrate, cannot be digested by the digestive enzymes in pets guts, and is instead utilized to varying extents by their gut microbes.

Do dogs and cats need carbohydrate in their diet?

Dogs as omnivores and cats as carnivores have evolved differently with respect to their needs and tolerance for carbohydrate in their diets. Generally, adult non-reproducing animals of both species have no specific requirement for carbohydrate in their diet. The cats native diet is low in carbohydrate, consisting mainly of whatever is found in the gut contents of their prey. As such, even very low carbohydrate diets can be safely fed to many cats of all life stages although the nutritional properties of these types of diet may not be ideal for all cats and especially for cats with some health concerns. Growing and non-reproducing dogs also have no requirement for carbohydrate; in pregnant and lactating dogs, reproductive success has been shown to be better on diets that contain carbohydrate than on carbohydrate-free diets with similar protein concentrations. However, just because dogs and cats can survive on low carbohydrate diets, it doesnt mean its ideal for all dogs and cats.

Can dogs and cats digest and utilize carbohydrate in their diet?

Both dogs and cats have the ability to digest and metabolize properly cooked carbohydrates in amounts that are found in commercial pet foods. However, cats cannot metabolize fructose, a specific type of sugar found in fruit, table sugar, and corn syrup and it is excreted in their urine unchanged. Because of cats higher protein and fat needs relative to dogs and lower activity of the enzymes used to digest carbohydrate, foods for healthy cats are usually lower in carbohydrates than foods for healthy dogs.

Dogs typically have a high tolerance for carbohydrate and can obtain large percentages of their daily calories from carbohydrates (up to ~75% of calories), especially if medical conditions limit the amount of fat or protein that can be safely fed. In fact, one of the most dramatic genetic differences between dogs and wolves is that dogs have many more copies of the gene that codes for amylase, the pancreatic enzyme used to digest starch, showing that they evolved from wolves to be more adept at processing carbohydrate.

What are potential benefits of carbohydrates in pet food?

Pure carbohydrates provide a source of energy around 3.5 to 4 Calories per gram the same as protein. But, most carbohydrate sources traditionally used in pet foods are more complex, such as whole grains, and provide nutrients such as fiber, antioxidants, essential fatty acids (both omega-3 and omega-6), vitamins, and minerals. Every carbohydrate source is a bit different oats are high in soluble fiber and the essential fatty acid linoleic acid, while wheat and beans are higher in protein, and sweet potatoes are very good sources of potassium and beta-carotene (which is made into vitamin A in dogs and serves as an antioxidant in cats and dogs). Fiber contained in the carbohydrate sources can nourish healthy gut bacteria and improve stool quality. Therefore, grains and other carbohydrates in pet food are not there as fillers they actually provide valuable nutrients and properties to the diet!

Carbohydrate in pet food can also have indirect benefits. As all calories must come from protein, fat, or carbohydrate, having more carbohydrate in the diet can allow for lower protein or fat that can help to address a health issue or to reduce the calories (fat provides more than twice the calories of protein or carbohydrate).

Can carbohydrate be harmful to pets?

There is little evidence that even high amounts of carbohydrate in high quality, complete and balanced pet foods pose any health risks to pets. The rare pet may not tolerate a specific carbohydrate source (but food allergies are more common to animal products than to plant products!) and some individual cats with gastrointestinal abnormalities may have reduced ability to digest carbohydrates compared to the average cat. But there are few clear links between dietary carbohydrate and any health issues in dogs or cats.

While a few studies have suggested that eating dry diets (which are often higher in carbohydrates than canned foods) may be a risk factor for obesity and diabetes in cats, this is likely because dry foods are more calorie-dense than canned foods and are often fed free-choice. Unlimited amounts of high calorie, palatable foods will lead to weight gain in the majority of cats. It is that weight gain and the metabolic changes that come along with obesity that are the biggest dietary risk factors for diabetes in cats, not the amount of carbohydrate. For dogs, there is no evidence of a link between diabetes and dietary carbohydrate.

One situation where it may be advisable to reduce dietary carbohydrate would be in a pet that has already been diagnosed with diabetes. Particularly in cats, reducing dietary carbohydrate can improve diabetic control, but this strategy is not optimal for all cats and data are lacking on what amounts or types of carbohydrate are most appropriate. It is thus important that the diet be individualized for each pet with diabetes.

For pets with some gastrointestinal conditions, it may be desirable to adjust the amount or type of dietary fiber or carbohydrate (as well as the fat, digestibility and other factors) to find the optimal combination for a specific pet.

How do I compare the types and amounts of carbohydrate in a pet food?

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to compare the amount and type of carbohydrate in pet foods or predict the metabolic effect that increases or decreases of carbohydrate will have on a specific pet. Stay tuned for a future post where we discuss those issues in more detail Carb Confusion: Part 2: Measuring and Comparing Carbohydrate in Pet Foods

Featured Image by marco aureliofromPixabay

Dr. Cailin Heinze is a Board-certified Veterinary Nutritionist and the Executive Director and Chief Academic Officer of the Mark Morris Institute, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote optimal companion animal health by providing educational opportunities for veterinary students and veterinarians in clinical nutrition. She has also done some consulting work for Balance IT, a company that makes software and supplements for home-cooked pet diets. She is an expert in home-cooked diet formulation and general pet nutrition and has a special interest in feeding pets with kidney disease and cancer.

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Do Dogs Need Carbohydrates? Important Considerations

Carbs have been blamed for everything from canine obesity to cancer. This is not only a shame but potentially harmful because the healthiest foods on the planet and the bulk of anti-cancer foods contain get ready for it carbs.

In this article, I speak up for the carb and talk about why your dog needs to be eating the right kind for optimum health.

What are carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are molecules made up of smaller glucose (sugar) units called monosaccharides that are linked together into varying length chains. Carbs are known as macronutrients because along with proteins and fats, they supply energy (calories) for the body to sustain its metabolic and physical activity needs.

Carbohydrates are further classified by the number of glucose units that make up the carbohydrate molecule, determining its chain length:

Monosaccharides (one sugar unit per molecule mono): Glucose, fructose, galactose

Disaccharides (two sugar units per molecule di): Sucrose (table sugar), lactose (milk sugar), maltose

Oligosaccharides (3 to 9 sugar units per molecule): Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS), galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS)

Starch polysaccharides (non-fiber complex carbs 10-plus sugar units per molecule): Amylose,amylopectin, maltodextrins

Non-starch polysaccharides (fibrous complex carbs 10-plus sugar units): Cellulose, pectins, hemicelluloses, gums, inulin

We talked about the benefits of fiber (non-starch polysaccharides) in the previous column, so lets focus on non-fibrous carbohydrates, the type the body can break down.

Do dogs need carbs?

The answer to this question is where things get really interesting. If we ask, Do dogs have a metabolic need for carbs to supply energy? the answer is typically no (although some dogs might for specific health reasons).

Like people, dogs require glucose for energy because glucose is the primary form of fuel used by the body. Unlike people, dogs can make glucose in two ways either by eating dietary carbohydrates or by synthesizing it themselves in the liver and kidneys (providing they also get enough dietary fat and protein).

But, viewing carbohydrates as merely an energy-producing nutrient is like viewing dogs as merely four-legged creatures with fur. There is so much more to them than that!

Why feed carbs to dogs?

Understanding the true health benefits of carbs for dogs involves looking at the types of foods that fall within this dietary classification. Yes, sugar, white flour and other non-nutritious junk foods are carbs, but so are some of the healthiest foods on the planet.

Healthy carbs are packed with vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients (plant nutrients) that promote optimum health at the cellular level, including destroying tumor cells. These are known as functional carbohydrates, and we dont want our canine companions to miss out on their benefits.

A key to healthy carbs

Phytonutrients, also called phytochemicals, are a large group of compounds that occur naturally in plants (phyto means plant in Greek) and convey important health benefits for those who eat them.

Thousands of different phytochemicals are found in unprocessed fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. Carrots, winter squash and apricots, for example, get their bright orange color from a class of phytochemical called carotenoids, while the deep blue, red and purple pigments of berries, cherries and eggplant come from anthocyanins, phytochemicals in the flavonoid class.

Phytochemicals provide some pretty amazing benefits, including:

Act as antioxidants (substances that help protect cells from oxidative damage caused by free radicals)

Block tumor activity

Cause cancer cell death (apoptosis)

Enhance the bodys immune system to fight disease

Protect against heart disease

Prevent and repair damage to the DNA

Reduce inflammation

Regulate hormone metabolism (including estrogen, to prevent excesses that can increase the risk of cancer)

Repair DNA damage caused by exposure to environmental toxins

I hope you can see why the recommendation to eat all the colors of the rainbow applies to dogs as well as people. We want to be sure our canine companions also reap the benefits of these health-promoting, disease-busting phytonutrients!

Carbs to avoid

While you want to fill your dogs bowl with vitamin, mineral and phytonutrient-rich whole plant-based foods, you of course want to avoid unhealthy junk carbohydrates. These are the low-nutrient or no-nutrient carbs that give this food group a bad name.

The key is identifying which carbs are healthy and which are bad, which is easy to do. For healthy carbs, think unprocessed foods like whole fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes. Processed carbohydrates such as white sugar and white flour fall into the unhealthy category. These are carbohydrates that have had their nutrients stripped away, contain empty calories and quickly raise blood sugar levels after eating them.

Note that while fruits contain the simple sugars fructose and glucose, whole fruits also contain lots of healthy fiber, which insulates the sugar. Because it takes the digestive tract longer to break down the fiber, sugar from fruit is absorbed into the bloodstream slowly, avoiding any sharp rises in blood sugar. Fiber in fresh fruit also helps promote optimal GI functioning and weight loss. Avoid giving your dog fruit juice, which without the fiber is a sugary fiasco!

I hope this article has shown that just because some carbohydrate foods are unhealthy doesnt mean we should avoid the ones that are nutritional powerhouses. After all, you wouldnt avoid giving your dog healthy fats like coconut oil and flaxseeds because hydrogenated oils and restaurant grease are also fats, would you? Theres some food for thought!

Carbs to try

Try these healthy carbohydrates as inspiration to boost your dogs intake of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients:

Cruciferous vegetables

Bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens (avoid for hypothyroid dogs or cookto lower these foods goitrogens)

Whole fruits

Apples, bananas, blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, pear, raspberries, watermelon (avoid grapes andraisins, which are toxic)

Gluten-free grains

Amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, sorghum, teff, gluten-free oats

Leafy greens

Lettuce, parsley, spinach

Legumes

Black-eyed peas, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, lentils, lima beans, pinto beans

Red/orange vegetables

Carrots, pumpkin, sweet potato, winter squash

Feel free to experiment with your own healthy carbs, as long as they are dog friendly!

Editors note:This article first appeared in Dogster magazine. Have you seen the new Dogster print magazine in stores? Or in the waiting room of your vets office?Subscribe now to get Dogster magazine delivered straight to you!

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