How much carbohydrate do dogs need
Dogs and Carbohydrates A Surprising Secret Revealed
Dogs and Carbohydrates A Surprising Secret Revealed
By Mike Sagman
Updated: September 27, 2023
Zero.Thats how many carbohydrates are nutritionally required by a dog to sustain life.
The fact that a dog food doesnt need to contain any carbs at all seems hard to believe.
But its true.
You see, according to the National Research Council and compared to the other two major nutrients protein and fat no carbs are considered essential for a healthy canine diet.1
Dogs dont need corn.And they dont need wheat, barley rice or potatoes, either.
Yet surprisingly, carbs represent the dominant nutrient found in most dry dog foods.
Why Dog Food CompaniesLove Carbohydrates
Since the early 1950s, dog food manufacturers everywhere have fallen head-over-heels in love with carbs because theyre:
- Abundant
- Durable (long shelf life)
- Essential to the kibble-making process
- Cheaper (per calorie than protein or fat)
Please notice that not one of these reasons has anything to do with nutrition not one.
Are Carbs Safe?
Carbohydrates arent bad for dogs.In reasonable amounts, they can actually provide a practical source of energy.
However, the problem lies in their quantity.
Using a dogs ancestral diet as a model, the total amount of carbs consumed by a dogs evolutionary predecessor is dramatically less than whats become the norm for todays kibbles.
One sensible source estimates natural carbohydrate consumption for a dogs ancestors at around 14 percent of total diet.2
Yet on average, todays dry dog foods contain somewhere between 46 and 74 percent carbohydrates.3
Comparing the Numbers
Todays kibbles contain as much as four times the carbohydrate content historically found in the canine ancestral diet.
Wouldnt it make sense for a dogs food to be more like the species ancestral diet with more protein and fat and fewer carbs?
The Bottom Line
When choosing dog food, its reasonable to favor products lower in carbohydrates.
However, since most dog food manufacturers fail to disclose the percentage of carbohydrates contained in their products, the Dog Food Advisor provides an estimate of this important figure inside every review.
So, look for dog foods rich in meat-based protein and lower in carbs.You could be adding years of better health to your best friends life.
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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What are carbohydrates?
There are six categories of nutrients. Fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, water and, the subject of this article, carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are themselves a group of macronutrients which can be further subdivided into two distinct groups. Simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates. The question is, do dogs need carbohydrates in dog food?
Simple carbohydrates
Simple carbohydrates are the simplest of the two carbohydrate forms. They are essentially sugars and are found in the likes of cheap and highly refined grains such as white rice and refined flours. They are also found in fruits. Simple carbohydrates can be further broken down into monosaccharides and disaccharides. Quickly and easily metabolized, these simple carbohydrates are better known as glucose and sucrose. They are an ideal source of short-term energy.
Complex carbohydrates
Complex carbohydrates meanwhile are made up of larger, more complex molecules. These are called polysaccharides. Digested more slowly, these are further subcategorized as starches and fibres.
Starches are broken down by digestive enzymes in the pancreas before becoming available for your dogs needs. Starches are found in the likes of grains, vegetables and legumes.
Fibres, both soluble and insoluble, are found only in unprocessed whole foods (plant food) such as vegetables. These are not broken down by digestive enzymes in the digestive tract but pass through your dogs digestive system relatively intact. These ensure good digestive health.
Complex carbohydrates provide slow-release energy. They aid digestion, help maintain the immune and nervous systems and help regulate the metabolism. Unprocessed, complex carbs such as fresh fruit and vegetables, brown (and some white) rice, quinoa, oats and sweet potatoes are all excellent for dogs.
Why carbohydrates benefit dogs
Research suggests that approximiately 14% of the ancestral dogs diet would have been made up of carbohydrates. That said, dogs do not actually need carbs in the same way that they need the other two macronutrients. Fats and proteins.
But that doesnt mean that dogs should not be fed carbohydrates. Those who suggest that dogs should not be fed carbs overlook one simple fact. That is that any source of complex carbohydrate, sweet potato for example, provides beneficial nutrients, minerals and natural fibre. And that is in addition to being a valuable, readily available and highly digestable source of slow release energy. They also overlook the fact that without carbohydrates and without fats, a dog would use protein as its main source of energy. Protein which is best reserved for maintaining and repairing your dogs body.
