Carbohydrates - what makes the difference?
As everybody knows the dog, as a descendant from wolves, is a carnivore. Its digestive tract is designed for that kind of nutrition. Therefor dogs have a high demand of valuable and easy-to-digest proteins – and the best source of them is fresh meat.
With PLATINUM dog food, your dog gets exactly what his lupine instinct demands: High value proteins from a minimum of 70 % fresh meat as the most important building blocks for its body.
But which role do carbohydrates play in the dog´s nutrition? And how important is the actual usability of carbohydrates in order to cover the dog´s energy needs?
Carbohydrates are an energy supplier for the dog´s organism. One of the most important sources of carbohydrates are cereals, rice, corn, potatoes and other plants. Contrary to humans, whose pre-digestion already starts by chewing and by insalivation in the mouth and continues in the gastro-intestinal tract, the digestion of dogs starts in the small intestine. Here the carbohydrates are broken -down into their basic elements and released through the bloodstream to organs and tissues.
However, the best way for the dogs to utilize carbohydrates is, if when they are broken-down beforehand. That means that the different chemical elements of the carbohydrates are broken-down, so the animal´s organism is able to utilize them optimally. The solution to that can be found in the preparation of the dog food.
In nature the wolf satisfies his carbohydrates requirement from the gastro-intestinal tract of its prey, which had already started the process of breaking-down. We are able to ease the dog’s digestion by the right selection of carbohydrates by carefully cooking them.
Conventional kibbles have a high amount of cereals which often contributes to more than half of the amount of food. Additionally all ingredients are firmly pressed during the extruding process, so that the digestion for the dog gets harder as the carbohydrates are broken down with difficulty. The food remains in the stomach for a much longer time, increasing the risk of torsions. Additionally it can cause flatulence and a high amount of excrements.
PLATINUM consciously takes another way!
We just use small amounts of GMO-free rice, corn and potatoes as an ideal resource of carbohydrates. Beside that all ingredients are carefully steamed in a way that all ingredients are not cooked away and are optimally broken down. So they can be easily utilized by your dog.
Give it a try: Platinum will optimize the digestion of your dog enormously, giving him the nutrition which the wolf in him demands.
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Good to know what’s inside!!
We all have the same intention: We just want the best for our dogs! At first glimpse many brands of dog food appear to be of good quality! But has the dog food really the quality promised on the bag? A closer inspection of the declaration is mandatory if you really want to be sure what is inside the food.
But nevertheless there are several tricks to disguise quality and ingredients. In general there are two kinds of declarations: the open and the closed one. Both have one thing in common the ingredients are listed in descending order of weight.
Closed declaration
The ingredients are summarised in groups. For example wheat and other grains are subsumed under the collective term cereals. If gluten or other flour are added the group is named “cereals and by-products of plant origin”.
The same is true for the amount of meat. Here we have the subsumed group “meat and animal-by products”. This kind of declaration just gives an overview of the amounts, not of the kind and quality of the processed meat.
Open declaration:
In the open declaration all ingredients are listed individually. Does that sound good? Generally it does but even here it is possible to deceive. The producers are allowed to specify different forms of a substance separately.
In practice that means that meat is on first place of the declaration, although the sum of the different cereals have a higher amount than the part of meat ( for example cereals broken into: grounded corn, maize gluten, wheat flour, wheat).
In addition there could be also other surprises. If on the label on the front side it says “Tasty Chicken”, the reverse side will show that it is just “meat and animal-by products (min 4 % chicken, cereals and plant by-products, sugar, oils and fats, minerals).
In fact that means 96 % of the ingredients are hidden and just 4 % of chicken are indeed inside the dog food and it remains unclear whether it is high valuable meat or animal-by products such as claws and beaks.
If the food contains 4 % chicken, 4 % beef and 4 % lamb manufacturers are able to produce three kinds of dog food from one recipe with the same declaration.
Therefor it is worth to read declarations very carefully: to be sure that just those things come into the food bowls which really belong there.
Platinum always stands for transparent and easy declarations: All Platinum products contain just those ingredients that are shown in the declaration. For instance: Minimum 83 % of fresh meat or fresh fish, no animal-by products.
Oh no, mites! How to avoid this contamination of our dog food.
Oh my dear! My dog is scratching all the time!
Many distressed customers complain about that. One reason could be the existence of mites. Here are some facts about that item.
Mites are tiny arachnids with a size of only 300 μm. They are not visible to the eye and are a significant reason for allergies. After being absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, the immune system reacts to the mites themselves and also to the protein parts of the mites’ excrements. The result is an itching and inflammation of the skin. Allergies against These vermin can be diagnosed by a skin- as well as with a blood test. Mites need a high relative humidity and a room temperature between 20 and 30°C. For this reason they are mostly found in kitchens and bathrooms. Depending on the circumstances they have a live time between several weeks and up to some months. Mites prefer, depending on the species, a nutrition with a high amount of protein or wheat and plants.
How does the mites get into the food?
There are several possibilities:
- The ingredients, as for example wheat, are already contaminated before the processing of the food.
- Infestation during the manufacturing process: if the food is not packaged immediately after the production and is first stored.
- Infestation at home: Depending on the storage and the indoor climate it is possible that mites get through house dust into the food. This happens mainly if the food is not hermetically sealed or decanted into a bin which is contaminated with old food particles.
How to prevent mites?
- Store the food in the original Platinum bag. Our dry dog food is packaged immediately after the production process in air-tight bags and not stored intermediately. For this reason the food in the original bag is absolutely free of mites.
- Close the bag, for example with freezer bag clip. The food will stay fresh and juicy.
- &Just open the bag for the short time when you take your daily ration and close it immediately afterwards. Please use a clean measuring cup or something similar to get the food out of the bag.
- If the air-tight bags are stored additionally in a food bin, please make sure that it is cleaned regularly. Generally speaking: the shorter the opened bag is stored at home the smaller is the risk of a mite pest. For this reason Platinum just offers a variety of 1.5 kg and 5 kg bags for a fast consumption.
- Store the food bags in cool and dry atmosphere and separated from other food, for example meal which often is contaminated by mites.
- Ventilate your house regularly - this helps keeping the relative humidity low and creates unfavorable living condition for mites. To avoid them continuously it is advisable to worsen their living conditions.
- As mites also occur in house dust it is not recommended to leave the dog’s food bowl Close to dog’s bed. If your dog is mite-allergic you should do special hygienic treatments, as weekly washing the dog’s bed or blankets hot.
Deep freezing of dog Food - does that make any sense for allergic dogs?
In fact it is often recommended to deep freeze the food for allergic dogs but this is not very effective.
Existing mites are killed of course, but even the dead mites and also their excrements could cause an allergy. Beside this after the defrosting the food can be contaminated again.
It is up to you to protect your dog from mites:
- Ask for the storage of the dog food, from the production to the packaging.
- Take air-tight bags (for example PLATINUM) that are guaranteed free of mites.
- Store your dog food correctly at home.
