Read the Bag. Then Apologize to Your Dog.
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Read the Bag. Then Apologize to Your Dog.
You ever actually read the back of a bag of dog food?
I’m not talking about the shiny buzzwords on the front—“Grain-Free,” “Holistic,” “Chicken & Sweet Potato Formula.” I mean flip the bag over, squint at the fine print, and read the ingredients like your dog’s life depends on it.
Because it kind of does.
The Kibble Challenge 🛒📱
Next time you’re in the pet aisle (or go now—I’ll wait), do this:
- Pick up a bag of the food you normally buy.
- Flip it over.
- Start reading the ingredients out loud.
- Google every ingredient you don’t recognize.
And I don’t mean “Is that safe for dogs?” I mean “What is this, really? Where does it come from? And why is it in dog food?”
What You're Really Feeding Your Dog:
🦴 "Chicken Meal" Isn’t Chicken
“Chicken meal” sounds harmless. It’s not.
It’s the byproduct of rendering—boiled-down leftover parts like beaks, feathers, organs, bones, and even diseased tissue. In some cases, it may even include euthanized animals. (The FDA has acknowledged this.)
Meanwhile, the front of the bag shows a grilled chicken breast like it came from a Sunday dinner. Cute.
🌽 Corn, Wheat & Soy = Cheap Fillers
Used because they’re cheap. Not because dogs need them.
- Spikes blood sugar
- Causes inflammation
- Contributes to itchy skin and allergy flare-ups
- Passes through mostly undigested
The result? Big piles of 💩. Because the body isn’t using most of it.
🎨 Artificial Colors: For You, Not Your Dog
Red 40. Yellow 5. Blue 2. All in dog food to make it “look good.” Your dog doesn’t care what color it is—but you should. Many of these dyes are banned in human food in other countries.
💊 Synthetic Vitamins Aren’t Enough
Kibble is cooked at 400+ degrees, which destroys most natural nutrients. So companies add back in synthetic vitamins and minerals—but your dog’s body doesn’t always absorb them well.
Think: feeding your kid a Pop-Tart and tossing a multivitamin on top. “Complete and balanced,” right?
💩 What Goes In... Comes Out
If your dog poops a lot—it’s not because they’re "healthy." It’s because their body is flushing out what it can’t use.
Raw-fed dogs produce smaller, firmer, less frequent poop—because their body actually processes real food.
😳 So... What Now?
After your Google deep-dive, you’re either:
- Still in the aisle, wide-eyed, phone in hand typing like a mad person
- Running to the car with a bag of chicken legs
- Or headed home to make very serious eye contact with your dog
Good. That means you care.
🐾 Ready to Switch?
I’ve been there. That’s why I created the Lazy Dog Mom Starter Guide—a no-fluff, no-pressure walkthrough of how to start feeding real food. Start with just one meal. One bowl. That’s how I did it.