MELANIE: thank you for your helpful answers!! In your opinion what is a better option for a balanced diet; a fresh food commercial diet that contains rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes and various meats and vegetables. Or a commercial kibble such as royal canin diets? The fresh food diet I’m referring to is called my perfect pet food. (It is not grain free) They claim that they formulate their diet with animal nutritionists but they do not work with a qualified veterinarian nutritionist. Thank you.

I am so glad to help you! In my opinion, the best choice is a commercial kibble like Royal Canin. Royal Canin does have veterinary nutritionists on staff. I'd also recommend Hill's Science Diet, Purina Pro Plan, and Iams. They also have veterinary nutritionists. I personally feed my dog Iams.

In my opinion that does not make you a bad owner at all. Feeding with commercial food of high quality has many advantages, like being balanced and complete from a nutritional point of view, being tested and free from diseases, being designed to be stored safely (raw food can deteriorate rapidly). When it comes down to suggest a diet, I personally advice to start with a balanced commercial diet, especially in the first phases of their development and use raw food as ''treats'' particularly for training purposes. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

Great question!! This last decade has brought an incredible amount of new products to the shelves and I know it must be daunting and very confusing to consumers. Unfortunately, most information about these foods comes from the pet store employee or an equally unqualified source on the internet. It's very wise of you to ask an expert. The truth about most of these foods is that their claims usually amount to nothing more than that of a fad diet (i.e. paleo or atkins) and are not supported by sufficient evidence (even though they will make it sound like it is). As scientifically trained practitioners, us vets prefer to offer evidenced based treatment and the same goes for feeding suggestions. That back-story was all so I can give you the facts. Here they are: 1) Raw Food has no scientific evidence that it is better for your dog than cooked food and is actually more dangerous. 2) lightly cooked, grain-free, natural, etc. are really just marketing gimmicks meant to increase sales. They mean essentially nothing and normally do not have any good evidence to back their claims. One of the things I vividly remember a veterinary nutritionist professor telling me was that he completely ignores the front of the bag of any pet food...it's all marketing. The most important thing on that bag is a tiny bit of writing under the guaranteed analysis called the AAFCO statement. This statement tells you what actual research went into making the product. Below is a link to an article that will help explain this more and give some other info about feeding your dog: https://www.petcoach.co/article/what-to-look-for-when-choosing-your-pet-s-food/ I hope this all helps to support my answer your question, which is: The dry kibble is not inferior and in most cases is probably superior. I know the answer may still be somewhat vague, but if you stick to the basic principles of choosing the right food, then you should be successful in feeding a good and nutritious food to your dog.