Rescues & Resources
The Kibble-O-Meter
What’s really in my dog’s food?
Every food on earth — including a plain chicken breast, and your dog — is made entirely of chemicals. A complicated chemical name describes a molecule; it does not describe danger.
What is really in a plain, raw chicken breast?
- Proteins & amino acids: myosin, actin, collagen, leucine, lysine, tryptophan, glutamic acid, carnosine, glutathione
- Fats: oleic acid, linoleic acid, palmitic acid, cholesterol
- Vitamins & minerals: niacin, pyridoxine, riboflavin, choline, selenium, zinc, iron
- Created by cooking: 2-methyl-3-furanthiol, 3,5-dimethyl-1,2,4-trithiolane, nonanal, beta-ionone, gamma-decalactone
If you saw “2-methyl-3-furanthiol” on a label it would look alarming — but that is just part of the aroma of roasted chicken. And niacin, pyridoxine, zinc, and selenium are the very same nutrients that look “scary” on a kibble label. Judge an ingredient by what it is and what the evidence says.