Should dogs eat cooked food? It’s a good question!

The answer really depends on what you are trying to achieve. Cooking can make food more palatable for some sensitive dogs, and if done correctly it can also reduce potential pathogens in the food.

The thing is, cooking also destroys part of the food which is vital for your dogs health.

What happens when you cook BARF?

Cooking is a form of processing. Applying heat changes not only the molecular structure of the food, but also the nutritional content. The change in structure is called denaturing. When heat is applied, the 3-dimensional shape of proteins are altered at a molecular level.

When this occurs in the extreme (like when manufacturing kibble) the protein’s shape is altered and may no longer be recognised as food. The immune system instead sees it as a pathogen and mounts an immune response. This results in allergy symptoms like itching and redness that we see in many allergy and food sensitive dogs.

At lower temperatures (65-75°C) protein is not dramatically altered, so this is less of an issue for most dogs eating home cooked foods.

Heat also changes the nutritional content of the food. While cooking reduces some vitamin content it can also increase bioavailability. For example, thiamin is reduced by up to 30% during cooking, while Vitamin A is easier to assimilate after cooking. Overall the loss of nutrients is dependant on the cooking temperature and duration. The longer and hotter the cooking process, the more nutrition that will be lost.

Most vitamins are water soluble, so during cooking nutrients are transferred out of the food and into the cooking liquid. This makes retaining the cooking liquid very important if you are aiming to maximise nutrition.

Another issue is the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) which is a byproduct of the cooking process. AGEs are a biomarker implicated in the development of degenerative diseases. One study shows there are significantly higher levels of AGEs in processed dog food, which is thought to be a result of the heat processing.

Again, at lower temperatures used for normal home cooking (ie. not industrially processed kibble) this is less of an issue, but it is certainly something to keep in mind.

The downside of cooking

The big problem that I see is that heat processing literally kills the food. A short heating period over 60°C destroys the beneficial enzymes and bacteria living in the food. In addition, meat also loses its natural antioxidant properties when heated.

Why is this a problem?

Enzymes are required by the body to break down food into smaller pieces. A lack of digestive enzymes puts enormous stress on the body as it has to draw on reserves to digest the food, and can result in disease and a lower quality of life. Probiotics are equally important, having a huge impact on your dog’s health. With 70% of immunity residing in their gut, a deficiency of beneficial live bacteria can have a profoundly negative impact on your dogs health and wellbeing.

If you are going to cook your dog’s food, it’s important to be mindful about what cooking is removing from the food and make sure that you supplement appropriately to make up the difference.

What about food safety?

If eliminating pathogens like Listeria or Salmonella is your goal, you need to cook the food to a temperature of 65°C for a minimum of 12 minutes. Keep in mind this will also “kill” the food, destroying beneficial enzymes and probiotics.

In our opinion a more sensible approach is to be vigilant with food safety - and use exactly the same safety measures you use for other meat. If you are feeding high quality human grade food, it is the same quality as the meat you are eating yourself. Treat it with the same respect (wash your hands, wipe benches, keep seperate from other food, etc.) and the risk level is the same for the chicken you are going to eat for dinner tonight. Are you worried about that? No, me neither.

Remember that a dogs digestive system is naturally designed to deal with the bacteria present in raw meat. The reality is that in most cases, cooking food is more about human preferences than the optimal diet for the dog.

Should I cook my dog’s food?

Cooking your dog’s dinner is a tradeoff between optimal nutrition, digestibility and pathogenic risk. It’s difficult to completely balance these outcomes though, as the cooking required to sterilise potential pathogens is also going to reduce the inherent nutrition in the food.

That said, there are cases where cooking makes sense. Some dogs have highly sensitive digestive systems and may find cooked food easier to break down. If this is your dog, make sure that you supplement their diet to put back in what you are removing via the cooking process.

For healthy dogs, we do not recommend cooking their food.

How to cook

If you do cook your dogs food, heat it for 12 minutes at 65°C. You want to heat at a lower temperature for a longer time. Whatever you do don’t heat it up quickly - or put it in the microwave.

It’s important to retain all the liquid that is expelled during the cooking process, as it contains water soluble vitamins. It’s also vital to supplement your dogs diet with probiotics and enzymes as while these naturally occur in food the cooking process destroys them. Finally, it’s also a good idea to add antioxidants into the diet - blueberries is a great option.

How to cook your dogs dinner:

Heat for 12 minutes at 65°C
Retain cooking liquid
Supplement with probiotics and enzymes
Add blueberries

Our aim is to provide the best nutrition for your dog, in whatever form that they are most able to assimilate it. We are strong believers of the “BARF” diet - Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. This means food that your dog is biologically adapted to eating - and for the vast majority of dogs it’s raw. Cooking changes the nutritional properties of food so we only recommend doing it if you have a good reason to do so, and you follow the proper cooking and supplementation method.

Whatever you do, the most important thing is to feed fresh food made with real ingredients. A fresh food diet will always be better than feeding hyper processed dry food, and will be better for you dog 🐾