The fact is kibble uses heat-rendered meat meals, meat slurries and often, high carb, starchy veg. It uses a high temperature extrusion process that creates continuous chemical and physical alterations to the ingredient mixture. This process changes the protein's molecular structure and reduces concentrations of vitamins, fatty and amino acids. [Read more about that here.]

Frankly, even though I’m clear that my dogs are dogs and not people, I love them as much as I would a person. There’s no way I would put the human equivalent of what I’ve just described in my body, so why should I do it to them?

Which brings me to why I’ve become increasingly pissed off. Firstly, you need to recognise that dog food is bloody big business. In Australia alone, it’s worth about $1 billion. (Globally? In 2018, the dog food market was about US $34 billion.)

Large corporate players dominate the Australian market, just as they do globally. In Australia, the three largest players account for more than 80% of pet food industry revenue. There isn’t necessarily anything bad with big companies per se. However, my point is that there are some very entrenched interests. And those entrenched interests are at war.

It’s no accident I’ve created bestie. bestie is part of a revolution that’s going on across the world, as people like me want to change the way we feed our dogs. That’s why there’s been a rise in raw and homemade feeding; dehydrated and air-dried high meat products. They’re being created because people want to feed their dogs food that’s biologically appropriate – high meat and low carb – and they want to do it with fresher, more natural ingredients.

However, on the other hand there’s unquestionably a pushback campaign. (And given that it IS big business, I understand why. That doesn’t make it right.)

That campaign against BEG (yep, they’ve invented an acronym to tar everything with the same brush: boutique, exotic and grain-free) suggests that the science of dog nutrition is something dog owners can’t get their heads around, that vets are the only ones with answers and that the only companies who should be trusted to make it, have full-time, on-staff nutritionists, their own manufacturing facilities, conduct and publish research, and lab test every nutrient. (Does that sound like a large corporate to you?)

I repeat, that I agree that dog nutrition is a science. But I don’t agree that what I’ve described above, is the only method to create and get a nutritionally complete food for my dogs.