Wow, great post!
Well, I think it's a never ending battle when it comes to dog food.
Often when we think we've found a wonderful food, something goes wrong. Back in the day, I believe dogs were just fed human food. Now I don't know what the average lifespan of a dog was back in the 1800's so I guess we don't really know HOW healthy they were. Commercial dog food, AKA Purina, was introduced in the 1950's. I believe England had some kind of dog food earlier though. But the concept of dog kibble is actually fairly new. I had some of my grandparents dogs, etc, that lived to be over 15 surviving off of Kibbles n' Bits and table scraps so it does make me wonder sometimes.... is all this really worth it? But I feel more comfortable feeding my dog a "higher quality" food than just some grocery store brands. Is there a difference? I think there is. Maybe it's all a scam, who knows.
I personally believe that a dog kibble food should contain lots of meat and a good amount of protein. I really like for the first 2-3 ingredients to contain meat, so I know there's a significant amount in it. I know dogs would naturally eat a lot of meat in the wild and like to stand by that now, even in my 12lb Yorkie.
Like you said, the most convenient is kibble, IMO. I like it because it's easy... I hardly homecook for myself, let alone my dog, LOL. Raw scares me... I don't disagree with it, but me... I don't like dealing with raw meat personally. I wouldn't care if Jackson ate it, I just don't wanna mess with it.
Jackson mainly eats his kibble (NV Instinct - 35% protein) and at dinnertime, I usually mix in Merrick's Before Grain canned food (which is 100% turkey, water for processing). BUT, with that said... he's a pretty active, muscular, atheltic dog and I think he needs the protein. I don't know... it's just what I feel comfortable with.
I really never thought I'd care this much about my dogs nutrition (more than I care about my own!) but it's been interesting studying up on canine nutrition and after trying multiple foods, Instinct has been what's worked best for us. I'm thinking of trying Acana next.
