A Brief History of Dog Food

A Brief History of Dog Food

What science understands is that dogs evolved 20 to 40 thousand years ago from a Grey Wolf type ancestor and in a relatively short space of time they started sharing their environment with humans. 

Over the next period of human growth and the environment we share, a dogs diet evolved due to scavenging from our rubbish and eating our food.

A dogs physiological requirements haven't changed to any great degree despite our own attempts at creating what WE believe a dog should eat.

Dog’s mouths are designed in such a way allowing them to exert massive bite force, useful for only catching and crushing prey, their jaws move up and down with no sideways movement identifying them as a carnivorous species. 

Their taste system is adapted to meat, studies have shown dogs have held on to a proven taste preference for meat.  For the avoidance of doubt these studies are more than easy to replicate with your own dog by offering meat and a biscuit and see which the dog prefers.

Then we (humans) saw an opportunity.

The first commercial dry pet food, was invented by James Spratt in England in the late 1800s. Spratt was a lightning rod salesman who observed dogs being fed leftover biscuits by sailors on the docks, which gave him the idea of creating a dry food specifically for dogs. He developed a product made of wheat, vegetables, beetroot and beef blood, and named it "Meat Fibrine Dog Cakes".

Spratt marketed his product to the wealthy hunting and sporting dog owners of England, and it became an instant success. In 1890, Spratt's company, Spratt's Patent Limited, was established to manufacture and distribute the product on a large scale, and it soon became available throughout Europe and North America.

Wet tinned food was first produced in 1922 and became so popular that by 1941 the producers of this type were breeding horses (the main meat ingredient) just for dog food and slaughtering 50,000 of them a year.

In the middle of the 20th century, a new type of dog food called "kibble" was invented. Kibble was made from leftover grain and protein sources, such as meat by-products, that were ground up and formed into small, hard pieces. This type of dog food was convenient and could be stored for long periods of time.

Kibble as a mass-produced marketable product was then first created in 1956 in response to imposed rations at the time and the uproar from animal lovers about the treatment of horses.

By 1964 The Pet Food Institute launched a series of marketing ad campaign to convince consumers that commercially prepared dog food was the only option to feed. 

In the 1980s, the concept of "premium" dog food, which was made with higher quality ingredients and was more expensive than regular dog food, emerged.

Today, the commercial dog food industry is a multi-billion-pound industry, with a wide variety of options available.

There are many different brands and types of dog food to choose from, including dry, wet, frozen, and fresh raw foods, as well as specialty diets for dogs with specific health needs.

Just like with humans, the development of commercial food reflects the changing attitudes towards nutrition and the desire to provide a nutritionally complete diet.

If you think about it, before the invention of highly processed heavily convenient packaged foods and treats, both humans and dogs were eating a much more nutritious diet.

Where did we go wrong?