Most people (in Australia) know that kangaroo meat is one of the cleanest organic meats around. Some know that it has one of the highest essential amino acid contents, and so provides all of the amino acids their dogs need to build a great long-lasting body.
But very few people seem to know or think about how important digestibility and bio-availability is in this equation.
If a food has zero digestibility and bio availability then it passes through your dog in its original form. That provides little value to your dog, except for maybe cleaning out its colon. As long as the size, hardness and shape of that thing doesn’t snag on anything on the way through.
In fibre there are three levels of digestibility. NON-SOLUBLE fibre means that it doesn’t interact with the dog’s body except to pass through in original form. Semi fermentable fibre is in the range of fibre that can be digested somewhat, mostly by the good bacteria in the bowel, and that increases the population of the good bacteria in that biome. BUT there is a fairly precise range that a fibre needs to fit into for dogs, to be ideal for it to eat.
Completely fermentable fibre is a bad thing. That essentially means that it will pass through the stomach but over-feed the bacteria in the intestine, and cause gas and bloating.
With protein however you typically want it to be fully bio-available to your dog. You want ALL of the essential amino acids to be used so that they can get maximum use out of this crucial nutrient.
Typically, the higher the bio-availability of protein, the more digestible, and the better for the dog. We look for foods with the HIGHEST percentage of bio-availability to benefit your dog the most. And it should be no surprise from the heading of this article, that Kangaroo dog treats is one of the best things your dog can eat,
Sure, diversity of meat type is great, so you will want to feed your dog several major meat items in their regular diet, with a smaller side dish of perhaps rice to provide the fibre (because beets which is the perfect semi fermentable fibre is mostly available in America and not always easy to access from the supermarket.
Note you might have to grind the grain or veggie matter down and mix well into meat. My dog loves meat, hates plant matter, so we have to hide any plant matter if we want them to have sufficient fibre and good stools.
To give you an idea of where kangaroo meat sits on the bio availability scale, we have selected just THREE of the ten essential amino acids that a dog’s body needs, and show where it fits in the range of common foods.
Kangaroo dog treats example of bio-availability in three essential amino acids
bioavailability of leucine in different dog food sources
- Beef 100%
- Chicken 95%
- Fish 90%
- Roo 85%
- Lamb 80%
- Rice 70%
- Wheat 65%
- Corn 55%
bioavailability of Methionine in different dog food sources
Source | Bioavailability
- Beef | 95% |
- Chicken | 90% |
- Fish | 85% |
- Kangaroo | 80%|
- Lamb | 75% |
- Rice | 60% |
- Wheat | 55% |
- Corn | 45% |
bioavailability of phenylalanine in different dog food sources
Source | Bioavailability (%) |
- Beef | 93 |
- Chicken | 89 |
- Fish | 86 |
- Roo | 83 |
- Lamb | 81 |
- Rice | 78 |
- Wheat | 76 |
- Corn | 72 |
Bad effects from poor digestion of foods in dogs
It is assumed that all of the meats and plant matter above are ground down into small enough sizes not to cause blockages in their intestines (if the food isn’t fully decomposed in the stomach). So we are not talking about that level of indigestion when we talk about bio-available foods.
Nor does bio-availability have anything to do with allergies. Your dog (unless they are allergic to the food source) won’t have an allergic reaction to food that they cannot fully digest. Nor are they likely to vomit or be lethargic. It just means that they don’t extract all the nutrients they could if it were closer to 100% BIO-available.
Indigestion of these common foods, means that the food isn’t fully utilised (broken down into smaller chemicals for the body to recombine however it needs them to be). Not only are you wasting money in buying something that your dog isn’t fully using, If you feed a dog a lot of grain for instance, it has both the bad things of having LOW protein amounts in absolute terms, then what it does have, can’t be fully digested. Most grains (and their essential amino acids) are lowly bio-available to the dog species.
Sometimes when the enzymes in the dog’s stomach can’t fully break down larger chunks of food, they can release extra acid into their stomach which then causes other health issues. A stomach that has more acid in it than usual is a big problem for a dog, because the regular pH acid level of their stomach is already less on the pH scale (much stronger acidic) than humans. This is because they are carnivores and to kill pathogens and digest food quickly, they need to have a lower pH stomach level.
Some sources suggest humans stomach pH tends to be around 2.5 to 3.5 while dogs ranged from 1.00 to 2.2. You should be aware that pH is a logarithmic scale meaning a difference of 1 is equivalent to TEN TIMES more acidic for a dog!
Low bio-availability for foods eaten by dogs is most likely going to cause loose stool, constipation, and gas / bloating. Clearly this can affect the long-term health of the dog intestine and cause regular stomach discomfort.
CONCLUSIONS
Kangaroo dog treats are best when 100% single ingredient. While customs typically restricts our sales to Australia .. if you want to see what types of treats we stock this is how you can do so by viewing healthydogtreats.com.au
They are not always the absolute highest bio-availability source of meats for dogs, but they are far higher than most plant matter AND they are naturally organic, meaning that they are about as free from pesticides and herbicides as you will get in a dog food.
Their low-fat nature (without applying protein destroying heat) and their high OMEGA 3 amounts mean that they are one of the healthiest foods you can get for your dog.
