Dogs have different nutritional needs

Dogs have evolved to have very different nutritional needs and digestive tracts from people. Even though they’re a part of our family, we shouldn’t feed them the same as ourselves.

The main reason for this is that while dogs are technically omnivores (as are we) their requirement for protein is MUCH higher than a human’s.

Also, their ability to digest carbohydrates is limited. A lot of this is because the intestine of a dog is about 1.7m in a small dog and 4m in a large dog. This is relatively short when compared to other species, for example humans, where small intestines are about 6m long. So we can see they have a lot of digesting to do in a short intestine and this makes it important to optimise nutrition.

Another reason we can’t feed our canine friends like ourselves is because of their vitamin and mineral requirements. Take this example: A typical home-made diet recipe might be 3 parts rice, 2 parts chicken breast, and 1 part cooked vegetables. However, take care! This diet contains 1.5 times less zinc, 10 times less Vitamin B, and a whopping 36 times less Vitamin E than a dog requires to be healthy.

At Black Hawk, we have spent hours and hours perfecting our blend to ensure all our diets go above and beyond the bare minimum. We’ve done this by supplying the required levels of vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients through feeding ingredients in their natural state, rather than through highly processed ingredients and powders.

Which we pride ourselves on the belief that Every Ingredient Matters.