I share your view. Seems some people seem do not realise that dogs and cats are in fact carnivores. They need meat. They evolved to eat meat. They need some amino acids that come in meat as they cannot make it them themselves as humans can.
So dry food made out of whatever may do as part of a diet, but there has to be real meat too.
The problem with this logic is ancestorally, dogs would never have eaten this. Wolves live on a combination of whole prey and grasses (none of which included chicken or lamb legs). A plain cut of meat with grain or vegetables doesnāt contain many essential vitamins and minerals.
It is possible to balance your own food at home, but very difficult and requires access to whole carcasses including skin, or supplementing the missing elements. It also requires accounting for the changes in a dogs needs because of their breed and age. Most people do not have the time and understanding for this
Both dogs and cats are carnivores, but only cats are obligate carnivores.
There are essential amino acids, most notably taurine, that a catās digestive system canāt make out of other amino acids but dog (and human) digestive systems can.
Both dogs and cats do need plenty of protein, along with fat and a little vegetable matter, but that alone is not quite like their natural diet wouldāve been. Both species evolved eating all parts of their prey animals, so would routinely have ingested whatever was in the animalās digestive system along with the rest of the body.
Weāre beginning to learn that a diet consisting mostly of āultra-processedā food is not good for human health.
Itād be no surprise if the same applies to dogs and cats.
But no wonder @Rickcās sonās GSD perks up when fed real meat. Surely a diet of nothing but dry kibble is pretty boring, anyway! 
You can tell a lot about a mammalās diet by its teeth and about birdsā diet by their beaks. Dogs and cats have very similar teeth layout, the big canine teeth for killing and holding prey, the carnassials for shearing off almost any tissue including bone, both are indicative of a carnivore. Cats have their more restrictive metabolism but dogs accept and thrive on a wider range of food, they are effectively omnivores. Being an omnivore does not mean poor food will do.
Yes. If squeamish donāt watch a kelpie eat a whole rabbit. I mean whole, nothing at all is spat out or left behind. The same dog can get into trouble in the spring for nipping of the tips of my asparagus 'cause they know how tasty they are. Then there are the unmentionables that dogs can snack on that were inside a horse not long back or died in the bush days ago. A rich and varied diet!
Or a cat neatly consuming an entire mouse, tail and all. They tend to leave most of the feathers when consuming birds. Unlike dogs, they donāt eat droppings or roll in rotting carcases, but feral cats are known to scavenge already-dead animals, even ones getting a bit ripe. A domesticated moggie might turn up its nose at the latter.
Exactly. You only have to observe humans to know that ā¦ 
As someone with 40 plus years experience with dog showing and breeding I wouldnāt feed Royal Canin, it doesnāt score well in premium dog food reviews. Probably the best foods are brands like Ziwi Peak but itās eye wateringly expensive. I feed a mix of raw, Taste of the Wild and Prime 100. Your best bet is do some research and choose one that is suitable for your breed, size and age. And really dog food you get what you pay for. None of the supermarket brands are much good apart from Applaws which is probably your best bet if you are looking for a cheaper price point.
We were advised by our dogās breeder and our vet to use Royal Canin. We have had a couple of Labradors on it for years and they have done very well. My wife will not consider another brand. Our last Labrador lived for 16 years. Our present dog is a healthy, active 10 year old. It is a bit expensive, but what price our petās health? By doing a simple Google search we can find it considerably cheaper when we need to buy a new bag.
My dogsā breeder also recommended Royal Canin. She said the cheaper brands can be bulked out with filler, which obviously doesnāt do much for your dogās health but can also mean thereās also more that has to come out the other end. 
IIRC, a serve of Royal Canin was about half the size of cheaper brands, presumably because thereās less filler and more of the stuff they actually need.
Having said that, itās quite expensive and in my Border Collieās last two years of life (RIP Tilly 
) I switched back to Supercoat with no ill effects. She looked years younger than her age and had no health issues until she went downhill suddenly one day and we had to put her to sleep that very same day. 
I must add to your comment about cheaper brands and the fact they may have fillers to add bulk, when you said; āā¦but can also mean thereās also more that has to come out the other end.ā
We have noticed, to put it bluntly, that when we are with friends and family whose dogs are not on Royal Canin, their dogās poo is bulkier and noticeably less pleasant than our dogās. Similarly when we have babysat their dogs, the difference in the poo is very noticeable. Strong evidence for a deficiency in these other dry foods.
I highly recommend you look at this site What's the best dog food (in Australia)?. She reviews all the dog foods sold in Australia, tells you what to look for, how they cheat on the labels - for example Royal Canin Active Adult ingredients are poultry protein, maize flour, maize, wheat flour, and so on which makes it look like meat is the main ingredient but its probably grains - maize and maize flour should be counted as one ingredient, by splitting it up, it makes each one less than the meat so they come up 2nd & 3rd ingredient. Also Royal Canin is ultimately owned by Mars -That would be a No from me - very profit driven, highly marketed model. By looking through this site, you can figure out which ones do contain a lot of meat - a dogās main natural diet and which ones donāt contain grains, one of the common causes of dog allergies. I personally feed my dog lots of raw meaty bones and other things but top up with a small amount of top quality food like Eureka or Ziwi Peak
Hi Penny,
Thank you so much for that information.
I agree about Mars - the force of Darkness.
My dogs are looking over my shoulder at the moment and theyāre pointing their paws at your suggestion of raw meaty bones!
Royal Canin iis expensive as it is imported, also for how it is made. You can guarantee that each bag you buy of the same product is identical in formula. Rather like pharmaceutical products. The French company that makes it actually tests it on dogs and monitors their health and faeces. No there is no undesirable things done to the dogs. The cheaper dog foods have no testing and are often variable from batch to batch with their source of protein. No good if your dog has digestive problems. I have fed my dogs on premium food for many years, currently Royal Canin. Have recently taken on a dog that was fed cheap food, and plenty of it. His breath stank and coat a bit dull. Faeces also stank compared to my other dog. After two weeks on Royal Canin now has less stinky breath and poo. His coat is blooming. He is now getting one third of the biscuits compared to his previous cheaper biscuit.
Some grains cause more allergies than others. Wheat and maize are the most common causes. Whilst I agree that the way brands like Royal Canin label ingredients can be misleading, remember the formula is based on heavy research into how to best meet a dogs physiological needs.
Do remember though to be sceptic when a food refers to a dogs ānaturalā diet. Dogs have been domesticated for thousands of years, and in that time have been selectively bred to be significantly different from their ancestors. So foods that are āgrain freeā or ānaturalā are not automatically better for their health.
