09/03/2025
The Myth of “Complete and Balanced” Pet Food: It’s Time to Stop
Let’s get one thing straight: there’s no such thing as a “complete and balanced” pet food. It’s a marketing myth, perpetuated by pet food companies, recipe creators, diet formulators, and even veterinarians. This outdated concept dates back to the earliest pet food manufacturers, who convinced pet owners they couldn’t keep their dogs or cats healthy without their product.
Initially targeted using “biscuits” and eventually kibble, this falsehood has insidiously made its way into the raw pet food market as well. But here’s the truth: no species on Earth eats a “complete and balanced” meal at every meal—except domestic pets.
Nature Doesn’t Balance Every Meal
Humans don’t consume every known nutrient in a single meal, so why should we believe we should feed our pets this way?
All species, including dogs and cats, naturally meet their nutritional needs by eating a variety of foods over time.
Now, you might hear someone say, “But wild animals have short lives and can die from poor nutrition!” While that’s true, shortened lifespans in the wild are usually caused by parasites, disease, or injury—not necessarily diet. Mother Nature has been providing species-appropriate foods for her creatures since the beginning of time, and that’s a fact. Also a fact- these species are capable of reproducing and continuing their lineages. Something poor nutrition wouldn’t allow for.
The idea that pets are getting “optimal nutrition” from a single, standardized, “complete and balanced” meal is simply false.
“Complete and Balanced” for Whom?
The nutrient requirements for dogs and cats are based on generalizations for species groups, not individuals. Yes, we need to meet the biological requirements of each species—but not under the guise of achieving this in every meal.
At Carnivora, we’re upfront about feeding dogs and cats the total nutrients they need to thrive—but we don’t buy into the “complete and balanced” per meal paradigm. Instead, we advocate for feeding a variety of biologically appropriate foods, rotated over days or weeks.
Breaking Free from the Fast Food Paradigm
Today’s society is obsessed with fast, convenient, processed foods—and this mindset has seeped into pet nutrition. Big industry plays a massive role in shaping both our diets and our pets’. It’s time to challenge this. Feeding your pet a wholesome raw food diet isn’t just easy—it’s enjoyable. Pets naturally thrive on variety, much like they would when consuming their ancestral diet.
Feeding a rotational diet—daily, weekly, or even seasonally—reflects how animals have survived and thrived for millennia. Plus, for pets with food intolerances, nutrient cycling makes it simple to customize meals without hidden ingredients or synthetic additives.
The Problem with Synthetic and Processed Nutrients
Many commercial pet foods, including raw, rely on synthetic or inorganic nutrients to meet regulatory standards. But these additives aren’t always bioavailable, meaning they aren’t easily absorbed or utilized by your pet’s body. Over time, some of these synthetic nutrients can accumulate, leading to harmful excesses. Individual vitamins and minerals should be used to correct nutritional deficiencies for short periods of time not make up for an inadequate diet.
Conversely, species-specific, whole-food diets provide nutrients in their natural, highly bioavailable and synergistic forms. This nourishes your pet safely and effectively—without relying on additives to fill nutritional gaps. Supplements were never intended to fill nutritional gaps on an ongoing basis. Instead, they should be used judiciously and only for short periods of time or as a correction for an inadequacy.
The Carnivora Way: Back to Basics
At Carnivora, we believe in respecting nature’s blueprint. Feeding your dog or cat shouldn’t be about chasing an impossible ideal of “complete and balanced” at every meal. It’s about providing variety, quality, and species-appropriate nutrition over time.
Take the time to educate yourself about a wholesome raw feeding plan first your pet. It’s easier than you think—and your pet will thank you for it with better health, vitality, and enjoyment of their meals. Let’s leave the “complete and balanced” concept behind and embrace what nature intended.
Feeding pets a “complete and balanced diet” as defined by regulators like AAFCO or the NRC has its critics. Here are some common arguments against it:
Lack of Individualization
One-Size-Fits-All Approach: A “complete and balanced” diet assumes that all pets of a particular life stage or species have identical nutritional needs, which ignores individual variations like age, activity level, metabolism, and health conditions.
Evolving Needs: Nutritional needs change over time, and static formulations may not adapt to a pet’s specific life stage, disease, recovery from illness, or unique dietary sensitivities.
Reliance on Synthetic Nutrients Overprocessing: Highly processed “complete” pet foods often lose their natural nutrient content during manufacturing and depend on supplementation to meet standards.
Overemphasis on Regulatory Standards Minimum Requirements: Regulatory standards like AAFCO set minimum nutrient levels but may not account for optimal nutrition, focusing more on avoiding deficiencies than promoting long-term health.
Inadequate Research: Critics argue that current standards are based on limited research, with much of the data coming from feeding trials or extrapolated from studies on other species, rather than robust, long-term studies on dogs and cats such as evolutionary feeding.
Risks of Monotony Nutritional Gaps Over Time: Feeding the same “complete and balanced” food every day may not provide all the nutrients a pet needs due to limitations in ingredient quality or unrecognized nutrient interactions.
Palatability and Behavior: Constantly feeding the same food may lead to picky eating habits, boredom, or behavioral issues.
Misrepresentation of “Complete and Balanced Marketing Influence: The “complete and balanced” label is often used as a marketing tool misleading pet owners into thinking a single food product can meet all their pet’s needs.
Inflexibility with Raw or Homemade Diets Challenges for Raw Feeders: Pet owners who prefer raw or homemade diets often find regulatory definitions of “complete and balanced” restrictive and incompatible with their approach, especially when focusing on species-appropriate, whole-food feeding.
Fear-Mongering: Some say the pet food industry and veterinarians overly emphasize the risks of raw or homemade diets while underplaying issues with complete and balanced foods.
These arguments highlight the growing preference for more natural, species-appropriate, or rotational feeding practices, which many believe better align with a pet’s biological needs than the rigid framework of “complete and balanced” diets.
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