14/10/2025
NOT RICE AGAIN!!!!!!
It is relatively common for us Pawrents to add Rice to our Fur babies' dinner bowl, mainly as a filler to increase the volume in their dog's diet. Learn about the pros and cons of Rice so you can decide whether it is an ingredient you want your dog to consume.
Rice is an edible seed from a type of grass and is one of the oldest cereal grains, dating back 5,000 years. Rice is inexpensive and widely available, but it lacks essential minerals, vitamins, and phytonutrients; its primary value is as a source of energy.
Dogs don't digest Rice too well. It takes a lot of work for the body to break down and is inherently inflammatory. Rice is a carbohydrate, and dogs have little nutritional requirement for carbohydrates in their daily diet.
Some pawrents add brown Rice to their dog's meal; it is a little higher in nutritional value with fibre, manganese, small amounts of iron, and niacin; however, it still has the same high carb content.
Studies have shown that the ideal carbohydrate percentage for our pooches' daily diet is around 4%. The average carb content of meat, fish, eggs, fruits, berries, and vegetables is about 4%. Rice is 80% carbohydrates or 50 grams per cup. Adding Rice to dry food (kibble) with a carbohydrate content of at least 40% adds up to far too many carbs for a healthy diet.
Excessive carbohydrate intake feeds harmful gut bacteria, which helps them proliferate and is known to be a fuel for cancer cells.
Dogs can digest and eat carbs and store the excess as fat, but it shouldn't be a substantial part of their diet.
The carbohydrates in Rice are mostly starch; starch turns to sugar in the digestion process, which feeds harmful bacteria in the gut; in the long run, your pup ends up with an imbalance of harmful and good gut bacteria. This imbalance can contribute to our dogs suffering from skin problems, allergies and yeast infections.
Starches, such as rice, make up a considerable percentage of the ingredients in commercial dog food due to cost savings in production; there's less need for more nutritional and more expensive ingredients like meat, poultry, fish, and eggs.
The carbs in Rice are quickly converted into blood sugar. Rapid spikes from a constant diet of carbohydrates increase the demand for insulin in your dog. When this is a regular occurrence, it can stress the pancreas, which produces insulin. In 2012, a substantial study found that ,pups who ate white Rice had a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes.
When purchasing Rice, where it is grown is worth considering. Some Rice from foreign countries has a significant Arsenic content, which is in the environment through pesticides and herbicides, phosphate fertilizers, industrial waste, mining activities, coal burning and smelting. It often drains into the groundwater, a source of irrigation on farms.
So should we feed our furkids Rice? No! Just because they can digest it doesn't mean they should eat it. There are better sources of vitamins, minerals and energy than Rice… such as animal proteins, healthy fats, fruits and vegetables. These sources offer a far lower chance of your dog gaining weight, developing skin and allergy issues, and developing Type 2 Diabetes in their later years.
