What Should I Feed My Kangal Dog?
Many owners are concerned about what to feed their new Kangal Dog puppy to ensure that it grows up strong and healthy. Canine nutrition is an evolving science and a very controversial one. If you belong to any email discussion lists related to dogs, or if you surf the web for nutrition information, you're likely to have experienced flame wars over dog food! Trying to determine what is best for your dog is confusing enough when you are trying to track the arguments and reasoning among amateurs on the internet. It does not help matters that experts in canine nutrition themselves are divided on a number of rather basic issues. But then, it's really the same for human nutrition, isn't it? What's "in" and healthy one year, is claimed to be "out" and outright dangerous the next!

In this column, I would like to discuss some ideas that I have gleaned from other Kangal Dog breeders in the US and in Turkey, and from my own research.  In the end, it is up to you to exercise your good judgement and evaluation skills to decide what is best for your dog, and within your personal means.

Kibbled, Canned, or "Natural" Food ?
This is probably the most emotional area of debate with respect to dog nutrition. Advocates of the so-called "BARF" (Bones And Raw Food) diet or the Billinghurst diet argue with great passion that the only "proper" diet is one that is all raw meats, vegetables, and other unprocessed ingredients.  Very often the claim is made, explicitly or implicitly, that if you feed your dog anything else but BARF, you must be unethical, or you don't love your dog enough to deserve having one.  Advocates claim fabulous health, gleaming coats, and elimination of all kinds of diseases. But no one has been able to point me to studies in respected, peer-reviewed journals that indicate any truth to the claim that a BARF diet is superior to either kibbled food or to table scraps. Such a study would be very hard indeed, because kibbled foods vary, homemade diets vary, and no one does their BARF diet the same as anyone else--there are protocols to follow to ensure a balance of ingredients, but these are not applied nor interpreted in the same way by followers. 

At the other end of the spectrum are those who remember the family dog that lived to a ripe old age on the cheapest kibble at the grocery store, or on canned food, or on one of those semi-moist foods that are supposed to resemble hamburger. We probably all had or knew of such a dog. But no one that I know would consider feeding their Kangal Dogs food at the bottom of the quality barrel these days. If you examine labels, cheap kibble is mostly corn, meat by-products, and other low-value ingredients. Cheap canned food is essentially the same, except you pay extra for the water and for the can.  Semi-moist foods have similar ingredients, plus food dyes and preservatives that are always suspect --but many dogs do enjoy the texture and smell of canned and semi-moist foods.

Then there are those who opt for kibbled food, but insist on the absolute most expensive kind available, kibble made from human-grade ingredients and containing no preservatives. Often there are many other ingredients--such as seaweed, beet pulp, brown rice, and brewers yeast-- that tend to be ignored or reviled by one high-end company and embraced by another as healthful or essential. It gets very confusing when you try to compare ingredients and the arguments dog food companies make for including THIS but not THAT! 

Feed Like the Villagers Do?
Some people believe that we should feed Kangal Dogs a diet as close as possible to what they get in Turkish villages, apparently believing that the diet and the dogs somehow evolved together for optimum survivability and health of the dog. But the Turkish diet for dogs is very much like the diet that our farm dogs in the US got for centuries before the advent of prepared dog foods. That is, it was according to the convenience and means of the owner, and consisted generally of items that were known to have nutritional value for mammalian creatures--but very cheap, or not fit for human consumption. Thus Kangal Dogs in the Sivas region are fed a daily ration of barley mash--a cereal made by mixing powdered or flaked barley with water. If the dog is lucky. there might be some milk or yoghurt tossed in to moisten the barley. Maybe an egg now and then. Village Kangal Dogs also eat a lot of stale leftover bread, castaway cooked and raw bones, and whatever they pull out of the garbage--eggshells, leftover stews that have gone bad, unwanted organ meats and other bits and pieces of butchered sheep. Quick young dogs might catch an occasional marmot, mole, bird, baby rabbit, or some such other protein supplement. In the government breeding farms they may have a formula for barley mash with some cooked meat off-cuts, yoghurt, and eggs. But still... the diet is largely starch.

Is this optimal? No, but it is what a poor villager can afford, and the dogs do live and work on this diet. Dogs do seem to age fast in Turkey, whether from poor diet or hard conditions, or both. We have greater means, and we want our dogs to live longer, so we provide nutrition that is far beyond the bare working minimum. Dogs, like people, are eminently adaptable, and can thrive on very different diets in various parts of the world. Some diets are clearly better than others, but even the "best" diet won't be the best for every breed, or for every dog within that breed.

Happy Medium?
I think that most breeders and owners of Kangal Dogs in the U.S. toward the premium end of this spectrum, but do not push toward the extreme.  It is a fact that not even wild or semi-feral dogs get to eat anything much like a meat and veggies diet.  Wolves and dingos don't eat BARF. Dogs evolved from wolves, but they are NOT wolves--they developed as scavengers, as omnivores that prefer meat if give the choice. A raw diet has significant risk of infection from E. coli and other disease-causing agents. And to feed more than one Kangal Dog on a raw-foods diet, you'd need to know your butcher on a first-name basis, plus have a big deep-freezer just for the dog food.  But the simple fact is that most of us are simply not in a position to buy and formulate a BARF diet for our dogs, even if we were convinced that it might be of value (and the evidence is not convincing to the present writer, so my skepticism is declared!). 

Most of us advocate a good quality kibbled dog food to ensure the basic nutrients, but do not think that the most expensive is necessarily the best.  Indeed, some super-premium brands have protein levels that are too high for proper, controlled growth of large breeds. Thus, some companies have formulated chow especially for large breed puppies--these are generally lower in protein and calories than other brands of puppy kibble, Some of the large breed puppy and adult chows contain glucosamine chondroitin, for which there is considerable evidence of benefits to joints. Since ours is a large breed in which hip dysplasia and elbow problems are a concern, we take an interest in this one. However, the amounts that are contained in puppy kibble are so much lower than the recommended therapeutic doses, it seems rather like a gimmick.  Some people use glucosamine chondroitin supplements instead.

Most of us who have companion Kangal Dogs will supplement the kibble diet with healthful table scraps, fresh raw meaty bones, cottage cheese, an occasional egg and some extra oil. Our dogs seem to thrive on this. 

Until canine nutritionists can more clearly define the "optimal diet" and prove it through proper studies, we must take responsibility as dog owners to learn as much as we can, feed our dogs according to known principles of good health, and remain open to new information.