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After years of being told not to feed pups table scraps, fresh feeding is on the table and in a big way. While today’s carefully curated raw dog foods<\/a> are a far cry from sharing Sunday’s dinner with your pooch, it’s still a relatively new phenomenon.<\/p>\n Pet parents have reported significant improvement in their fur friends’ overall health and well-being after making the switch, especially in seniors. Now, science is partnering with the pioneer in raw pet meals<\/a> to examine just how much of a difference fresh eating actually makes, especially for our senior fur buddies.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc36<\/a>SIGN UP to get “pawsitivity” delivered right to your inbox with inspiring & entertaining stories about our furry & feathered friends<\/a><\/strong>\ud83d\udc3e\ud83d\udc3e<\/a><\/p>\n Dr. Heather Huson was in charge of a year-long study, during which she and Farmer’s Dog’s board-certified veterinary nutritionists examined how eating fresh, minimally processed food affected 22 senior Alaskan sled dogs.<\/p>\n The study showed that dogs who ate the Farmer’s Dog fresh food experienced significant improvement after just one month. They had a lower level of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), a compound linked to aging and disease. There was a drop in their sucrose levels and in their glycemic control biomarkers, 1.5 anhydroglucitol and AGEs, specifically N6-carboxymethyllysine and pyrraline.<\/p>\n “For years, people have been telling us their dogs are thriving on fresh diets like The Farmer’s Dog, and this study finally shows what’s happening beneath the surface\u2014a significant metabolic transformation,” said Jonathan Regev, cofounder and CEO of the Farmer’s Dog, in a statement<\/a>. “The gap between highly processed pet foods and minimally processed real food may be even wider than we imagined, and could redefine what’s possible for canine health and longevity.”<\/p>\n In addition to finding lower levels of compounds associated with aging, the researchers discovered high levels of antioxidant compounds, including ergothioneine, carnosine, and anserine. All of these antioxidants indicate a reduction in oxidative stress, which ages your pup, and growth in their antioxidants, which is known to slow down the aging process.<\/p>\n Related: This Viral Raw Dog Food Brand Just Dropped a Savory New Flavor Your Pup Will Roll Over For<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Antioxidant levels and aging compounds weren’t the only areas that saw a significant change. The fresh food group of dogs shows a decrease in malonate, a marker of fatty acid synthesis. Scientists feel that this suggests they have a more effective metabolic system compared to the kibble group.<\/p>\n “The magnitude and consistency of the metabolic impacts we observed were quick, sustained and striking,” said Dr. Joseph Wakshlag, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist who worked on the study.<\/p>\n The fresh food group also observed differences in their amino acid metabolism, including higher levels of leucine, valine, and isoleucine, as well as similar compounds. They also observed a rise in ketones, indicating improved fat utilization in the body and a healthy state of ketosis.<\/p>\n “Fresh, minimally processed food shifted the dogs’ metabolism toward a beneficial alternative metabolic profile in the aging dog with markers for improved muscle and neurological health along with implications for improved antioxidant defense, and diminished AGE formation,” Dr. Wakshlag added. “These results are an exciting milestone for understanding canine metabolic health and nutrition.”<\/p>\n Related: High-End Dog Food Brand Enters the Fresh Food Race With New Product<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade Pets<\/a> on Nov 1, 2025, where it first appeared in the Pet News<\/a> section. Add Parade Pets as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n After years of being told not to feed pups table scraps, fresh feeding is on the table and in a big way. While today’s carefully curated raw dog foods are a far cry from sharing Sunday’s dinner with your pooch, it’s still a relatively new phenomenon. Pet parents have reported significant improvement in their fur […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pets-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pe-ts.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How Fresh Pet Food Helps Senior Dogs<\/h2>\n
Metabolism Changes<\/h2>\n
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