The Hidden Cost of Feeding “Complete and Balanced” Dog Food Alone

Content Disclosure: The information in this article is human-written and expert-led. No artificial intelligence was used in the creation of the health or nutrition content.

Most Australian dog owners trust the words “complete and balanced” on their dog’s food label.

It sounds reassuring. It implies nothing is missing. It suggests that as long as the bowl is full, your dog’s nutritional needs are covered.

But for many dogs, relying on dog food alone comes with a hidden cost that doesn’t show up immediately. It appears slowly, through subtle changes in digestion, skin, energy, and long-term health.

Is Dog Food Really Enough?

Commercial dog food is designed to meet minimum nutritional standards across a very broad population of dogs. Different breeds, ages, activity levels, and health conditions are all fed from the same baseline formula.

That approach prevents severe deficiency. It does not guarantee optimal nutrition.

Over time, many dogs develop nutritional gaps that are not obvious until they begin to affect daily wellbeing. This is especially common in Australia, where dogs face additional stress from heat, lifestyle changes, and highly processed diets.

The question most owners never think to ask is not “Is my dog food safe?”
It is “Is my dog food enough?”

What Dog Food Often Misses After Processing

Even premium dog foods rely on high-heat processing to ensure shelf stability and food safety. This process can significantly reduce the potency of delicate nutrients such as:

• Natural fibres
• Essential fatty acids
• Plant phytonutrients
• Digestive support compounds

Manufacturers compensate by adding synthetic vitamins and minerals, but these do not always behave the same way in the body as nutrients from whole food sources.

The result is a diet that meets technical requirements while still leaving the digestive system under supported.

Why Gut Health Is the First System to Feel the Impact

The gut is where nutrition becomes usable. If digestion is compromised, nutrients pass through the body without being fully absorbed.

Two commonly overlooked ingredients that support digestive balance are pumpkin and flaxseed.

Pumpkin
Pumpkin provides gentle, natural fibre that supports stool consistency and feeds beneficial gut bacteria. It helps regulate digestion without irritation and is often missing from dry dog food in meaningful amounts.

Flaxseed
Flaxseed supplies fibre and plant-based fatty acids that support gut lining health and help reduce low-grade inflammation in the digestive tract.

When diets lack these types of whole-food fibres, dogs may experience:

• Inconsistent stools
• Gas or bloating
• Reduced nutrient absorption
• Increased inflammation that spreads beyond the gut

Over time, digestive imbalance can affect immunity, skin health, energy levels, and even behaviour.

The Long-Term Cost of Nutritional Gaps

The effects of incomplete nutrition rarely appear overnight.

Instead, they accumulate:

• Minor digestive issues become chronic
• Occasional itching becomes persistent
• Energy dips become the new normal
• Age-related decline appears earlier than expected

These changes are often treated as unrelated problems, leading owners to try multiple products without addressing the underlying cause.

One overlooked contributor is reduced blood flow and oxygen delivery, where ingredients such as beetroot can play a supportive role by promoting natural circulation and cellular energy support. Again, these are not commonly found in meaningful amounts in standard dog food.

Why Adding One Supplement at a Time Often Fails

Many owners respond to these issues by layering single supplements on top of dog food. A probiotic for digestion. Oil for skin. Something else for joints.

This approach can help temporarily, but it often becomes difficult to maintain and does not address how systems work together.

Digestion affects immunity. Inflammation affects skin and joints. Nutrient absorption influences every system in the body.

Supporting the gut in isolation without considering overall nutritional balance often leads to partial or inconsistent results.

Rethinking the Role of Dog Food

Dog food plays an important role. It provides calories and baseline nutrition.

But for many Australian dogs, it is not designed to support optimal health on its own over a lifetime.

This is why more veterinarians and canine nutrition experts now emphasise daily, whole-food-based nutritional supportthat works alongside dog food rather than replacing it.

At Power Paws, this understanding is what shaped the formulation of DS-23, a veterinarian-formulated daily superfood designed to complement existing diets by addressing common nutritional gaps, particularly those affecting digestion, absorption, and whole-body balance.

Instead of adding multiple products, DS-23 focuses on supporting the gut as the foundation of long-term health.

A More Complete Way to Support Your Dog

If your dog eats well but still struggles with digestion, skin, energy, or resilience, the issue may not be the food itself. It may be what the food lacks.

Understanding the limitations of “complete and balanced” diets is the first step toward more informed, preventative care.

For those wanting to learn more about how gut health influences every other system, exploring a daily, multi-ingredient approach may be worth considering as part of a long-term routine.

In the next article, we’ll take a closer look at how gut health connects directly to skin issues and chronic itching, and why many problems start in the digestive system long before they appear on the surface.