Mordor Gundogs

The main conclusions by the students were as follows:

"Many observations were made while conducting a food trial attempting to compare a diet containing a portion of insect-based protein to a raw meat diet in puppies. The diet containing the insect protein (Black Soldier Fly larvae) was fully cooked and was, therefore, easier and safer to handle. A fully cooked diet contains fewer bacteria and is less likely to grow unsafe amounts of bacteria compared to a raw diet. The insect diet also proved to defrost from frozen quicker than the frozen raw meat packages. Additionally, the raw meat diet smelled considerably worse than the insect diet, although this is a subjective observation.
Both diets proved to be extremely palatable as each respective litter showed high amounts of interest in the diet provided.
The litter being provided the insect diet generally seemed to produce larger amounts of faeces day-to-day, despite having a smaller litter size (6 compared to 8 in the litter being provided raw meat). Inspection of the faeces led to the discovery of rock and/or grass-eating habits in both litters. However, the litter eating raw meat showed more evidence of grass eating compared to those eating the insect diet, and the litter eating the insect diet showed more evidence of rock-eating compared to those eating the raw meat diet. Perhaps this can be attributed to the litters being held in slightly different environments (the litters were kept in separate paddocks) or possibly it is evidence of each diet lacking a vital nutrient(s) the puppies were trying to obtain through the grass and/or rock-eating. Neither litters displayed any obvious signs of gastrointestinal upset.
Overall we concluded that the puppies being fed the insect protein diet had a better body condition score than those being fed a raw diet. Although, this could be attributed to the fact that the two litters were fed different amounts per head of each diet. The litter fed the raw meat diet was given 920 grams per head per day, while the insect protein diet puppies were fed 933 grams per head per day as of June 17th. We were originally feeding the raw meat diet puppies at 5% of their total body weight, to begin with, however, due to the puppies being housed outdoors in Scotland (cold weather), we decided to up their food to closer to around 9% of their body weight by June 17th. We did this because it is best to feed dogs by monitoring their body condition in the environment they are in. However, if this study were to be done again we would want to compare the nutrient compositions of each diet, specifically looking at the protein and fat compositions to determine exactly how much food to feed per day while also adjusting the amount of diet by monitoring body condition score; to ultimately be feeding equal amounts of protein of each diet (insect protein-based vs raw meat diet)."

Observations taken by: Bryant J. Maloney, Veterinary Student, BVMS 1, University of Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine, B.S. Animal and Veterinary Sciences Minor in Biological Sciences Clemson University Brooke G. Webber, Veterinary Student, BVMS 1, University of Glasgow, School of Veterinary Medicine, Bachelor of Science in Animal Science Washington State University