Sadly, I think the chicken nuggets are actually healthier than most kibble.
Take a look at the chicken nugget ingredient list below taken directly from McDonald's.com.
Boneless skinless chicken breast meat, water, vegetable oil shortening, wheat flour, yellow corn flour, modified corn starch, rice starch, salt, baking powder, seasoning [wheat starch, yeast extract, salt, natural flavour (vegetable source)], spices, canola oil, sodium aluminum phosphate, dextrose, wheat starch, corn starch. Cooked in vegetable oil (high oleic low linoleic canola oil and/or canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, citric acid, dimethylpolysiloxane)
Anything highlighted in red is no bueno and quite simply bad for health. Vegetable oils like vegetable oil shortening, canola oil, soybean oil are highly inflammatory and linked to inflammation and disease. Anything with wheat, corn or rice has been genetically modified and doused in glyphosphate, but at least the primary ingredients are chicken breast meat and water.
How Does this Compare to Kibble?
Well, take a look at the ingredient list from a common kibble brand, Royal Canin that is often vet recommended, and actually is less healthy than McDonald's Chicken Nuggets.
Brewers rice, oat groats, chicken by-product meal, brown rice, wheat gluten, chicken fat, pork meal, natural flavors, dried plain beet pulp, fish oil, vegetable oil, sodium silico aluminate, calcium carbonate, powdered cellulose, salt, egg product, potassium chloride, sodium tripolyphosphate, vitamins [DL-alpha tocopheral acetate (source of vitamin E), niacin supplement, L-ascorbly-2-polyphosphate [source of vitamin C], D-calcium pantothenate, biotin, pyridoxine hydrochloride ;vitamin B6], riboflavin supplement, thiamine mononitrate [vitamin b1], vitamin A acetate, folic acid, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, hydrolyzed yeast (source of betaglucans), L-lysine, choline chloride, taurine, glucosamine hydrochloride, marigold extract (tagetes erecta L.), trace minerals zinc, proteinate, zinc oxide, manganese proteinate, ferrous sulfate, manganouse oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, copper proteinate), Yucca schidigera extract, magnesium oxide, L-carnitine, chondroitin, sulfate, carotene, rosemary extract, preserved with mixed tocopherols and critic acid.
This is an INSANE ingredient list and it's all bad. All of it. The ingredients are literally genetically modified oats and rice and chicken by-product, which is rendered parts of poultry carcasses and can contain bones, offal and undeveloped eggs. Poultry by-product meal quality and composition can change from one batch to another. The rest are chemicals added to the food to make it "nutritious" and palatable.
At least the McNuggets have real chicken breast. I don't recommend feeding your dog nuggets and I don't recommend feeding Royal Canin Kibble or any kibble in general.
Dogs have 42 teeth designed to cut meat and bone, just like wolves. Dogs are genetically designed to survive and eat prey (not nuggets, or pizza or brewer’s rice or corn gluten meal or soybean meal). Eaten in high quantities, like daily, will shorten your companions’ lifespan. No question.
Since dogs have evolved from wolves about 14,000 years ago, have been domesticated, yet their digestive system remains the same. They survived by eating prey, fresh fruit and vegetables. And they thrive by doing the same now.
It is no coincidence that chronic disease and sickness is increasing in our pets. Diabetes, obesity, autoimmune diseases are all widely accepted as common issues, which in reality they are not. There is absolutely a correlation between what we feed our pets, their overall healthy and longevity.
Learn more about what to feed your dog by clicking here. Learn more about the disease epidemic that faces our dogs by clicking here.