Raw Food Guidelines

Dr. Francis M. Pottenger's nutritional studies have shown that a regular diet of cooked or canned foods causes the development of chronic degenerative diseases and premature mortality.

It's remarkable what we've seen once we get one of our customers dog switched over to a raw food based diet. They start to thrive on life again, their skin and coat look much more healthy, diseases that were taken a hold of them are eliminated or controlled. The magic is in the diet. This is true for humans and dogs. Food is a powerful medicine.

These raw food guidelines should be understood for its benefits and started slowly. This process is for incorporating raw food into your dogs diet, and is one of the most singular means of extending the quality of life.

Dogs and cats thrive on raw diets. They have not adapted to a cooked diet. This is just something we put them on for convenience. Who told us to put these animals on these high grained processed diets? The big manufacturers who produce brain washing pet food commercials and sponsor the single elective health class your veterinarian takes.

The same companies who give kick-backs to vets who push their foods. I don’t want to say anything bad about our beloved veterinarians, for without them, our pets would be worse off. I just wish they did the same as human doctors. When you ask your doctor about nutrition, what does he do? He refers you to a nutritional expert. Why can’t vets do the same thing for your dog and give you raw food guidelines? Instead they point you to the waiting room filled with high dollar prescription food that’s processed as well.

Balanced diets keeps there organs healthy, weight in control and zest for life at high levels. These raw food guidelines will get you there.

A natural dogs diet is high in protein and low in carbs. So lets compare the raw feeding guideline to the commercial diet.

A natural dogs diet: 55% protein, 15% carbs, the balance in fat, bones, fruit and vegetables.

Dry processed bag food typically fed: 25% plus or minus protein, 50-70% carbs.

As you can see, the general populist feeding there dogs commercial food as a primary source is way overloading on carbs. This is leading to overweight, many degenerative type diseases, cancers, etc.

This is not even touching the synthetic cooked, processed vitamins put on those dry foods. Compare that to whole fresh foods rich in natural unaltered vitamins. This obviously is having a tremendous impact on longevity of our pets.

You can take the raw food guideline as far as you want and/or have time to. Basic raw food guidelines can be from simply incorporating a little store bought raw food into your dogs diet a couple times a week to totally preparing every meal. Obviously the more you can do yourself, the better his diet, the longer and healthier he will live.

Somewhere in between is a good fit for most. Even with our own dogs we incorporate raw food guidelines as follows: raw meats, canned food, vegetables, and even a little dry kibble. We throw in a little home-cooked now and then and supplement with vitamins, enzymes, fish oils or sardines. We also take it a step further and add some green powder in their diet. We learned this from our holistic vet.

We rotate our feedings. In the morning they might just get raw food and their supplements. In the evening they might get canned with some dry and vegetables. The basics of a raw food guideline can be incorporated into everyone's current meal plan.

We fed store bought raw food for a number of years until we opened our own retail store. Now we have available several varieties of frozen raw food especially made for dogs and cats.

These raw products are from farms that especially rose for this industry. They don’t contain all the hormones and other chemicals that human grade food does. Most products usually contain ground up bone and organ meat to make them more balanced.

If you’re currently feeding a commercial based diet, you should seek the help of a holistic vet to get you started.

Like any change, you need to start slow. This is called transitioning. When you’ve fed a high grain based diet, the digestive tract has enzymes and their levels adjusted for this type of digestion. When you use the raw food guideline and introduce a high protein low carb diet, it takes it a little time to adjust to this type of digestion.

We’ve had so many people come into the store and say, I’ve tried feeding that and they just threw up. Or they had diarrhea. This is typically from feeding them something different too fast. We’ve rotated and fed so many different things to our dogs, they can switch to anything without trouble.

Use common sense. If you’re just starting out, give them a little and reduce the other food you’re feeding by that much. When you add more fresh raw meat, take away more of the cooked stuff.

Start this a couple of times a week. Then maybe three times a week. Any amount you can do will have a dramatic impact on their health.

If you only do it periodically, read our page on Dog Supplements to find out about enzymes and their importance.

As part of your raw food guideline, throw your dog a bone once or twice a week. No cooked bones. Make it a nice big knuckle or shank. This is natures way of cleaning their teeth. Good teeth are important to overall health. Turkey necks, lamb necks are some of our dogs favorite. They work very well because they can also use their rear teeth knowing on these necks. That helps keep them very clean.

Seek out a natural pet food shop like ours for incorporating your own raw food guideline. There you can find the especially made raw foods, good premium dry and canned food and the advice you need for your pet.

You can always shoot us a question if you would like our opinion on incorporating your own raw food guideline. You can ask a question via the Ask Us A Nutritional Question page.

We have teamed up with National Pet Pharmacy for your convenience of purchasing products from your home. They have a huge selection of products, great prices and will price match anyone. If you want to purchase your raw food for your dog, seek the assistance of a small independent pet food retail store, not the big chain pet food stores. The small ones will usually have a selection of raw food for dogs and the best prices.

Go to National Pet Pharmacy by clicking the link below. There you can find information on many products including great prices on flea control and more. Just like any store that sells everything, be careful. They do sell the good with the bad. Always read the ingredients and if you don't know what something is, ask or research it.