Could your dog’s food be costing you more than money? (Part 1)

If you have never heard about the BARF or Raw Diet Revolution, I advise start doing your research. It is one of the quickest growing trends in feeding your dog and cat, here in the UK & Ireland, the USA and Australia and there is a very good reason why so many people are changing over.

What is B.A.R.F?

Barf stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, basically, food that is appropriate for the species you are feeding; grass or veg for herbivores, meat for carnivores and a mixture for omnivores. Just like most zoo’s feed their animals foods which are as close to what they would eat in the wild, then our domestic pets should be fed with the same mindset.

What is wrong with commercial pet foods?

Not only is a lot of commercial dog and cat foods highly processed, cooked, ground, pulped and reconstituted into pellets or kibble. Any goodness that originally was in the basic ingredients have been cooked out so the manufacturers have to add synthetic vitamins and minerals back in. Ok, that’s fair enough if it was just meat and bone and maybe some veg as the basic ingredients, but what if there was not only culled animals, not necessarily slaughtered but could have been sick, euthanised, treated with a plethora of drugs before it died? It isn’t unheard of as most ‘animal derivatives‘ can come from what is called a rendering plant, where carcasses of any and many animals are boiled down together and sold on to manufacturers, not only in the pet food industry.

Food standards for pet foods are very vague and other ingredients can be added from other manufacturing processes. Do you know what it means by Animal By- Products on your pets food labels? No, neither did I but I have researched it a lot and some of the things which can go in is pretty disgusting never mind having no nutritional value to your pet. There are plenty of articles about it in newspapers and online recently to keep you reading for hours! Try this one from the Born Free Organisation

Look at your pet food label and just see what the top ingredient is, if it is meat, then good on you, you have at least chosen a manufacturer that is trying to make a nutritional pet food. If your top ingedient is wheat, maize, corn or some other type of grain, these are called fillers. Not because they fill your dog up but because they plump or bulk out the food. Grains are not a natural part of your carnivores diet and their digestive systems do not contain the correct enzymes to break down these grains, that is why most of what you are feeding, if you were to weigh what comes out the other end, comes back out again because their bodies cannot digest and assimilate these types of ingredients.

Dog Breath, smelling ‘doggy’ and other hints on your pets health

I have 4 dogs and not one of them smell like a dog the way I used to think of a bad doggy smell. I know that sounds funny but growing up around dogs all my life, our dogs were fed an artificial or commercial diet and they all had dog breath and they all had a certain ‘smell’ about them which I just associated as a ‘dog smell’. Now that I know better it was the smell of what a commercial food was doing to their bodies. I used to age dogs by how much plaque was on their teeth, the more plaque, the older the dog or if they were missing teeth, usually a sign of a dog getting on. Obviously overall health and condition played a part in guessing a dogs age too. All of these things I now know was my experience of aging a commercially fed animal.

I always get people commenting on Solo, my 17 year old whippet/ collie cross, his shiny coat his bright eyes and how spritely he is, they get a shock when I tell them his age and most people comment that he looks half that age. Now just think about that. He isn’t a young looking dog anymore and he’s grey around the chin and just a little stiff around the hind end but otherwise healthy & happy and people think he is 8 or 9! Have we accustomed ourselves to the fact that our dogs and cats should start looking old and grey before their time? 

Good Oral health = Good Over-all Health

Does your dog or cat get regular ‘Dentals’ at the vet or have you been told that your pet might need one soon? Have you been advised to ‘brush’ your dog’s teeth regularly? Like humans, oral health i.e. your teeth and gums, give dentists and doctors an idea of our overall health, this is the same with our pets. Wild dogs, coyotes, wolves, foxes etc dont have someone to clean their teeth every day or a vet to clean them every 6 months, so how do they keep their teeth and mouth healthy? Remember this is their main weapon in order to bring down their prey as well as eating it so keeping this armoury spick and span and healthy is a must for survival in the wild.  The answer is just eating their natural prey naturally cleans their teeth and massages their gums and gives them all their nutrtional needs for health and survival.

The ripping, tearing and gnawing which is part of eating meat on the bone cleans a carnivores teeth as they eat, getting rid of bacteria and other debris which might have built up since the last meal. Dogs who eat dried kibble which are high in sugars for palatability and preservation, 1. barely touch the sides of some dogs mouths as they’re eating, therefore not cleaning the mouth of bacteria and 2. these sugars feed the bacteria in the mouth and help them multiply leading to plaque build up and gum disease. (facts and info taken from,Tom Lonsdale- Raw Meaty Bones ISBN :0646396242)

Don’t fall for the Pet Food Conglomerates (such as Colgate-Palmolive, Mars, Del-Monte and Nestle to name a few) and their media machines, they are in it to make money, first and foremost, your pets health comes way down the list, so start doing a little research into your pet food brand, I will tell you now you are going to be shocked with what you find out. Visit My Website for more info on feeding a natural diet if you live in Ireland.

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Next week- Part 2, How feeding a natural diet could save you money and your dog’s life

I would love to hear your comments and thoughts on anything in this article that you found helpful or interesting, thank you