Back in 2005, after many years of living without any pets, a strong hankering began to arise in me for some companionship. Little did I know at the time that this journey would be such a profound catalyst for so much learning and discovery, particularly in the area of how to make the best homemade dog food and cat chow!
Right after I brought my two new kittens home I made a trip to the store to purchase some kitty litter, as well as a collection of various types of canned cat food, along with a bag of that ubiquitous and seemingly obligatory kibble. However, I soon began to embark upon what was to become a transformational journey into exploring and gaining as much knowledge as possible on how and why to feed my new furry friends a diet of raw food and care for them holistically.
Needless to say, it wasn’t long before I ditched the canned food and kibble, as I began to educate myself in earnest about why it was best not to feed my pets that stuff, and as I learned how and why to feed them a diet of real foods — the kind of deeply nourishing, wholesome, unprocessed raw foods their carnivorous bodies were inherently, naturally and originally designed to eat.
What I found as I progressed further and further along on this path of investigation was that the more information I uncovered, the more it was all starting to blow my mind!
Our Pets Are Victims of Denatured and Devitalized Foods Too!
I began to realize that for virtually my entire life I, along with the majority of people living in the western world, had been nothing less that powerfully duped, misled, deceived and misinformed – dare I say brainwashed – when it comes to how, why and what we should be feeding our cats and dogs, and how we should be caring for their health.
What became increasingly clear to me was a set of dynamics that uncannily parallels the way in which the “diet dictocrats” (as Sally Fallon Morell has so aptly dubbed the misleading and erroneous corporate, commercial, political, economic, and governmental influences that have dominated conventional dietary recommendations during the past decades) have conditioned virtually our entire society into wrongly believing that it’s all well and good for us to eat a diet loaded with nutrient sparse, poor quality junk food.
Similarly, over the course of time a number of mega-corporate pet food diet dictocrats have poured billions upon billions of dollars into creating and widely disseminating powerfully persuasive ad campaigns. These advertisements, with which most of us have grown up and are intimately familiar, are very cleverly designed to convince Joe Public that a steady diet of highly processed, low quality, industrially produced, commodity based, pet food “products” manufactured in factories are what we should be feeding our pets.
Chronic Degenerative Diseases Increasing in Pets
And the correlations between people and pets don’t end there. What is perhaps even more disturbingly evident is that many of the very same kinds of chronic degenerative diseases from which we modern humans are now suffering in ever increasing numbers, are also directly affecting our pets. Just as in people, there has been a growing, veritable pandemic among the domestic pet population of debilitating and even deadly afflictions such as cancer, diabetes, obesity, periodontal disease, digestive dysfunctions, arthritis, renal issues, allergies and skin rashes, as well as endocrinological and immunological malfunctions, among others.
Just as the average poor quality SAD (standard American diet) is clearly implicated in the dramatic decline our our collective human health, so too are the substandard junk pet food diets fed to our pet populations undoubtedly a significant factor in the drastic deterioration of their collective health.
The Pharmaceutical Paradigm Dominates Conventional Veterinary Medicine
To take the comparison even a step further, it’s revealing to note that just as there is a massive financial collusion between Big Pharma and the conventional allopathic medical industry, so is there a corresponding connection between Big Junk Pet Food (which by the way, is all tangled and connected up with some of the biggest, most influential manufacturers of industrialized, toxic junk food made for people) and the veterinary industry.
For instance, in the same way that drug companies contribute massive funding to medical schools, pet food companies too make large financial contributions to veterinary schools. In fact, pet food companies often heavily influence the curriculum content at vet schools, and their fallacious dogma is regularly promulgated through various courses on pet nutrition which they teach and/or otherwise oversee, direct or facilitate.
And just as large pharmaceutical firms woo medical students with perks and gifts, pet food companies also provide very similar incentives to vet students to encourage them to come into the fold. As a result of all this, just as most allopathic medical physicians become salespeople for the drug industry, so too do most all veterinarians end up being shills for the junk pet food industry.
Because we’ve been so powerfully and incessantly conditioned by the media not to think too much for ourselves, or to use the power of our minds and discernment to think critically, the vast majority of people simply accept the status quo as it stands. Most rarely ever wonder too terribly seriously about why things are the way they are, and fewer still are much interested at all in attempting to wake up to the larger, more sobering and revelatory truths of this world.
Well I for one have started to wonder mightily, and very much aspire to awaken! And I’ve found many kindred spirits among those who are knowledgeable about Weston A.Price’s teachings and who are active in the Foundation. Therefore like many of you, I feel called to help pull back the curtain, so to speak, so as to shed some light and allow us all to see with clearer eyes what’s really going on. Ironically, my explorations into learning about the health and diets of our beloved animal companions have been instrumental in compelling me on my ever-deepening and ongoing investigations into our own human diets and health.
Our furry friends are so innocent, trusting and so utterly reliant upon us to properly care for and feed them. They give of themselves to us so selflessly and generously, and surely they deserve all the best we can provide for them in return!
Sources and More Information
Choose Another Pet Food if Yours Has These Ingredients
This is wonderful! I am excited to see the other posts. I have a farm animal herbal book by Juliette de Bairacli Levy which has some information on dogs, but she has another book specifically for cats and dogs. That book I’m sure is overflowing with information on this subject. I think that a lot of people have a wrong take on what kind of diet a pet animal should have. Raw is the best, but that doesn’t mean you feed your pet steak tarter three times a day. If you’re making broth, chicken or beef, feed the dog the well cooked leftovers. But, put some whey on it. Cooked grains are also acceptable-with a little raw milk. Mrs. Bairacli also points out that animals can easily be overfed, citing that in the wild, carnivorous animals will go for maybe two weeks without food in fine health. 5lbs of beef could go a long way, couldn’t it?
With respect to both you and the author of the book you mention, I would submit that both dogs and cats are carnivores.
Because they are carnivorous animals, there is no place in our pets’ diets for grains in any appreciable amounts.
A carnivore’s teeth were not designed to masticate grains.
Their gastrointestinal tracts were designed neither to digest nor assimilate the nutrients contained in grains.
And feeding grains on a regular basis to these carnivores can contribute to all sorts of health problems – from allergic skin reactions and rashes, to smelly, gunky, yeasty, infected ears, to digestive issues such as IBS and IBD.
Feeding grains to our carnivores can also be generally very inflammatory for their bodies, which can exacerbate painful and debilitating conditions such as arthritis. And since grains are so high in carbohydrates, feeding them regularly to carnivores like cats and dogs may also very well contribute to the onset of diabetes, not to mention being a significant contributing factor in obesity.
Please stay tuned for my upcoming guest posts here on Sara’s blog, where I’ll go into more detail about the anatomical and physiological qualities that qualify our domestic cats and dogs as carnivores, including further insights on the many very good reasons why we should avoid ever feeding them any grains whatsoever.
Our dog is a poodle-mix and he definitely inherited the dreaded poodle tummy. Any number of things sets him of and he gets the gamut of GI problems. About six months ago we started making him food from “people food” and he has no problems. I haven’t taken him raw, and don’t really intend to, but I do soak and cook oats and rice and mix it with cooked chicken livers, beef liver, different meats and some veg. He loves it and he looks a lot better than when he was on dry food. His favorite is marrow bones which I roast or boil for him. Making him food this way is far cheaper than comparable manufactured dog food and it makes shopping easier, too. I just grab a pack of some offal or another and have another pot going at dinner. I think it may even help him feel more like a ‘part of the pack’ to eat with the family. 🙂
I have been feeding my dogs and cats raw for many years. We raise almost all our own meat, so we have easy access to the balanced diet both need. Rabbit is our meat of choice for them for the most part. They get the heart liver lungs and kidneys along with all the meat and bones and they do GREAT! When a calf pig or chicken gets butchered we share the organs of those with the dogs and cats too.
For those of you who think this is a more expensive way to feed your pets, I’d like to tell you that my pets have not been to the vet since starting them on a good raw diet. Their teethe do not need cleaning as their food doesn’t build up on them like kibble. I choose not to vaccinate as well for the same reasons I don’t get vaccinations myself. They don’t get yeast infections in their ears like many kibble fed animals do. They don’t have that body odor that kibble fed dogs have either.
It is also MY personal experience that we don’t have flea infestations like we did before switching to raw. Others will argue that, but that is MY experience.
Thanks so much for sharing this, Trisha!
It’s become so disturbingly and tragically clear to me, especially after corresponding with people from all over the world who have written to me after finding my website, how incredibly damaging the effects of feeding junk pet food can be to the health of our animal companions over the course of time. It’s also become very clear how much healthier many animals become when they’re either started early in life, and/or are transitioned later on to a diet of whole raw foods.
Just as there’s a huge cost to our collective human health, and a corresponding financial expenditure in terms of medical bills due at least in part to our mass consumption of cheap but very low quality, highly processed, nutrient sparse food, there’s also an identical dynamic that’s going on with our pets, the quality of their diets and health, and vet bills.
Many of us are seeing the wisdom of paying more for *real* food for ourselves and our families – food that’s whole, wholesome, nourishing, nutrient dense, and raised by people with conscience. We understand that although it may cost more up front to buy things like organic/biodynamically/locally grown/grass fed/pastured/humanely raised foods than it does to buy cheaper, low quality mass produced food, the overall value of the higher quality food in terms of its long term effects on our health is self evident.
More and more people are beginning to realize that when it comes to the quality of the food we consume and how it relates to the quality of our health, we’re going to pay – one way or the other. Either we pay now to buy decent food, or else chances are we’ll end up paying anyway later on down the line in the form of medical bills as a result of some sort of chronic degenerative illness that develops due to lack of good nourishment.
Similarly, when we feed our animals a lifetime of processed, low quality junk pet food, they often end up becoming chronically ill and costing us absurd amounts of money later in life in the form of vet bills. I’ve heard this very sad story time and time again from people who have contacted me via my website looking for help for their beloved but very sick pets.
Unfortunately, due to the massive industrialization of our food supply, along with huge government subsidies paid to mega-food producers, the cost of mass produced food has become dramatically skewed. Since we’ve all been raised in a system where this distorted cost of inferior quality food has become the norm, it can be a real challenge for us to really grok the value of higher quality food and to really comprehend why it makes so much senses for us to pay what it’s really worth.
Similarly, because we’ve all been so conditioned by all the pet food commercials, as well as vets who tell us it’s not safe to feed our pets anything BUT such poor quality junk, it can be challenging at times for us to realize the true long term value of paying more now to feed our pets a proper diet of whole raw foods.
Further, “premium” brands of pet food are a good dollar a pound and you feed far more of that than you would raw whole meats (including bones and organ meats).
Even poor quality meats are a better choice (in my opinion) than dried processed pet food.
The group Cyndi shared is amazing. It helped me when I started raw in 2007 with my cats. Other good sites for cats are catinfo.org and catnutrition.org Also search for a co-op in your area (I found mine through the yahoo groups). We buy our raw food in bulk once a month as well as grind whole chickens, quail, and pheasant. Save a lot that way! You can find different meats by visiting Asian food markets.
I tried to transition my 4 cats to raw a few years ago. Two of them loved it, but my two older males (14 years old now) would have none of it. I’m sorry to say that after 2 high risk pregnancies, a 4 year old and 1.5 year old, I fell off the raw wagon. One of my cats desperately needs it though. She is obese, and can have NO kibble at all. She is allergic, and her coat gets dandruffy and matted after just a few days if she gets into any. I find it especially ironic, that she is also highly addicted to kibble… it’s like crack for her!
Just last week Tropical Traditions had a free shipping code on their frozen products, and I ordered 6 bags of their raw cat food (chicken steaks) to try again. Again, the two younger cats (including the one who desperately needs raw) ate it up. Yay! The older males are not interested. I may try to transition them again, but I’m for sure going to keep the younger two on raw.
I have ordered raw ground animals (including organs and bones) from Hare Today, Gone tomorrow (hare-today.com) in the past, and have been very happy with their selection and prices. In fact, I still have some in my freezer that I should dig out and mix up into cat food. I think it’s cheaper to make your own this way, than to buy it completely pre-made.
I’m looking forward to this series, and it is an extremely important topic!
There are many good forums on raw feeding on the yahoo groups lists. I’ve been feeding my two 5 year old dogs raw from the time they were weaned and they are both healthy. Besides meat and bones, they need organ meat such as liver, heart, spleen, etc. and they love green tripe (never the bleached out store bought stuff). Snacks for my dogs are frozen chicken feet and dried lambs lung. Raw feeding takes getting used to but it’s really not hard or complicated.
Well, I’m pretty sure that my 16 yr old dog, Pachi, 5 yr old Dog, Missy and 4 yr old Cats, Lewy and Nona would disagree with you. They may not get people food you all are advocating for, but they are deeply loved. These animals were in a kill animal shelter and up for death in the days we adopted them. I”m sorry, but for you to say that they are better off dead than in a loving home is absolutely offensive. Our animals are loved to the level that we are able and even to the limited level you think is not good enough for an animal, I am 100% sure, they feel it is good enough for them. They are not people.
Now, how ever you treat your animals is quite ok as well. My only concern is that all of those animals in shelters who are about to be killed may not ever get a home if this type of rhetoric becomes the norm. The majority of people who have real children and limited funds cannot feed their animals the type of food you are advocating. Animals are on this earth to serve people, people are on this earth to be good stewards of the gifts of the earth, but people are not to worship the earth including animals. You may agree, you may disagree, but that’s how I was taught and that’s what I will teach my children. People come first.
I, too, think that people come first in the event that a choice must be made. If I had to choose between feeding my children and feeding a pet, I would certainly choose my children. The problem is putting yourself in a position where you have to choose. As a responsible pet owner, it is my duty to provide for the physical needs of the animal as well. It is not a “loving home” to feed a pet foods that will make it sick, in pain, foster disease and create suffering. If you cannot afford to care for the needs of a pet, you shouldn’t have one. I know that sounds harsh, but it really isn’t fair to the pet. Taking in a living creature and then not caring for it properly is more about the needs of the person than the needs of the animal: some sort of “rescuing the unloved” need. If you want to rescue animals, volunteer at a shelter so that funds can be diverted from staff expenses to keeping animals longer, donate funds to the spay/neuter initiatives in your area so that fewer unwanted animals are dumped. When our help and heart are truly directed toward taking care of the creature and not our own needs, there are many ways to make a difference. This is not about making animals above humans, it is about taking care of God’s creation.
Beautifully stated Lanette.
I think you have lost your mind. You really would rather see an animal stay in a shelter then go to a loving home- just based on what type of food it is fed??? I think if you spent a week of your life in the environment of a shelter animal you would change your mind, and you would probably be the most loyal and loving pet to whom ever adopted you- no matter what food you were given. I think you need a reality check.
Wow. Some of this is unbelievable. I’ll preface the rest by saying I give all of our pets raw foods, though my collie is most likely to eat whatever I give him and my tabby would truly rather starve than eat the grass-fed beef scraps and poultry offal I’ve offered him (our lady cat is somewhere in between). I’ve been feeding/trying to feed our three pets real, raw foods for YEARS. So I’m up on the data and information and think it’s the best way to feed pets.
But do you know what? For all this talk about God’s creatures and stewardship, I seem to recall several verses about people being given things to the best of their ability and even one about people giving alms to those in to the best of their ability (Acts 11:29). We are judged based on what we do with the resources we have and have been given.
People, and I suspect particularly those commenting here and daring to disagree, do the BEST THEY CAN. If you genuinely think animals are better off being euthanized or stuck in a small shelter cage (and guess what they’re fed there, no matter how great the intentions of the usually beleaguered and cash-strapped volunteers?), you need to take another look at your priorities. You would rather people be alone and without the love of a pet just because they cannot (or don’t know) feed them an optimal diet? Great balls of fire!
Last year, my mother had cancer. Her dog was a wonderful companion for her, often the only smiling face she saw all day. I’ve been very ill for several years and some days literally need help getting out of bed, then spend the remainder in varying levels of pain. Since one cat won’t eat raw at all and the other is picky, should these beloved pets be removed from my home, and two great joys taken from my life? I suspect you would say “yes”. I think you would say it’s okay to take my pets away from me, despite my best efforts and great love for them. You apparently also think it acceptable to take my parents’ dog from them because he eats kibble, canned dog meat, and scraps from the table because they think this raw food stuff is hokum.
This is wrong.
It is not your place to condemn those doing the best they can. Yet you do this, then don’t seem to see why a few have the courage to say they’re a bit bothered. Can’t you see where they are coming from? Those disagreeing with you here clearly love their pets, but here you are accusing them of not taking care of God’s creation–and worse, saying they SHOULD NOT be ALLOWED to have a pet and all the joys that brings.
Again: This is wrong. And frightening.
Get off your self-righteous high horse and have a smidgen of compassion for those who would love to provide this sort of diet for their pets but cannot. Gracious.
I’ve been feeding my dogs and cats raw for many years and it lead to me looking for better ways to feed myself using the Weston Price Foundation as a model.
Cats have to be switched slowly. I suggest
I would love to learn how to feed my dogs raw. What exactly is involved, do they need any additional supplementation, veggies, etc. Or is it just as easy as raw meat & bone? Also, I know it is probably recommened to go grass fed or pasture raised. What if the best I can afford for them is regular meat from the grocery store? Are any supplements needed then?
I meant to say, if you could do a post on this that would be great. Thanks.
Linda, Brian and Kathy,
Thank you so much for asking about information on learning how to switch dogs to a diet of whole raw foods!
There are a number of excellent resources on this subject online.
Here are some of my favorites:
http://rawfeddogs.org/
http://rawfeddogs.net/
http://preymodelraw.com/
http://rawfed.com/myths/
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/
Also, although the practical specifics involved are different depending on whether you’re switching a dog or cat to raw, many of the fundamental principles are the same.
So even though my own site is geared toward cats, reading several articles there, all of which are designed to provide a clear outline of the basic how’s and why’s of raw feeding, can be very helpful as well – both for people looking to educate themselves about transitioning their dogs to raw, as well as those who have cats.
These articles would include: Nature’s Prey Model, Benefits of Raw, No Grinders! and Toxic Pet Food, and they can be accessed from my home page here: http://rawfedcats.org