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
I I’m still in the process of converting my hobby Farm into a Weston Price ideal. However I have dogs and cats that I feed rabbits and chickens to that I raised myself but they still have meat base kibble as an option for when we are gone. I have six cats and 1 is 13 and even though she spent most of her life outside and hunted she is now stuck herself inside and refuses to eat raw meat anymore and I don’t know why but she is fixated on canned cat food and it’s obsessive for her and she won’t eat the raw livers I offer her anymore and if I add vitamins like nutritional yeast to it or kelp meal to it she refuses to eat it if I add other tasteless vitamins to it and minerals she won’t eat it so I’m really stuck here and her health is deteriorating because she won’t eat the right things anymore. My other kitties all eat raw and Hunt like she used to and eat organs when I Slaughter and they’re all good.
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I’m planning to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a
hard time making a decision between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution
and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design
seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something
unique. P.S Sorry for getting off-topic but I had to
ask!
Thank you for sharing, Gwen! I feel thankful that there is someone like you dedicate to sharing the fact about pet diet..such a real eye opening!! I look forward to reading more!! 🙂
I’m so excited to see this! Having taught ServSafe classes, I was appalled to find out that typically when meat is recalled as unfit for human consumption it gets recycled into the pet food supply!
We’ve been struggling to find decent, holistic food for our beloved border collie for four years. We had to stop using one company after getting two bad batches in a matter of months, and Blue Buffalo (the cleanest kibble we’ve found) he flatly refuses to eat unless he’s absolutely starving. I’ve been looking for information on how to make balanced food for him from scratch, so I’ll be watching upcoming articles here carefully!
Jamie – I’m glad you’ll be looking out for my future guest blog posts, but there’s no need to wait until then to start learning about feeding your dog raw!
Please scroll up this page about halfway to see my response dated April 28, 2012 at 4:26 pm to comments made by Linda, Brian and Kathy, which lists about 8 links to some of the best resources I know of that have excellent information on how and why to transition your dog to a diet of whole raw food.
Just thought I’d put my experiences in. I have two 13 year old Golden Retreivers and they have been fed predominantly the “BARF” (Bones and raw food) diet their entire life. I do give them the occasional meal of kibble just so they know what it is and in case someone else has to feed them if I can’t. They also have 1 night a week when they don’t get fed at all. Both dogs have been very healthy their entire lives. They are lean and only just starting, this year, to show signs of aging (getting a bit slow and some mild arthritis). They have shiny, glossy coats and minimal plaque on their teeth. WHen they have their annual blood test the vet can’t believe how good all the readings are and yet they still try and talk me into feeding them some expensive dry food instead of what I am giving them. I just say that nothing they say to me can convince me that eating only dry food is better for them than the diet they have thrived on their entire lives. The diet I based my information on is by Dr Ian Billinghurst. He is an Australian vet who has put out several books on the topic.
Jayne
LATTE? Girl, I don’t drink that stuff! I”m sorry, but to pamper an animal while people suffer, is just not right. We can justify our emotions, we can justify our actions, but people are dying on the streets from lack of common human contact while a DOG is being pampered. Old people die in their beds with body sores because no one is there to pamper them, move them, love them. Bottom line, I have animals, they are loved, we care for them, but they are last. We don’t have healthcare and neither do they. We are not rich, but we pay the bills. We buy raw milk and cream with cod liver oil, etc for our grandbaby, who has health issues. He is the reason we look for blogs like this… but to try to find healthy choices and come across this insanity is a rude awakening. Truly, find some people to care for, they need you.
If you really loved people so much, you wouldn’t be attacking people that you don’t even know, simply because they have a different point of view… It takes all types…
I think if she really loves people she should euthanize her pets and give the money she spends on them to charity. I’m not sure how she rationalizes that the amount she spends is any more justified than the amount I spend. If human needs must always trump the needs of pets then nobody would ever have a pet.
Why is it what I choose to spend my money on offensive? Have you ever bought a new car? how about a hand bag more then $20? do you have more then two pairs of shoes? do you have a TV? a computer? why spend your money on these things when you could send it to people who die in their beds with body sores?
Are you writing to the celebrities who spend 2 million dollars on their weddings or even their wedding rings? do you go to their websites and tell them they are horrible for spending the money on the “wrong’ things? Have you ever done a protest at an animal spa??? or is it just easier to sit behind your computer and try to belittle people who choose to spend their money on things that make them happy.
I just happen upon this blog and I am shocked at the time and attention that people spend on animals. Really? What about the people in the world who need time and attention? WOW! This conversation is really a sad testament to the reason there are children still waiting to be adopted, seniors in homes with no one to visit them, homeless with no food. Really!? on the Animal bit, that is just too much. Priorities people! Try finding people to dote on and spend your time and money on… I”m sure they would love to see your smiling face.
Love is not a zero-sum game. The care I give my pets does not deprive anyone else of care. The reason I haven’t adopted any children has nothing to do with my owning pets.
I’ll give up my pampered pets when you give up your lattes.
If your truly a selfless person you can feel love for anyone including pets. My preference for pets does not take away from anyone else, but only brings me joy.
Hi, Sarah and Linda:
I’ve been wondering if I should give my dog FCLO? And if I do, should I combine it with HVBO? I’ve noticed lots of “fish oils” at the pet store, but didn’t really think they were worth purchasing. Thank you! ~Sarah M
Personally, I wouldn’t spend the money on FCLO for my pet, but if I did want to supplement with something similar I’d stick with regular, less expensive plain CLO instead.
If your dog is being fed a raw prey model diet consisting of a variety of whole raw foods and some raw liver is included as a regular part of his/her diet, I don’t honestly don’t feel (s)he would need the supplementation of CLO. Otherwise, it’s probably a good idea.
As for HVBO, I’d skip this for a dog too and keep this expensive supplement exclusively for human use.
I agree with you about those fish oils you saw at the PFS. If you’re considering supplementing your dog’s diet with fish (body) oil, I’d go with a decent brand for human consumption rather than one made for pets from the pet food store.
We were at the pet food store yesterday buying our fresh Roo meat and would you believe my boyfriend heard the shop assistant telling a shopper that raw meat makes the dogs body acidic whereas kibble does not…. Are you serious???
Jade, a microbiologist grad student and I got into a heated discussion because he said my raw fed dogs would die young from liver failure related to acid-something or other! Said grad student worked at a vet office at the time.
That’s insane!! If that was the case then there would be no wolves left in the wild surely…
actually that is true. meat does make a body acidic naturally and, in cats at least, that is a good thing. For cats who produce struvite crystals, the treatment is to acidify the urine to keep the crystals from forming as easily (as well as keeping the pet well hydrated) and meat does that naturally while commercial urinary foods add an amino acid methionine.