Raw dog food is now the fasting growing pet food sector. Freezers full of juicy minces and ready-to-feed raw meals are now plugging in to pet stores everywhere. There is no getting away from it raw, fresh dog food seems here to stay.
At a time that we are asked by our own health professionals to eat more fresh wholefoods, 5, 7 or is it even 10 servings of fruit and veg a day now? Why wouldn’t we begin to wonder if our beloved animal companions might also benefit from fresh wholefoods too? Would their digestive complaints, allergies or weight issues begin to balance in the way that ours do if they too ate fresh raw wholefoods?
Nowadays, thankfully, there are safe ways to find this out. To begin feeding a pet dog or cat on healthy fresh, unprocessed foods with ease and even grace, on the purse strings.
Complete and Balanced thaw and serve meals in a variety of recipes are being formulated to make life easier for pet owners, and provide all the nutritional elements pets miss out on by eating processed, dry kibbles or cooked, sterilised tins or tray foods.
Processed foods lack almost all useful Omega fats for instance. Rather than being fully complete these foods lose nutrition through cooking and processing. The well-known Omega 3 fatty acid is not included in guidelines for an adult dog ‘complete and balanced’ pet food, and this is just one example of where fresh foods can nourish your pet that bit further.
Every animal on the planet eats and always has eaten a diet of fresh, real food. Some catching prey, others snatching leaves from plants or tree branches. Our domesticated pets have only been fed processed foods a short time*, far too short a time for evolution to change them to cope with the ingredients and processed nutrients these diets provide. Fresh, raw meals may be the hottest pet food trend of the moment, but they are certainly not new! They have been around since the dawn of time.
Providing fresh food is also as easy as feeding yourself or your children – in fact it’s kind of easier as dogs are often way more enthusiastic about eating their dinner.
As long as you follow the simple basic rules below you will find feeding real, fresh food easy, beneficial and fun.
I have yet to meet a dog who switched to real, fresh wholefoods that didn’t get healthier, or even overcome long term ailments. Just as we deep down know ‘We are what we eat’, this is just the same for our dogs. No matter how wonderful looking your dog food label, how colourful looking the bag or how helpful the sales rep, ultimately nature, and our human doctors, have not got it wrong. Fresh is best.
Top 5 ‘Get It Right’ Tips
- Choose a professional ready-made Complete and Balanced food from the freezer of your pet store. Defra stringently regulate professional raw pet food manufacturers, to ensure the foods are safe. Check for the Defra number on the packaging.
- Add to your dog’s bowl frozen, defrost in the bowl and then simply hand the bowl to the dog. You don’t even need to touch it.
- Despite that fact, always practice the same vigilant hygiene rules you practice when preparing the Sunday roast chicken or handling any other meats you eat yourself.
- Take up the dog’s bowl and wash it once they finish, it is almost unheard of for a dog to leave fresh food in their bowl!
- Always feed fresh food at an entirely separate time to processed. Never simply added on top. It is safer and kinder to the dog’s digestive system to straight switch than transition over time. (This is different to dry food guidelines, but you are not switching to another processed food.)
*since around the 1950/60’s
For more information please refer to our website – www.ndfd.co.uk
