Pet Nutrition

Diet is just as important as exercise for a healthy and happy pup. What you feed your pup can significantly impact their life over time. Overweight dogs struggle with some of the same issue we humans experience: Diabetes, damage and pain in joints/bone/ligaments, heart disease + blood pressure, difficulty breathing, decreased stamina, heat intolerance, decreased liver and kidney function, and increases chance of cancer.

I’m not a pet nutritionist, but learning about raw food diet and prepping my dog’s meals has made me more knowledgeable and aware of what I put into her body, than ever before. And honestly if she didn’t have such a sensitive stomach, I may have never made the push to make the change and would have stuck just to regular dog food -kibble. Prior to raw feeding I tired so many different kinds of kibble, that I have lost count. I could never feed her in the morning, even if I feed her 5 hours before any activity she who always vomit and could never keep anything down. So I resorted to feeding her at night, but even then we’d sometimes wake up at night to her puking up her food. After taking her to multiple veterinarian visits to figure out what was wrong with her, spending all that money and time did absolutely nothing to help; they could never figure out what was wrong with her. I did want to feed her raw, but it compared to regular dog food it can be pricy. I also felt bad if I fed her raw and our American bulldog (who ate 2x more than she does) kibble. So it was really unrealistic financially. It wasn’t until our American Bulldog passed away, that I could realistically consider it and make the change. It’s been close to 8 years she’s been on a raw diet and this is what I’ve notice (as they say the proof is in the pudding):

Pros:

  • Cleaner teeth and fresher smelling breath.

  • Softer and Shinier coat

  • Stays hydrated easily, no need to constantly refill water bowl (unless we have doggie guests). She only drinks water on hot days or after a good long run. But even after being out all day (during colder weather season) she barely touches the water bowl.

  • No more vomiting -we use to only be able to feed our dog once at the end of the day when she was done running around. Now the only time she vomits (which is rare now), is when she ate something in the woods that she clearly can not digest, but at least her food is already digested. Before she would randomly vomit and always always had kibble in her vomit. (She's seen the vet for this vomiting issue, but they could never really figure out what was causing it, they could only guess).

  • Easily digestible.

  • Only had to visit the vet once ever since feeding raw for her annual check up and shots. No more frequent vet visits due to random health issues that can't be explained.

  • Smaller and no more stinky stool.

  • No more diarrhea. Before she would randomly get diarrhea, and I would assume that it was just something she got into when we're in the woods. Ever since we made the switch she hasn't had diarrhea at all.

Cons:

  • More time commitment. I usually prep meals to last 3-4 weeks (during a weekend when we're not as busy).

  • Need a lot of freezer space -we've dedicated pretty much our entire freezer to our pup, guess it's a good thing we don't shop the freezer isle much to begin with ;)

 

Additional info on raw feeding and kibble

Here's some more info and great resources to learn how to feed raw, I've also listed some websites that offer

  1. Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow, visit www.hare-today.com. This is where I get most of Pup Pup's food, they're located in PA; closer than most raw food suppliers. Love how they already have everything cuts up in chunks which speeds up the meal prep timing. Also recommend cutting your pups food into strips until they learn to chew their food. Pup Pup was feed kibble for her whole entire life before raw feeding and never really learn to chew properly, but overtime she's learned how to chew her food and I can leave the food as big chunks.

Treat tips

Definitely recommend finding single ingredient dehydrated treats.