Nutritional Summary

Wouldn’t it be strange if your doctor told you to eat fortified Kraft dinner every meal, every day, from birth to old age? How many of us question the same advice for our animal companions. Although the pet food companies tell us that this is the only way to feed a balanced diet to our animal friends, isn’t it strange that there are no whole, fresh, unprocessed foods in this diet? Isn’t it questionable that despite their claims of crunchy food keeping teeth clean that veterinary dentistry is probably the fastest growing specialty?

Despite our domestication of the canine and feline and the fact that a Chihuahua may not look much like a wolf, the truth is that we haven’t changed their gastrointestinal systems. Cats and dogs are carnivores, designed to eat meat, bones and the intestinal contents of their prey.

	Bug chows down on a raw chicken
	Ricky plots the best approach to lunch.

Dogs are scavengers so can survive on a greater variety of foods than cats can. Yet we feed them a diet of dried up processed grains and meat, most of which is waste products, or that deemed unfit for human consumption.
In fact, many health problems disappear or are drastically improved by switching dogs and cats to a diet of fresh raw foods. This does not have to be expensive or time consuming. There are pre-packed raw food diets on the market or you can buy the ingredients and prepare it yourself. No matter what you decide, you will still be doing a better job for your pet than the commercial pet food industry as the foods will be fresh and raw and not heavily processed or preserved with chemicals.
Although almost any pet can benefit from the raw diet, in animals with specific health problems modifications may need to be made, or supplements added. It is always a good idea to discuss specific diet requirements with your holistic veterinarian.