Doggy Diet: Feeding Your Best Friend
At The Happy Body, we’re very passionate about helping people choose healthy, nutrient-dense foods. It was therefore a natural progression for us to look at the diet we were feeding our dogs, with the same principles in mind. We read ourselves silly on the subject and have the following to offer…
Our domestic friends are descendants of the canine-lupus (wolf). Although it’s true that domestication of dogs happened many hundreds of years ago, their genetic coding is still that of the wolf. In the wild, these creatures thrive on organic, fresh, raw meat, plus bones and offal. Also required is a small amount of partially digested vegetable matter (usually found in the stomach of their prey).
Think about what you currently feed your dog. Most often, it comes out of a bag or a tin. It’s been processed and has had cheap oils, soy proteins, fillers and a large percentage of grains added to it. Some of the ultra-expensive stuff is made with better-quality ingredients, but is still processed.
Grains, in particular, are detrimental to dogs (and cats), as these are not foods that would naturally have been consumed. Their consumption can lead to blood sugar problems, including obesity, heart disease and diabetes. In fact, they can lead to these conditions in humans, never mind animals.
Far better, would be to mimic your pet’s ancestral diet by feeding them an equal-part combination of the above-mentioned raw animal parts. In other words, muscle meat; offal (lung, liver, heart, kidneys) and bones (chicken necks, heads and feet, lamb and/or beef bones). Add to this a small amount of vegetable pulp. You can use either the leftovers from your juice extractor or vegetables grated on the small side of a cheese grater. In addition, add some good quality omega-3 oil.
Now you have a complete and balanced diet that will keep your pet healthy, his or her teeth clean (through munching on bones) and body weight optimal.
We can attest to the benefits for dogs, as ours have been on a raw diet for a number of years and have experienced outstanding health.
As an example of ideal amounts, we feed Lily, our very active (30kg) Pit-Bull cross, approximately 500-600g food once per day. On top of this, we add a few tablespoons of vegetable pulp plus one tablespoon of human-grade flax oil. To combat constipation problems we add more veggies; for too-loose bowels we add more raw bone.
If you’re interested in further reading, we recommend ‘Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats’ by Kymythy R. Schultze (Certified Clinical Nutritionist and Animal Health Instructor). You could also go to www.healthypets.mercola.com.
Port Elizabeth’s local meat supplier, Melanie Volker ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ), provides all our ingredients and so, depending on where you live, you may need to do a little research into who’s offering what.