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watchdogg · 3 years

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Dogs are NOT omnivores

They are carnivores (with omnivorous traits).

They get labelled omnivores because it’s easier than explaining what they really are. I don’t know if this is nefarious in nature, so the average person will accept dry dog food which is loaded with complex carbohydrates (fillers), but it is important we address facts like these because they help us in understanding what our dogs need.

Nothing is that simple. For example, humans are anatomically herbivorous, yet we are omnivorous. However, we are unique because we can not digest raw meat (without getting very sick) like every other omnivore in the animal kingdom. Herbivores will also have carnivorous traits, because energy is energy, if they happen to come across it they will take the opportunity. But once again, a herbivore struggles to process raw meat which is why it does not happen often.

IF dogs died out thousands of years ago, and a paleontologist was looking at their skull, they would have been labelled as a carnivore, and after its comparison with descdendants of its close relatives, they would have concluded they were likely to have ominvorous traits (just as most mammalian carnivores do - they eat their prey’s stomach in most cases).

What’s the purpose of this post? First of all, it will help you with understanding how to clean your dogs teeth! This post also stands to debunk people who feed their dogs by the Prey Model, and it also debunks those who say “dogs and wolves are two different species”. Dogs and wolves are the same species. One of the biggest pieces of evidence that proves this, is that they can have babies together! Not just babies, but fertile babies who can go on to have babies themselves!

So, how do we prove dogs are carnivorous? With science.

Let's start with their teeth.

Take this wolf skull for example:

And this dog skull.

You'll notice, other than being identical in appearance, that they both have teeth called carnassials.

You will find these teeth in most carnivorous mammals. They are specialised teeth used for shearing flesh in a scissor-like motion. You can see this scissor-like effect in the way that there teeth fit together like puzzle pieces. Carnivores have tightly-interdigitated teeth so they can grip onto prey. Where the main purpose of their teeth is to tear, their mollars are used to crunch/snap large food items into smaller chunks for swallowing. Nothing about the mechanics behind dog teeth would suggest the ability to grind. Whereas our molars on the other hand, are flat and perfect for grinding.

It is really important that we keep this in mind when finding appropriate things for our dogs to clean their teeth with! Soft chewy stuff will not force them to gnaw (this is the action which cleans their teeth!), dogs do not want to chew, they want to snap and swallow. But when we give them a bone, it forces them to sit down and gnaw (I have a whole thing on what bones are appropriate in my feeding guide post). This also means that the ‘dental’ dry dog food that vets prescribe is also crap. Once again, it’s a snap and go process with dry dog food. We want gnawing.

Greenies will not do the job. Lots of vet prescribe these, dogs eat them too fast because they’re too soft. If you are not comfortable with giving your dog bones, then you need to find an alternative which takes them a LONG time to get through.

I have had a lot of Petbarn customers express to me, that their vet told them NOT to give their dog wet food with their dry food, and to solely give them dry food, because it is the wet food that is damaging/dirtying their teeth. This is not true. At all. Dry food won’t do the job either. Your dog should be sitting down and gnawing on something for 30 minutes MINIMUM PER DAY. If you cannot keep up with this, then introduce some teeth brushing into the mix. If it takes your dog 30 minutes to eat their dinner because they’re sitting their and diligently chewing each piece, then you have a scientific marvel in your hands.

Moving on from teeth.

Gastrointestinal length is another piece to the proof puzzle. Carnivores have short gastrointestinal tracts! Humans and other ominvores/herbivores need long tracts to break down complex foods. Dogs have shorter tracts than us, but longer tracts than obligate carnivores (like cats). That being said, your dogs short intestinal tract is one of the reasons why your dog can eat things riddled with bacteria and not get sick! Yucky stuff can be swept out of their system quickly or be obliterated by their stomach acid which has a pH of 1.5-2.1. It is one of the reasons why you should not be afraid of feeding your dogs RAW meat because they were DESIGNED to. They are not people, your caution is lovely because it means you want to protect your dog from harm. That being said, your caution could become a hinderence to their health.

Hang on, if dogs can eat carbs and veggies, doesn't that mean they are omnivores? Nope. Most carnivores eat veggies too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ in the form of their prey’s stomach or sometimes a quick nibble on some grass. A dog’s official term is scavenger or opportunistic carnivore. The terms herbivore, omnivore and carnivore are general umbrella terms to describe something complex as very simple. Every species has a specific term, for example, where canines are scavenger carnivores, felines are obligate carnivores and most possums are opportunistic herbivores (where they mostly eat fruits and nuts, they will eat insects if they can get them).

We have a lot of evidence to prove canines have evolved along side us to eat things that they were not originally designed to eat. Just as we did the same throughout the course of our own evolution. This does not mean they are no longer carnivorous. It just means they have adapted to a new way of life.

For example, salivary amylase is needed to break down carbs, and dogs have a very small amount of it (tiny in comparison to the amount we have), whereas obligate carnivores have none. The presence of salivary amalyse is one of the many reasons why the Prey Model diet sucks and why your dog's diet should not be solely comprised of meat. They are not obligate carnivores, not anymore. That being said, the amount of carbs humans eat is in the same over excessive, unhealthy amounts we give our dogs. And the issues dogs face born from these ingredients, are somewhat similar to the issues we face also. Dogs do not have a dietary requirement for carbohydrates, they do have a metabolic requirement for glucose. When I talk about carbs in this blog, the carbs we should be giving to our dogs, I mean sweet potato or pumpkin. (Be careful with pumpkin, it can be very fattening). That being said, your dogs body will choose fat in the form of free-fatty-acids over carbs as the preferred fuel for muscle. Only a small amount of energy is obtained from carbs.

What your dog should be getting, is FRESH, VITAMISED, RAW VEGETABLES!!!

It is also important to note that although they need vegetables, these guys are not omnivores either, they should not be eating what we eat because what we eat is very unique in the animal kingdom. No other species cooks their food and sprinkles paprika on top. They have adapted to eating our table scraps, which would have been a large proportion of what dogs ate before the 1950s (after which dry dog food was invented). But think about what our table scraps used to be before the highly processed foods we eat today. Clean, unprocessed, etc.

Can a dog survive off of cooked foods? Sure. A person could also technically survive off of eating Nestle Optifast or potato chips for the rest of their lives. We make cats, who are obligate carnivores, eat cooked foods and grains their whole lives. But surviving is not thriving, and in a lot of these cases when we feed our cats and dogs biologically inappropriate diets, it leads to a myriad of digestive and skin problems.

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watchdogg · 3 years

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Why you should avoid pea protein.

One of the biggest things I advocate when feeding dogs dry food is READ THE INGREDIENTS LIST. It is easy to be dazzled by the pretty colours and design of well placed packaging. Especially when the cover says "organic, grain-free!"

There are still harmful things lurking in grain-free foods. This why RESEARCH is your RESPONSIBILITY as a DOG OWNER.

Where complex carbs like wheat are added to dog food to make production cheaper, grain-supported AND grain-free companies add pea protein for the same reason!

To earn certain labels dog food companies need to hit certain markers, this means in order to be labelled grain-free, the product needs to have a certain amount of protein. They do not have to specify the source of protein. Meat, especially good-quality meat is expensive. Pea protein is the apparent solution. This is called ingredient splitting, it is ethically wrong and decieving.

Pea protein has never been considered a beneficial ingredient in dog food. It is not complete in amino acids, which means a dog cannot use all of the protein within the peas, giving it a low biological value.

There seems to be a correlation between dogs who had no genetic predisposition to Canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and pea-protein (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6396252/). Pea-protein is not just found in grain-free brands! It’s everywhere.

What's the take away from all this? READ THE LISTED INGREDIENTS! Be responsible and give your dog the best.

So, what brands should you focus on then? I have listed bellow the brands that I have researched, they are also brands which I trust, and have either fed to my own dogs or have suggested and have had a family member/friend feed to their dog/s (click on the brand names to find out more).

Ziwi Peak (NZ)

K9 Natural (NZ)

Probalance (Aus)

Meals for Mutts (Aus)

SavourLife (Aus)

(in order of quality, from highers to lowest).

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watchdogg · 3 years

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Do we like Ziwi Peak?

YES WE DO!

Zewi peak is unique! It does not contain grains, glycerins, antibiotics, carrageenan, BPA, and growth promotants. There are no rendered meats, cheap fillers and artificial colours/flavors/preservatives. It is made with 100% free range, grass fed meat, which is 96% of the content! Most dry dog foods sit around 22% protein and 10% fat, where Ziwi Peak is 45% protein and 23% fat!

It is a family-owned company that does not outsource the manufacture of their recipes. All ingredients are sourced from New Zealand, and it includes green-lipped mussels, both of which are the tell-tale signs of a quality product. New-Zealand is becoming one of the safest and cleanest places to manufacture pet food.

MOST IMPORTANTY, air-drying instead of baking dog biscuits is a huge bonus! This is because it retains nutrients and extends its shelf life without removing moisture or adding toxic preservatives.

1kg of Ziwi Peak is equivalent to ~3kg of fresh meat!

Ziwi Peak is one of a few fantastic brands which use simple, good quality ingredients and are completly transparent about what is in the food.

With it's quality comes a damned big price tag. But that is because the complex carbohydrates that are put in other dog foods are cheap fillers put in place of good quality meat. I recommend buying Ziwi Peak online and compare prices! Buying in-store is far more expensive!

I feed my dogs this brand (along with a couple of others in the past) when I need to cut BARF to extend the amount that I have (whether it be time or freezer space problems).

INGREDIENTS (beef recipe):

Beef, Beef Heart, Beef Kidney, Beef Tripe, Beef Liver, Beef Lung, New Zealand Green Mussel, Beef Bone, Lecithin, Inulin from Chicory, Dried Kelp, Minerals (Dipotassium Phosphate, Magnesium Sulfate, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Copper Amino Acid Complex, Iron Amino Acid Complex, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, Selenium Yeast), Salt, Parsley, Preservative (Citric Acid, Mixed Tocopherols), Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid).

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watchdogg · 3 years

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BARF and puppies

I have noticed slight concern revolving around puppies growing up with BARF. People worry that puppies won't get the fat/protein they need and this is mostly because they are used to a direct feeding guide on the back of a food bag.

We don't make a special food for human children, they simply eat smaller proportions of what we eat. This is same for dogs, EXCEPT dogs grow a lot faster, so puppies do need to be fed in different proportions. If you consider the differences between adult, puppy and senior dry and wet dog food by simply walking into a pet store and reading the packages, there is a 0.5-3% difference in fat and protein.

The key thing to remember about the BARF diet is that you are truly taking control of what goes into your dog, therefore no longer relying on a packet with a feeding guide that does not account for personal differences. THE KEY IS TO WATCH, watch how your dog puts on weight, watch if they are getting skinny or overweight and adjust accordingly. I have a guide you can follow, but then that is like saying here is a guide for feeding a 5'7'' European woman (for example)... everyone is different.

YOUR PUPPY DOES NOT NEED MILK if they are 8 weeks old and above. Your dog has been weaned and is ready for solid food which they need to grow! If you have acquired a puppy under 8 weeks of age I am sorry to say, that this is irresponisble. Puppies need their mum and litter mates to teach them IMPORTANT LESSONS that in most cases cannot be taught by a person. Dogs that are seperated before the 8 week mark miss out on critical socialising! And 8 weeks is the minimum! The most likely behavioural issue born from this is mouthing, seeing as they missed the period in which their litter mates and mum would be teaching them how hard is too hard to bite.

So. The puppy BARF recipe is the same as for adult dogs (which is the same for dry food as well, same recipes with slight differences in protein and fat).

REMINDER: you puppy still needs to be acclimated to BARF. They would have been given processed food by their breeder, therefore they need to be transitioned over 1 week, half new food and half old food. Sudden transition will cause diarrhea. Digestion is complicated, when the gut is used to a particular diet, it forms particular bacteria/enzymes to digest it. When you change diet suddenly you have not given time for the bacteria to change either and so the body struggles to digest.

HOW MUCH TO FEED:

FEEDING SCHEDULE:

- 8:00am, 12:00pm, 8:00pm (puppy has access to food for 20 minutes)

- This is what I follow ^ but you are welcome to make adjustments according to your lifestyle.

- I found feeding three times a day keeps them satisfied for longer

- Reduce to 2 meals (8:00am and 8:00pm) when they hit 6 months

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BONES: - Necks and wings only! Their mouths are too small for anything else

- Once they turn 6 months give them something a little bigger so they can spend some time chewing

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FEELING NERVOUS?

- Feeling like BARF for puppies won't work? Is it making you nervous that there isn't a specific feeding guide to stick to?

- Don't do it if you feel uncomfortable. Do this diet whole heartedly, and with confidence. Otherwise

- it is absolutely fine if you don't want to do all BARF! Supplement some dry dog food in there! I recommend Probalance sold exclusively at Petbarn OR Call of the Wild (I have a whole other blog post explaining why I think these brands are best).

- Read the feeding guide on the bag, whatever it says your pup's daily intake is, subtract half and replace that half with BARF. Easy.

As long as they’re getting something that is fresh, then you are doing great!!!

#rawfeeding

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watchdogg · 3 years

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A Guide: Raw Feeding for Dogs

Don’t have time to make BARF? Not sold on it? If you want to know what dry foods are best check this out.

What’s on the menu? BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food). This recipe is based off of Dr. Ian Billinghurst’s own recipe provided in his book Give Your Dog a Bone. Great read, would recommend.

However, there are a couple ingredients he discusses which have been recently proven as poor dietry choices for dogs. For example, he speaks of the inclusion of milk and garlic which have been discovered, through scientific study, to make dogs quite ill. Therefore the recipe I have written below excludes any ingredients I have found research on that are detrimental to your dog’s health.

BARF is essentially everything you would find in a grain-free dry dog food, but fresh!

BARF = 50% green mix + 50% meat (30% mince + 20% offal)!

DAILY INTAKE = 60% BARF + 40% meaty bone

I DO NOT APPROVE of the Canine Ancestral Diet or Prey Model diet, which is 80% meat. I have a seperate blog post discussing why (click here to find out more)!

EVERYTHING YOU MAKE MUST BE BLENDED TOGETHER INTO A CONSOLIDATED MUSH! Your dog has to eat everything, you must not give it the choice to pick certain things out of their bowl, it all has to go in their tummy! This is how we get to deficiencies!

I will post a seperate description of my exact routine, and how I measure out everything my girl needs as an example so you have something to compare to.

DISCLAIMER: If your vet has told you that your pet MUST eat a prescription diet due to health condition/allergy, please listen to them. Every health issue has causes and triggers, there are many, and I cannot possibly cover all of them in this post. Does this mean there aren't raw options for dogs with health issues or allegeries? No. There certainly are. For example, if your dog is allergic to wheat they can go on a wheat-free dry food OR BARF. But I cannot be responsible for your failings in proper research. SO, this means that if you have a dog with congenital issues, like kidney problems, please research into what that means before going against a prescription dry or wet food diet.

Appropriate vegetables include:

- Silver beet

- Bok choy

- Celery

- Carrots

- Sugar beet

Appropriate fruits include:

- Apples

- Oranges

- Blueberries

- Pears

REMINDER: you absolutely MUST vitamise fruits and vegetables. Your dog does not have molars like that of a horse for example, they cannot grind fibre, they use their molars for snapping large food items into smaller chunks. Herbivores chew for a reason. Plant cells are surrounded by a cellulose, and most guts do not have the enzymes required to dissolve cell walls, hence chewing. DOGS ALSO CANNOT DIGEST CELLULOSE, and they do not have the mechanics required to break down plant matter into a digestible form. I learned the function of teeth during my studies into paleontology, where dental analysis is vital. (1)

SUPPLEMENTS: TO BE BLENDED INTO YOUR BARF MIX

the listed supplements contain the vitamins and omegas your dog needs to thrive. These vitamins already naturally exist in the vegatables and meats listed. HOWEVER, if your dog is not eating some kind of fish every day for example, then they need to be digesting at least flaxseed oil to make up for this. This is just one example. It is important to fill in any possible gaps, and these supplements make sure there aren’t any ;)

If you are feeding your dog fish oil you MUST also feed vitamin E oil, the dog’s body will use up stores of Vitamin E to process fish oil which oxidises very easily! If you are using one of the below supplements, you do not need to use fish oil. If you are using a supplement like megaderm or Omega blend, follow the directions on the bottle! So, this means don’t go adding it when you are making BARF, add upon feeding it to your dog.

SUPPLEMENTS INCLUDE:

- Megaderm (CONTAINS: vitamin B7, B6, A, E, omega 6&3) dosage instructions on bottle (can be bought on PetCircle)

- Vets All Natural Omega Blend (CONTAINS: flaxseed oil (omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids), shark liver oil (omega-3 and vitamin A), sunflower oil (omega-6) and wheat germ oil (omega-3)) (can be bought on PetCircle)

- just straight flaxseed oil (human-grade is the same stuff) 2 or 3 desert spoons

OTHER SUPPLEMENTS:

- Kelp powder (2-3 tsp) (contains: 60 different minerals and vitamins and 21 amino acids)

- Green tripe (contains: probiotics, essential fatty acids and digestive enzymes)

- Sardines (great for coat health)

- Tongue (fatty, good for active dogs)

- Green lipped muscle (aimed towards joint health, good for large breeds)

- Liver (contains vitamin A, B vitamins, iron, copper, zinc, essential fatty acids) 2 tblsp per day is recommended amount for medium dogs (I buy a pack of chicken livers (500g) and chuck it into the barf mix. This works out to be 17g perday)

DO NOT OVER FEED FATTY ACID SUPPLEMENTATION, keep to the recommended dose! Large quantities can cause Seborrhea oleosa (bad dandruff). It is possible to have too much of a good thing.

It is really important you do not overdose on any supplement. For example, glucosamine is great for old joints but it is also rated a top poison for dogs because of its potential for overdosing. (2)

WHAT MEAT AND ORGANS ARE BEST?

MEAT SHOULD NOT BE COOKED when fed to dogs. This decreases protein digestability and destroys essential amino acids such as lysine and methionine. That being said, meat is NOT a complete food, it is deficient in a lot of vitamins dogs need! So veggies are still a must.

Mince is great, but if you can find mince with ground bone included that would be even better. If you are living in Melbourne, The Saltiest Dog (in Thornbury) is a great store to visit to purchase such a thing. Try to stay away from ‘pet meats’, like those sold in Woolworths or Coles. They contain harmful preservatives (3). The cleaner/more human grade the better. Research into local raw food stores around you and ask about the meat they get in/what if any preservatives are in their meat.

Kangaroo is an environmentally friendly choice! They do not rely on the production of grain to survive, and they are indigenous to the land (their feet don’t compact soil and turn it infertile). It is the most humane way of harvesting red meat if you think about their lives up until the point of death.

The leaner the meat the better! Kangaroo is very lean! Turkey is another great option, but if you are afraid of salmonella, stay away from poultry. Variability of protein is not as important as what parts of the body you are feeding your dog. They need muscle, bone, and offal (tongue, heart, liver, etc.)!

I generally go by: 30% mince+bone & 20% offal.

BONES:

NEVER FEED COOKED BONES! They will splinter and cause internal injury.

Is it dangerous to feed raw bones? NO!

It is imperitive in the BARF diet that your dog is getting some kind of whole bone to eat EVERY DAY. But don’t be silly about it, think about your dog’s size. If you have a mini poodle, you should be giving it chicken necks, not beef weight bearing bones. The bones you give should be soft enough so that they don’t chip your dog’s teeth. This also means NO weight bearing bones till the dog is over 6 months old.

I have talked to customers at Petbarn who just happen to have silly dogs who won’t chew bones at all, and instead swallow them whole. If this is the case, please stick to turkey/duck/chicken necks. These are harder to choke on beause the bones are so tiny. Once again, if you fear potential bacteria or worm risks, freeze your meat before feeding (this will kill a lot of what you are scared of). DO NOT GIVE YOUR DOG FROZEN BONES, they will chip a tooth.

Bones act like fibre. They help everything move along in their intestines. They also contain vitamins and proteins they need. You can learn more about bone benefits in Dr. Ian Billinghurst’s book Give Your Dog a Bone.

I give my dogs a bone of some description every morning. Generally, it is a chicken carcass and once a week they get a roo rib or beef vertebrae (you can buy a bag of 'broth bones' from Woolworths which are great) to really get their teeth into.

It is really important that your dog is chewing on something every day. Whether it be a bone or a Kong/dental toy. It is imperitive for mental and dental health. The action of chewing for a dog is the equivelant of a human doing a sudoku or crossword.

HOW MUCH TO FEED:

This model is based off of the Raw&Fresh model which you can find on their website (https://rawandfresh.com.au/collections/treats), this also happens to be where I buy my bones from.

Essentially, you pick whether to feed 2-5% based on your dogs age and activity level. For example, senior dogs need to be eating more protein and fat because they lose muscle mass faster. A dog who has a high activity level needs more energy and a dog who is overweight should be fed less.

Generally, they should be getting 2-3%.

Whatever you decide on, this should be split into two meals. You'll find that two meals per day reduces their scavenging behaviour. I tend to feed the bone proportion in the morning and the patty mix at night.

The key to feeding your dog a raw diet is to WATCH. Watch your dog's weight. It is as simple as that. Watch how they put on weight, if they are becoming too skinny or overweight. Watch and adjust accordingly.

KEEP THIS FORUMLA IN MIND:

BARF = 50% green mix + 50% meat (30% mince + 20% offal)!

DAILY INTAKE = 60% BARF + 40% meaty bone

FEEDING LARGE BREEDS:

- BARF = time and money. Sometimes it can be unrealistic when you have a large breed.

- It can be a lot preparing a batch of food for a large breed, which can potentially be up to 2kg per day depending on how big the dog is. Ideally you would want to be making a batch that lasts the month, which we can individually pack and freeze. But with larger breeds that can get difficult when you are busy or you have a tiny freezer.

- Luckily their daily intake is not 100% BARF

- My GSD, Juni, requires 600g per day as a 30kg dog with a medium activity level. That means I'd need to make 18kg of BARF to last her a month. Yikes.

- I have found two ways around this:

- First of all, 600g is her daily intake, which means a bit of that (around 250g) can be meaty bone.

- I also cut some of her food with Ziwi Peak. This is an air-dried (NOT BAKED) dog food. Once the bone has been eaten, that leaves ~350g left to go.

- Her weight requires 350g of Ziwi Peak per day according to their feeding guide. Therefore, she gets 150g of Ziwi Peak and 150g of BARF

- I increase her BARF intake depending on the bone she gets

- The end result is I only have to make 4.6kg for the month if my life is turning out to be hectic and busy. Not to mention freezer space being an issue.

- When I find I have more time, this increases to 9kg and I don't need to feed Ziwi Peak at all.

1. You can learn more about dental function in mammals here:Smith, Kathleen, Wall, Christine. (2005). Ingestion in Mammals. In Encyclopedia of Life Sciences (Vol. 10, pp. 272-277). John Wiley Sons, Ltd. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Ingestion-in-Mammals-Wall-Smith/596099f8125d6ee16f40c858fe144613a225ae14

2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/42594946_Accidental_overdosage_of_ joint_supplements_in_dogs

Nobles IJ, Khan S. Multiorgan dysfunction syndrome secondary to joint supplement overdosage in a dog. Can Vet J. 2015;56(4):361-364. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4357907/

3. https://kb.rspca.org.au/knowledge-base/are-preservatives-in-pet-food-products-a-concern/

#rawfeeding

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