Exciting News! We’re Certified in Raw Dog Food Nutrition!
We’ve been feeding our pack raw dog food for years, had training from our suppliers and read article after article about the benefits of raw feeding plus,
we’ve seen the fantastic results a balanced, healthy raw diet has had on our dogs. And we’re excited to see that raw feeding is growing in popularity
all across the UK, so we thought the time was right for us to dig deeper, a lot deeper in to raw diets, why they work, what should be in them
(as well as what shouldn’t) and how to make them.
And with that in mind, Jo dusted off her pencil case and headed back to school (virtually) to the Dogs Naturally Magazine University.
Why Now?
The popularity of raw dog food is on the rise amongst dog lovers across the UK and while we think this is brilliant news, not all raw dog foods are created
equal and a poorly put together raw diet could well be less nutritious than some mass produced kibble or wet food diets (and that’s a scary thought).
Why Dogs Naturally Magazine University?
Well, we’ve been readers for a while and love their approach to doggy health and wellbeing. And it was one of the few courses we found that really
dives deeply in to the nutritional elements of each part of the raw diet and how to apply them in our everyday lives. It helped us take a long
hard look at what and how we feed our dogs and why we needed to be able to offer a broad range of recipes in order to get as close as possible
to the traditional raw diet – while keeping an understanding that convenience and affordability also play an important role.
What Did The Course Cover?
The course is broken down in to 6 modules covering:
- The Ecosystem (including the evolution of today’s domestic dogs)
- Nutritional Components (a dive in to protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals, microminerals and nutriceuticals)
- The Digestive System – how all the elements need to work in sync for your dog’s health and how a raw diet can help
- The Modern Primordial Diet – how factors such as modern farming methods can affect everything our dogs
eat
- Building The Raw Diet – wow, this was a big one with a lot of maths. It covered how to build a raw diet from the ground
up, making sure nutritional essentials such as protein, fat, calcium, organ meats, vitamins, minerals and carbohydrate were present in the right
amounts to create a balanced raw diet
- Feeding the Raw Diet – making the switch, how much to feed, managing bacteria & a look at why some commercially produced raw diets
don’t make the grade
In total there are over 40 individual video lessons and each module has a short quiz to pass at the end before you can move on to the next and once
all modules have been completed, there’s a final exam with a pass requirement of 75% (Jo got 93%! )
What Now?
One of the most important elements Jo has taken away from the course is the concept and importance of balance in the raw diet and using a broad range of
proteins in order to create it.
Another is the value of wild animals in the modern day primordial diet – now, we’re not about to go out and start catching wild rabbits and deer
and we’re not suggesting you do either. But we do want to help include it in the diets we recommend to our customers through the Premium recipe
(which includes wild rabbit as well as Venison which gives another important varied source of protein).
But there was a catch… The average cost of the food we stock is a smidge over £4.00 per kilo when buying the 1kg tubs. But the Premium range is
£5.15 per kilo…
So, we made the mixed monthly case – a combination of at least 4 of the recipes every month and always including Premium, plus a beef, chicken and turkey
variety as well as at least 1kg with tripe and all at the equivalent of just £4.00 per kilo for the 1kg tubs. You can find it here.
And you might be wondering we aren’t formulating our own range of raw now that we’re certified?
For now, we’re concentrating on offering you and your dog the best variety of recipes that combine to make up a broad and balanced raw diet. We’ll
be adding raw meaty bones and chunks to our range from March and we’ll be on hand to show you how to introduce them to your dog, when to feed them,
why they are so good for your dog and which ones to choose for dogs big and small.
Plus, some of our raw customers are currently trialling a new range of treats and we’ll be bringing you the verdicts on these soon. Watch this space
to find out whether they get the big Paws Up from our testers.
If you have any questions about feeding your dog a raw food diet,
call Jo on 01494 706600, or email her jo@dogsabouttown.co.uk and let’s get your dog started on the raw food revolution!