RAWsome MealsTM

We humans love our dogs and cats. Done properly, owning a dog or cat can be an expensive proposition. Done well or poorly food will be your biggest expense. The bad news about pet food is that just 5 companies own over 900 brands of dog and cat food, collectively giving them the ability to target every conceivable trigger button any owner might have. For example; puppies need more calories and nutrients as a percentage of their body weight because they are growing, but they do not need “puppy” food once weaned off mother’s milk. Yet the pet food industry tells us that our puppy needs puppy food and we buy into that message because want to feed our "babies" right. But here's the real deal, today's pet foods are marketed as healthy products, but as a concession to the industry the FDA allows the use of parts from downed and diseased animals in commercial pet food. Still more, check the ingredient list on a package of commercial pet food and you’ll see the word "crude" in front of every nutrient. The word “Crude" gives pet food manufacturers the latitude to include things like hide and hair to be labeled as protein. Though these ingredients do have a higher crude protein factor than muscle meat, muscle is more nutritious and bioavailable. This sleight-of-hand allows the pet food industry to use cheap, waste by-products that don't provide optimum nutrition but can be labeled to look good.

        I initially tried an assortment of commercial dog foods for my rescue, but could find no wet or dry food my dog could eat and deliver a healthy stool. So I set out to develop my own. The most important thing I learned was that dogs will eat almost anything to stave off hunger or please their owners. Because of this, most people believe that what a dog will eat is what a dog should eat. But, inappropriate foods = inadequate nutrition, and dogs fed inappropriate foods (processed, carb-laden, plant-based) can appear healthy for years before showing signs of a degenerative condition. True science tells us that our canine pets are facultative carnivores, meaning that to maintain optimal health and wellness their diet needs to include key elements of fresh whole prey; muscle, secreting organs and marrow bones, in the right proportions:

• Muscle supplies protein and healthy fat.
• Heart is rich in essential amino acids, potassium, phosphorus, iron, zinc and B-vitamins.
• Secreting organs supply essential minerals and fatty acids.
• Bone provides calcium to maintain strong bones.
• Marrow is rich in collagen, glucosamine and iron to support healthy joints.

Our dogs' Gray Wolf cousins will feed on small game; beavers, hares or turkeys, when big game are scarce. But their prey of choice are hoofed-mammals called ungulates; i.e., sheep, elk and bison. It's believed that wild canines prey on ungulates instinctually because the muscle tissue of ungulates contains energy-storage molecules and chemical messengers called lipids that appear to treat and prevent chronic disease. In fact, the original canned dog food (Ken-L Ration) was mostly horse meat. 

        After more than four and a half years of feedings, RAWsome Meals have shown to be species-appropriate for dogs and cats. Even so, our meals are only almost perfect because our human-grade production facility is not allowed to include the bacteria and microorganisms found in the digestive tract of whole prey that produce the fermentation needed to convert protein into amino acids, which when combined with a carnivore’s own digestive enzymes promote health and wellness in the form of a "healthy gut". To make our meals perfect, we recommend that owners add one of the following sources of fermentation:

1. Fermentation: Add 1-2 Tbsp of raw apple cider vinegar with mother per lb. of RAWsome Meals.
   
2. Fermentation + fiber: Add  1-2 Tbsps low-sodium fermented organic veggies per 1-lb. of RAWsome Meals.
3. Fermentation from whole prey: Replace 1/8 ration (2 oz/lb.) w/whole prey per feeding of RAWsome Meals.

*RAWsome Meals are not offered as a therapeutic for genetic predispositions, biological disorders, conditions caused by malnutrition, lack of exercise, accidents, abuse or neglect.