|
Everyone
says something different!
Who do you believe? At bluehouse, we are committed to the health and welfare of our pets. Our advice is based on what we believe, and not on what makes us the most money . Unfortunately, common sense and reason are up against the might of the food industry, trying to sell you their processed diets. The information they provide is not transparent – it needs careful interpretation! It is very difficult to choose a diet without an understanding of the tricks of the trade! |
|
|||||
|
will your dog be bouncing with vitality at 14 yrs of age? click on the pic to see him in action |
||||||
|
We have been hoodwinked into believing their advertising slogans –‘the best you can give’, ‘the natural way’ etc. Vets too (myself included!) This article will explain all in a logical and easily understood manner - but be prepared to be shocked! |
||||||
| In order to avoid too many pages of technical stuff, I have put this symbol as a link to more-detailed information - click it and then click the 'back' key to return to the story! |
|
!! |
||||
|
Just
tell me how to feed my dog/cat!
I appreciate that not everyone wants to read all the theory and biology of feeding, so I have formulated 4 simple ways of doing it, for those of you who simply want a dietary recommendation - just click here |
||||||
|
Why food matters! Why? Answer this question. What is the single most important disease of both out pets and ourselves? The answer is obesity - I reckon that more than 50% of the dogs and cats that we see are considerably overweight! And the cause is the same for them as it is for us - what we feed them! The feeding of your pet is the most important health issue over which you have control. Your dog or cat will hopefully live for more than 10 years – maybe 20.
|
|
|||||
| Please therefore take 10 minutes to follow our explanation – it will be time well spent. | ||||||
| Bunnies eat grass!! |
|
|||||
|
My own journey to ‘the truth’ started with rabbits. For years vets have seen bunnies with terrible teeth, abscesses on their faces, maggots on their rear end, and with tummy upsets – all due to diet. |
||||||
|
|
Rabbits teeth
grow constantly, and unless they graze for 10 hours or so per day, they
don’t get worn down – which means they grow too long. The incisor
teeth at the front keep each other worn down, but if the cheek teeth
grow too long, the mouth can't shut properly and the incisors don’t
meet properly.
For a detailed explanation of the effects of dental disease in bunnies, click here !! |
|||||
| This is the skull of a healthy wild bunny (or at least it was healthy until a car hit it!) | And this is the skull of a pet bunny that has been fed on 'meusli-mix' bunny food | |||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
Every week we see bunnies with
badly overgrown teeth, and this
is nearly always due to the feeding of 'meusli mix'. I would actually
estimate that 70% or more of the pet rabbits we see die early because of
poor diet - yes, it really is that serious!
In the wild, bunnies eat grass - which is 25 to 30% fibre, with virtually no grains or plant oils. So why do we feed them diets with just 6% fibre, and considerable amounts of starch, and vegetable oils?? |
||||||
|
Every day pet shops
recommend and sell
vast amounts of meusli mix bunny foods!!! |
||||||
|
If you have a pet koala bear, you will feed it eucalyptus leaves, if you have a snake eagle, feed it snakes. Without exception, the best way of feeding any creature is by giving it the same as it would it in the wild. It's so simple really, as we have all evolved over millions of years to eat what is best for us. Bunnies eat grass - they are 'herbivores' dogs and cats are 'carnivores' |
||||||
|
Dogs are derived
from WOLVES, cats from wild cats
- think LION
Lets take a look at the jaws of cats and dogs. Those huge impressive teeth are designed for grabbing, ripping, tearing, shredding, and shearing meat. |
||||||
|
|
|||||
| dog skull | cat skull | |||||
| click here for a very interesting web page on cheek tooth structure | ||||||
|
Humans are
omnivores
- we are designed to eat both vegetable matter and meat.
We've all been taught that dogs are omnivores not carnivores - click here to see why this view is floored. !!
|
Neil's skull (what do you mean "it looks like him" ?!!!) |
|||||
|
Horses are herbivores - they are designed to eat grass -quite similar to the bunny jaw don't you think! | |||||
|
|
Bunnies eat grass -
cats and dogs eat meat! In the wild, cats would be eating rabbits,
ducks, and other live prey.
If you were to feed dried duck, the analysis would be like the figures below
|
|||||
| Crude Protein 58%, Fat 23%, Ash 9% Fibre 0%, Moisture 8% Carbohydrate 0% | ||||||
|
Compare this with 'Go Cat', 'Beta' & 'Bakers Complete' all of which have similar basic ingredient percentages!!
Ingredients |
||||||
|
Analysis Crude Protein 32%, Fat 10%, Ash 8 % Fibre 3%, Moisture approx 8% carbohydrate approx 35%+ |
||||||
|
Feeding dry foods
containing excessive
carbohydrate/starch can cause:
Urinary tract problems - bladders stones, FLUTD (feline lower urinary tract disease) kidney stones Digestive upsets Bone growth disorders ‘Fatty liver’ syndrome in cats Boredom
|
Emma 7pm Sat |
|||||
| Not only do the foods mentioned above have cereals as the main ingredient, they also use 'meat and animal derivatives' as the main protein source. Do you know what this means? Do you know what species of animal it is derived from - or which part of the body? And from which country? Do you need to worry? -click here for a few worrying facts. !! | ||||||
| What is the best food for my pet? | ||||||
|
So what is the best
food for your dog or cat, accepting that we are not going to feed whole
live ducks and rabbits? Well it isn't actually quite as simple as that:
there are different ways of feeding your pet, and each of these has its
own advantages and disadvantages - what suits one person may not suit
another.
So let's look at different ways of feeding, and we'll then discuss the pros and cons of each. |
||||||
|
The 'Raw Meaty Boners' believe that the best way to feed our dogs and cats is using raw meaty bones. And I agree! For a first-hand opinion on raw meaty, see Brodi's story !! The founder of the 'movement' is veterinary surgeon Dr Tom Lonsdale. Check out his website to the right of this paragraph. Tom has made himself a pariah in Oz for speaking out against the food industry and its alliance with the veterinary profession (& I'm following in his footsteps making myself unpopular!) |
|
|||||
|
If you decide to go raw meaty, you will need to purchase Tom's book, Works Wonders. We sell these at bluehouse, price £6.50 |
||||||
|
Raw meaty bones are the natural alternative to live prey. However, this way of feeding is not for everyone, and it needs to be done with care. There is a UK Raw Meaty Bone Lobby with its own Yahoo discussion group. http://www.ukrmb.co.uk/ My personal cons include Nobby wanting to come in the house and bury his bones under my pillow! |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
There are many old-wives
tales about the feeding of bones and raw meats. I have yet to see a
cat have problems from
eating animals they have caught.
For well-researched information on these myths, go onto the rawfed site.
|
|
|||||
|
Where do you source
your raw meaty bones from? The Works Wonders book includes a chapter on
how to source raw meaty foodstuffs.
We sell whole rabbits , but leave it to you to source other meaty bones from your butcher or supermarket. |
||||||
| Food poisoning /Salmonella and other nasty bugs | !! | |||||
| Choking : the big fear | !! | |||||
| A guide to feeding raw meaty bones | !! | |||||
|
I have been told that bones can be very dangerous! We agree - bones can be very dangerous. Cars are very similar - especially if you don't know how to drive. The answer is not to ban cars but to learn how to drive properly and safely. It's the same with raw meaty bones! Or do you prefer a horse and cart? - and even they can be dangerous.......................... |
||||||
| Ground whole prey | ||||||
|
If you have read all
about raw meaty bones, you should now understand that your puppy,
kitten, dog, cat (and ferret) will all thrive on a diet of whole
rabbits, chickens, and the like, provided that you include their organs
(heart, liver, kidney).
If you take a whole rabbit and mince it, you will have all the nutritional content of the rabbit, without the intact bones. This grinding process has a number of consequences
MINCED MEAT IS NOT AN ALTERNATIVE, AS IT IS NOT NUTRITIONALLY BALANCED |
||||||
|
We stock minced
rabbits, we have also developed our own
meat and chicken mixes. Our Meatymix
is made from beef trimmings and lamb ribs, along with heart and liver,
providing bones, muscle, and organ meat in approx the same proportions
that you would get if you minced a whole cow! Our Chickenmix
is made from chicken 'frames', along with organ meat and meat trimmings.
For information on how to swap your dog or cat onto meatymix or minced bunny, click here !! |
||||||
| Moist foods | ||||||
|
If you dont feed RMB
or 'ground prey', we very strongly recommend that you feed your cat
moist food rather than kibble.
Most of the pouches and cans on the market contain very little meat, with the protein coming from 'meat and animal derivatives', and they contain varying amounts of starch. We stock the Nature's Menu range of pouches for both dogs and cats, though there are other foods out there which we rate similarly (e.g. Nature Diet, Applaws). These pouches are very convenient, and contain a high percentage of real meat. The dog pouches include some vegetables - not required nutritionally, but they wont do too much harm. They are very palatable, and very little different in cost from the offerings of the big food brand names, most of which contain only 4% of real meat (have a look at the food you are feeding now!). If you are currently feeding moist, and you do nothing else, do your pet a favour by changing to a high meat pouch. There is no dental effect from feeding moist foods - dental care required. For more information on these foods, click here for dogs and here for cats |
||||||
| Dry foods (kibble) | ||||||
|
A raw meaty bone diet contains a high percentage of meat and bone, is high in moisture, & contains virtually no carbohydrates. So if a raw meaty bone diet is the best alternative to live prey, what is the worst ? High carbohydrates, low protein, low meat, and low water content ??? Doesn't this apply to most dried dog and cat foods? Take a look at what you are currently giving your pets, and see how well you are feeding them - I have put links to some of the popular UK dog foods below - for a more-comprehensive list go to www.dogfoodanalysis.com. If it all looks a bit daunting, see this explanatory page. |
||||||
| Arden Grange Senior |
Hills
Science Lamb meal & Rice
James Wellbeloved Adult Lamb & Rice Pedigree Complete Nutrition Adult |
|||||
| All the major foods above are 'complete foods' - but what makes a food complete? - a food that will keep 6 out of 8 dogs alive for 6 months without them losing more than 15% body weight! |
|
|||||
|
You will no doubt
have found that the average dog food scores pretty badly, with most
foods containing large amounts of starch/grain, very little decent
quality meat, and moderate amounts of 'meat and animal derivatives'. The
kibbled cat foods on the market differ very
little.
It is our belief that if you are going to feed a kibbled food, you should choose one that contains no meat derivatives, a majority of freshly cooked animal products, and a minimum of carbohydrates. If you take a look at the diets that score 5 or 6 on the dogfoodanalysis website, you will find very few that are available in the UK. We have decided to go with Orijen foods, who score 6 points across their range. The company recently won an American award for 'Petfood of the Year' |
||||||
| Compare the analysis of their adult dog food compared with what we have considered previously! It is worth mentioning that you will never find a kibbled (pelleted) food that does not contain some starch - it is a requirement of the kibbling process. | ||||||
|
Ingredients: Deboned chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal, russet potato, lake whitefish, chicken fat, sweet potato, whole eggs, turkey, salmon meal, salmon and anchovy oils, salmon, natural chicken flavour, sunflower oil, sun-cured alfalfa, dried brown kelp, carrots, spinach, peas, tomatoes, apples, psyllium, dulse, glucosamine Hcl, cranberries, black currants, rosemary extract, chondroitin sulfate, sea salt. Guaranteed Analysis Protein 42.0%, Fat 16, Fiber 3.0%, Ash 0%, Moisture 10.0%, Carbohydrate 18.0% |
|||||
| Orijen also do one of the best kibbled cat foods, with just 15% starch, and with 75% meat in the ingredients. Compare this with your average dried cat food. |
|
|||||
|
In conclusion
The most natural way to feed your pet is on live prey! - but no-one is suggesting that you do that. Anything less though is a compromise, to a greater or lesser degree. At best, we feed raw meaty bones, and educate ourselves how to do this safely. You may also consider feeding raw ground meat and bones as a more-convenient alternative (though sourcing this is tricky). Moist foods (cans & pouches) offer greater convenience, and greater cost, whilst top quality kibble offers an affordable and convenient way to feed a diet with a high meat content and reduced carbohydrates. With a knowledge of how to read a food label, and a little research, it is possible to greatly improve your pets' nutrition at very little extra cost (it may even work out cheaper). Click here !! for a comparison chart of your alternatives, whilst for costings, hit this hyperlink !! for dogs and here !! for cats. |
||||||
|
I hope you find this
website interesting and informative - any feedback is appreciated
Pete Coleshaw & Nobby (he's 17, that's we he goes for walks like this!!). |
|
|||||
|
ps It is not my intention to invite food companies to sue me, simply to demonstrate facts. If any food manufacturer considers that I have misrepresented any food, or got my facts wrong, please feel free to contact me and I will correct any inaccuracies immediately. |
||||||
