Our nutritional philosophy focuses on four basic principles:

Like their natural diet:

1. Feed your pets all natural, meat based foods, with high quality protein, low in carbohydrate, with healthy, useful ingredients only (no fillers, chemicals, by-products)
2. Attempt to offer a variety of healthy foods by rotating to maximize nutrient offerings
3. Supplement with fresh foods (raw/non-processed), when possible, to supply the delicate nutrients destroyed from cooking and processing
4. Do the best you can: Transition to good, healthy, all natural foods first, then add rotation slowly, and finally, add some fresh foods to the diet or transition to fresh foods completely

As is true for us, good nutrition is the foundation for a healthy life. But unfortunately, most pets are not being fed as nature intended. The most popular pet foods fed today are far from what dogs are designed to eat; they are more like a survival ration than nourishing meals, despite their “healthy” claims.

Feeding vs. Nourishing – there is a big difference

We believe there is a difference between feeding and nourishing. To us, “feeding” just means meeting the minimum requirements for survival, while “nourishing” means providing all the nutrients needed to promote good health. In other words, healthy foods nourish for health, other foods just feed for survival. We are committed to nourishing.

We believe that feeding your dog as close to what nature designed them to is best. We believe an all natural diet, free of unhealthy grains and fillers, high in meat based proteins and low or free of carbohydrates is the minimum foundation for a healthy, nourishing pet diet. Additionally, consideration of some non-kibbled (non-cooked) fresh food options as part of the diet will dramatically improve your pet’s nutrition, nourishment, and health. We can show you how the food you choose can make a significant difference in the healthy life of your pet.

Today’s pet food

Unfortunately, the healthiest foods (for us and for our dogs) - the real foods - only occur in nature, and usually spoil unless kept refrigerated or frozen. These fresh foods can also be more costly because they are expensive to grow, harvest, transport and deliver to consumers. Here lies the basic dilemma for the pet food industry. What is healthy is both costly and difficult to produce, store, and distribute.

The Pet Food Industry’s solution has been to focus on the alternative to fresh and expensive in favor of cheap, and convenient. But at what cost? Their product is quite different from nature, made from dry ingredients, cooked and extruded into kibble, composed mainly of meat meals, grains and synthetic vitamins, made to smell and taste good with unhealthy fats and devoid of many micronutrients both known and unknown.

Most of today’s popular pet foods are carbohydrate based, with grains being higher on the ingredient list than meats. Most are made from cheap carbohydrates such as corn or wheat which are proven to be lower quality sources of protein and linked to problems with weight, diabetes, gastrointestinal disease, allergies and other health conditions.

Furthermore, dogs are carnivores, not omnivores, designed to consume and utilize meat based diets, not carbohydrate based diets. And most of today’s pet foods use cheap carbohydrates and cheap meat sources combined to achieve the “required AAFCO” standard for protein.

Many of today’s pet foods are basically just the bare essentials for feeding, with many non-essentials ingredients. Many contain useless fillers and useless ingredients that make the digestive tract and immune system work overtime. Many still contain harmful ingredients such as artificial flavoring, coloring and preservatives. Most if not all lack critical components of nutrition, deemed essential or not, mainly because they are cooked.

The cumulative effects of feeding today’s pet foods to our pets are just now becoming a public concern. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves so we can educate our clients to make a difference for their pets. Let’s all strive to do what is right and be ahead in the game. For further questions, we invite you to ask Dr. Chip

Today’s most popular dog food products feed a dogs appetite, but most don’t offer dogs a healthy diet on nutritious offering — ours do!