Lake Tahoe Wolf Rescue

 Feeding Your Canine

All canines (and felines) benefit from a natural diet of real food, raw meats and vegetables; and cooked legumes, root vegetables, and grains - but Wolves and Wolfdogs are especially susceptible to the diseases and digestive problems often seen when processed commercial food is fed exclusively. So I am trying to give a broad and basic formula for feeding your canine. See my Turkey Recipe for  a good place to start.

I often refer to many holistic books to help treat an animal and put them on a healthy regime. Much of this information is obtained from them, especially two of my favorites Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats, and The Complete Herbal Handbook for the Dog and Cat by Juliette de Bairacli Levy, which are easy to follow. Feel free to browse our store  Shopping Wolf Things for other good books on Natural Healing.

The guidelines used for the production of commercial pet foods are those that will be adequate for maintenance. "Adequate for maintenance" means just what it says. Such food provides enough to maintain an already healthy animal. But let's briefly take a look at what goes into commercial pet food. Most pet foods start off with the term "by-products" which are obtained from slaughterhouses, and are listed on your INGREDIENTS labels as chicken by-products, beef by-products, etc. By-products are all the parts of the slaughtered animal that are not fit for human consumption, i.e. beaks, feathers, hooves, diseased organs, tumors, etc. Some are benign and just fillers. Others can contain toxic materials. Shockingly, some 140,000 tons of poultry are condemned annually, mainly due to cancer and salmonella. It is prohibited for use by human consumption, but used regularly for pet food! These "slaughterhouse wastes" are often loaded with drug residues from antibiotics and growth hormones given to the livestock. The other source of "meat" bought by pet-food manufacturers is obtained from Rendering Plants. That's where all discarded animal carcasses are taken and processed... i.e. road kill, downed farm animals, euthanized pets from Animal Control Shelters, etc. (upon observing the carcasses being lowered into the giant meat grinder/processor, I noticed that the plastic bags that contain the carcasses of the euthanized animals are also thrown into the mix, along with other debris that is scooped up with the bodies). One never knows the reason for the deaths of these animals, and they could have died from poisoning or disease. Here are just some of the elements found in processed commercial pet foods listed as "by-products":

Slaughterhouse Floor Wastes

Toxic products from spoiled foodstuffs

Heavy-metal contaminants

Drugs used to euthanize shelter animals

Sugar, sucralose, and other artificial sweeteners

Pesticides and herbicides

Drug residues from farm animals

Artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives

Bacteria and fungi contaminants

Rancid foodstuffs from being stored for long periods of time in discount warehouses.

Plastic from packaged, expired meat from grocery stores

Plastic from bags of euthanized animals from shelters

Non-nutritive fillers

...all good reasons to supply your beloved pets with a healthy, "real food" diet. By feeding various toxins and pollutants it actually increases the body's need for high-quality nutrients necessary for combating and eliminating these very contaminants! These toxins put stress on the kidneys, liver and other organs. Food allergies and other sensitivities are often caused by the stress these inadequate foods put on the immune system and the elimination system, and frequently disease doesn't show up for months or even years. Pancreatitis, much more common now and which is on the rise lately, is completely curable by changing to a proper diet (unless of course, it was allowed to progress to a fatal degree). Hot spots - that are diagnosed as sensitivities to heat, or other allergies - often clear up soon after the animal is put on a high-quality, more nutritive diet, and the animal is bathed less frequently [often vets recommend bathing the animal frequently, which only dries out the natural oils on the dogs skin making it more vulnerable to parasites and other skin irritations]. Feeding Omega 3 oils helps these conditons considerably.

Basically, processed food is still processed food, whether it is expensive or cheap. It is heated, baked, and boiled until there is nothing healthy about it. Feeding fresh, human-grade food is healthier and often less expensive. You can make enough for a month and freeze it.

All processed foods (both pet and human) - whether sold in cans, bags or frozen packages, from either supermarket chains or local health food stores - are missing something that seems to me to be the most important "nutrient" of all... Life Energy! It all has to be pasteurized and/or homogenized - which means heated until all bacteria is killed... along with all live enzymes, vitamins and nutrients! That is why they have to add some of those things back in, but it's not quite the same [usually synthetic or man-made vitamins] nor as complete.

Sometimes it's difficult to switch our dog or cat over to a healthy diet. That is often because commercial pet foods are filled with flavor enhancers (yes, I've even seen MSG in some, which is most often labeled "natural flavoring," allowable by law). I've seen ingredients such as sugar, artificial colors, sorbitol, sucralose, and sodium nitrate. So it's just like trying to get our kids off french fries and greasy [but flavorful] hamburgers and getting them to eat their [bland] broccoli.

See my Turkey Recipe for a good place to start if you would like to learn how to make your own nutritious and healthy food for your dog. Check out a few of the books I've recommended for some other great recipes. Very often - just by putting your dog on a healthy diet - disease clears up and a new life energy appears.

I often refer to many holistic books to help treat an animal and put them on a healthy regime. Much of this information is obtained from them, especially two of my favorites Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats, and The Complete Herbal Handbook for the Dog and Cat by Juliette de Bairacli Levy. Feel free to browse my store Shopping Wolf Things for other good books... and remember, using herbs indiscriminately can cause other problems, so be sure to do your research!