Dogs Were Never Meant to Live on Kibble and Drugs

Raw food is what dogs were meant to eat a long time ago, period. There is no debate. Those who debate it are drug pushing vets and the old commercial pet food companies, because they have other motives. If you are not comfortable with it, then your journey will be to find the next best thing that suits your family. But one thing that we know for sure, there are literally no quality foods in a grocery store pet food section. Let that sink in. Some larger pet stores do carry quality food but so far, not much.

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WHAT TO DO RIGHT NOW: - First of all, if you are giving your dog or cat a chemical “flea and tick” treatment, Heartworm pills, anything else that has a chemical in it!!! stop immediately. Do some research, and not at the vet’s office. Some vets keep dogs on Heartworm preventatives year round even when they are not in areas where it is an issue, during winter months. They recite the amount of cases, tell you they just treated a dog, there’s one in the other room, etc.. but do they ever tell you about all of the illness created by GIVING these chemicals? They build up in their system and create havoc inside of them, and once, again... you are not hearing about it. Why would you if the vet is in denial that they create issues, and profiting from those drugs. So many dogs are sick and vets just will not take a look at what the dog is eating which includes their diet, and all of these chemicals, and if you really think that through, it’s complete insanity.

- Google Raw Dog Food in your area. It is readily available and most likely in a smaller pet store near you, with someone on staff to answer your questions. They’ll probably also carry freeze-dried raw, dehydrated raw and human grade canned foods. If you’re buying cooked canned, it must be human grade. Read the ingredients! Pure and simple. Nothing you can’t pronounce. If you can’t pronounce an ingredient, google it! Watch what comes up as side effects and links to cancer. Canned food in grocery stores is literally laced with chemicals and that stuff in pouches, bottom of the barrel! Do not shop at a grocery store or big box store for dog and cat food unless you are going right to the fresh meat section, however, that is not the best place to buy fresh meat. It’s better than the bags and cans in the pet aisle but if you are into sourcing your own meat, find your local butchers and meat markets.

- Make your own meals once you’ve done your research. Start by buying 100% balanced pre-made raw meals so you are comfortable knowing it’s right. Look at the ingredients! It’s real food. Then start adding your own meals here and there. You’ll quickly realize the dog is fine. True, if you have a 100% kibble fed dog and change the diet, you might notice some potty changes, a flush of whatever junk they’ve eaten until this point. Think about that, a human will not overnight become healthy because he suddenly quit eating pizza and cereal. It takes some time to get rid of the old junk in your system and replace it with the new. The issue for new switchers is that sometimes they aren’t yet convinced, so the first sign or a runny stool they run back to their kibble. This is the wrong solution. A little trial and error with new foods is definitely going to happen but the solution is NEVER to go back to kibble because the dog’s system is “used to it.” This will keep the dog in poor health. Keep forging forward and learning. Trust it will work out in the end.

- Raw food diets are based on 80/10/5/5. That means 80% meat, 10% bone (ground up in raw food prepared meals), 5% mixed organs (kidneys, spleen, pancreas..) and 5% liver. Give or take those percentages that is the basic BARF diet, which stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food or Bones And Raw Food. Add veggies, certain fruits, plants, sardines, mackerel, salmon, eggs and other things, these are the basics. We’ve posted a chart to show the proportions.

- Join a Raw Feeding facebook group, but don’t get overwhelmed, that can get confusing too. Just read the posts, learn by others who are feeding raw meals all over the world, and ask a question when you are ready. Raw feeders love to assist each other! The groups can be daunting at times as there are some differing opinions and lots of free advice so you have to sort through it all and decide what is best, but it’s very enlightening and helpful for newbies. One favorite of mine is the Raw Feeding Community.

- Search for local raw feeding co-ops. Most areas now have raw feeding co-ops which is usually organized by a raw feeder, you can find them on Facebook. Some of the meals they obtain are fully balanced. Some food they get has most of the meat requirements but may need the bones or organs added. The key is to find good quality meat and add to it, or find a meal with everything in it. Bones included.

- Raw food companies are popping up all over the world. Many online companies are shipping, and the food is available in every city. The word is out. This is the right way to feed our pets. It’s available. If you are lucky there might be someone in your city sourcing local meats and providing the freshest meals your dog could want.

- Vegan kibble.. companies have put out kibble foods that have no meat whatsoever- they are marketing it as “better than that commercial kibble without the rotten meat, sawdust, used restaurant grease and euthanasia drugs in it” which is true, (yes that is what is allowed in your dog’s food!) but they are playing on human emotions of not wanting our pets to eat meat because other animals have to suffer. That is so sad for our carnivores! You would never get a pet snake and give it bananas because it makes your feel better. So, you will allow your own animal to suffer because you refuse to feed them properly? We have to understand, no matter how uncomfortable we are with raw meat, this is what our dogs and cats need to eat! The choice is yours to make. Your pet will be the one paying for it if you cannot wrap your mind around this concept, which is not new.

- Next question is.. “what about Lyme disease and Heartworm?” “What do I do for fleas?” THIS DOES NOT MEAN GRAB A CHEMICAL! If your vet is insisting that you give something in the name of prevention every month, RUN!!! No honest vet in their right mind would continue to poison dogs with so much information about their dangers. There are so many other natural solutions, starting with a proper diet. The healthier your pet is, the less attractive he is to fleas and ticks, who love unhealthy dogs. Kibble fed animals are restaurants for pests for a multitude of reasons. Does your vet tell you this? You will have less to deal with when you feed a biologically appropriate diet, but when you do find pests are an issue, look up natural ways. Diatomaceous Earth, neem oil, geranium oil, peppermint, pumpkin seeds, there are so many options. Natural Heartworm protection IS available, but you will not find it at the vet’s office. Understand this right now, if your vet is giving out chemicals as “preventatives” for fleas and ticks, YOU NEED A NEW VET. This cannot be stressed enough. If you’ve been giving those, your dog already has internal issues, whether it is showing itself yet, or not. What’s worse, when your dog does have illnesses, many, maybe even most vets are literally denying the side effects are actually from the chemicals they made you give your dog.

Knowledge is power! Maybe this site will help a little.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND CREATOR OF THIS SITE: The dog above was Max. He was my best hiking buddy of all times. We hiked thousands of miles together and he was the coolest dog ever. Everyone loved Max! He met so many people, after being terrified to death of men, he got my boot camp training and before long, he was over his fears and on to a great life of off leash freedom and hikes with many many people. I was told by a pro trainer, “you will never ever be able to let that dog off leash, it’s his breed, he’s a runner.” WRONG. He was adored and enjoyed by many other hikers off leash.

Max was on all of the conventional food including one so called “premium” kibble food from Fromm, he was given chemical flea and tick “preventatives” Heartworm meds, lepto, of course multiple rabies shots, all of it. You know the drill. He looked so healthy and shiny, and ran like a stallion. I never was quite comfortable with what I was feeding because I’m an avid ingredient reader, and that stuff listed on those bags never made sense but, hey my vet said it was all good, so I believed him. When he would give me chemicals for flea and tick prevention, I kept asking myself... so this is poison, and I’m putting it on the dog? And that’s okay? But he’d come back with “oh trust me you never want to see Heartworm, lyme, etc... I just treated a dog and it was horrific...” well I don’t see how it could have been more horrific than what happened to Max.

One day, I went to wake Max up for lunch and he couldn’t move. The day before he ran 20 miles. Max died a graphically horrible death of cancer three weeks later. He spent the last day before he died in the ER, getting a blood transfusion for eight hours, $3000 of treatments in 3 weeks, and my strapping beautiful dog died gasping for air in my car seat with his tongue hanging out as I drove frantically to the vet to put him down. It shocked me to my core. He wagged his tail so happily, for about a half hour, after I got him out of the ER from that blood transfusion, he looked at me with such trust in his eyes. He knew I had his back. It turns out I didn’t.

Three weeks later, Max’s best friend Goldie was so depressed over his loss I couldn’t take it so, I got her a new friend and went straight back to my vet with a new bouncy puppy, Dasher, for that first visit after adoption, and he gave him Trifexis. Now, that’s a PILL with pesticides that my puppy had to ingest. So... the dog is going to swallow this poison? And then... what, the tick bites and the poison in my dog’s bloodstream will kill everything? It’s a 3-in-1 pill vet said, way more convenient. Takes care of worms, heart worms, all of it. He swore it was okay. Little Dasher started vomiting that night, and by end of next day couldn’t move at all, just lethargy and had vomited every half hour until there was nothing left. He wound up back in there on IVs to save his life. A catheter! Kept in a cage, with needles in him. IV bags hanging off the cage. He came in for a simple checkup, and something went very very wrong! Dasher did pull through, thank goodness, and I was charged for that entire incident. When I asked the vet if eating that chemical caused it, he said no. In fact he seemed insulted and quite upset that I would even suggest it. But, said he just had no idea what caused this severe adverse reaction. Really?

Yet still I trusted!! And it gets worse. A few weeks later, he chewed me out when I told him I need to save money and take a stray to the local Humane Society (HS) to be spayed. I once again, rescued a dog and took her straight over to him for a checkup, I was always so proud to take my dogs there, like a good little soldier. But this time was different. I said I was broke. I couldn’t afford this but she needed help because someone found her and I took her in. He turned angry, like a different person I’d never seen before. He said “I’m going to have to give you THE SPEECH!” He went on to say that he had expensive overhead and his prices were higher than other vets because of it. He said the Humane Society wouldn’t give my dog any pain meds and I’d be back in there BEGGING for some when my dog was suffering, and she would be! he assured me ... he went on and on until I caved and allowed him to do the procedure. But still, boy was he angry! He continued, saying he had about 15 employees, very expensive to insure all of those employees, he said angrily. “People need to understand that!” I was quite taken back. I had spent THOUSANDS of dollars at his practice, about ten dogs over ten years.

The reality: I took multiple dogs to the Humane Society for $60 spays and neuters. They use glue and all of the dogs I took there popped back up next day as though nothing had happened. Back on their feet in 24 hours. MY vet cost $263, put in stitches, had my dog in the cone of shame for 2+ weeks and my dog was downright miserable. Oh, she needed those pain meds alright. None of the dogs I took to the Humane Society did, but his patient was in pain. I had just been a victim of a huge scare tactic and even possibly a flat out lie. He spoke poorly of the Humane Society’s ability to care for my dog. He cost way more, and did a horrible job. This is the day my trust turned to questions. Lots of them.

I am a self employed graphic designer, advertising, branding and website developer. My mission now, is to join the effort in change for our pets, by searching for and providing the TRUTH. I know the tricks of the advertising and packaging trade and one big fat one is those INGREDIENT labels on the backs of dog food, so tiny you can’t see it, while the front clearly shows fresh food and fluffy words like Natural or Fresh, your bag has nothing but chemicals and carbs in it that can literally kill your cat or dog. That is pure marketing! Ads are powerful. Ads on tv with dogs running in the mountains, all “protected” from those fleas, with that chemical you force feed them, so that you can relax. Side effects like seizures, trembling, vomiting, lethargy... the list goes on, so tiny and hidden in 6 point type, as though they are just little side effects that you don’t need to worry about... THERE IS NOTHING FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. This is war. I want to help your dog, and tell you right now, stop! Stop what you are doing and think. Think hard. How much money do you spend at the vet? Are you reading what you are feeding your dog??

I hope this page helps as many dogs as possible by waking owners up to the dangers of junk food, unethical vets and chemicals. Our innocent dogs trust us to know what is right for them. My dogs now eat raw meat and real food, no kibble or any box store junk food, and no chemicals. We live in the woods surrounded by deer, raccoons, possums, chipmunks, snakes, squirrels, spiders, critters of all kinds, and the sight of a tick or flea on my dogs is increasingly rare. One rescue dog came to me with completely plaque covered teeth, brown and so thick you could flick it off with your fingernail. After about 4 RMBs (raw meaty bones) that plaque and tartar literally fell off of her teeth. No expensive, uncomfortable, risky cleaning. Just nature’s remedy, the way it’s supposed to be. A bone.

Please take a good hard look at your vet, the food, the drugs, vaccines, preventatives, all of it. It’s a really sad system for dogs and cats. Laws that require vaccines that are actually harmful, ads that lie, vets that lie, food bags that deceive, pet food companies that use the extent of the law to get away with really really bad stuff in the food, it’s the perfect storm, and our pets are the perfect target, because they can’t speak.

The good news.. it’s the best feeling you’ll ever have to know, for sure, finally, that you are in fact, providing your beloved dog or cat with exactly what they need, and nothing they don’t.

Shanna Blasingame, Animal Advocate, Shelter Volunteer, Dog Lover out to make change for dogs