Alternative Foods

The Healthy Bark

If you have read through the raw feeding and homemade diet parts to this blog you may be thinking that is too much for you to deal with in your busy lifestyle, well there is an alternative you could consider. There are frozen lightly cooked, freeze dried or dehydrated diets available as well. Again not all diets are created the same with the final processing.



The dehydrated and freeze dried diets come in an array of options you can use. They have complete diets and base diets. Complete diets would have everything you need in the bag and you just measure out the amount and add hot water or preferred would be bone broth. The base diets are done the same, but you decide which meat you want to put in that meal. Also you can add raw or cooked meats to them. These diets can be great for the beginner that is learning how to make homemade diets without all the guess work, or for those that want it a little simpler.

The frozen lightly cooked diet would be Nature's Kitchen, you would find this at your local small pet store as I do not believe they ship direct at this point.

I have used the above when life got hectic or I could not get to the meats I wanted at the time. They also come in handy for emergencies when you may have to travel with your pets unexpectedly. 

The base diets are great as you can rotate meats more freely, change up your pets diets and give them variety. Yes your pet should get a variety of meat in their diet. Each meat gives off a specific set of nutrients, just like us we eat different things everyday. The myth of do not change your pets food came from the pet food companies, not from common sense. If your dog was left to fend for himself he would eat rabbit, birds, squirrels and what ever he could catch. Food is meant to be fed in variety not the same boring thing day after day.

If you have a dog that gets an upset stomach with change use probiotics, or the Answers Raw Goats milk/Kefir as a buffer for their stomach. Go slow and with time they can handle change with no problem. My dogs and cats ate a variety of foods and seldom did they have the same thing more than a day or two in a row.

As with any diet I do suggest you add supplements. Our food today is lacking nutrients because of how it is raised and processed, with that being said try and find pasture raised meats for your pet and your family. Herbal supplements help balance what is missing from foods and help boost the immune system.

If you stop and think about a bag of dried kibble, how can it possibly be a complete diet? If your doctor handed you a bag of that, and said enjoy, this is all you need to eat, would you actually want it? I personally would find a new doctor! Whole foods feed the body, they still have nutrients intact, look at the number of vitamins added to a typical dry bag of food. Also did you know almost all vitamins used in the pet industry are synthetic with the exception of a few companies. The body does not handle those at all. The foods I suggest do not use synthetic vitamins.

Supplements would be Organic Coconut Oil, Omega 3 Sardine Oil, and Canine/Feline Wellness Blends from: Pet Wellness Blends