A raw food diet contains meat, organ, and bone – all things a dog was meant to digest. Raw food is the most biologically appropriate food for a carnivore.

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“You can read ingredient labels or be sold by a big commercial but the dog does not lie. The proof is in the pudding. Low quality kibble with close to zero nutritional value is made up of product that a canine was not intended to digest.

Even after all of these years a wolf’s digestion system is the exact same as a dog. Their genetic make up is 99.9% the same DNA, to this day. When you look at the requirements of a wolf pup in order for it to grow and develop so that it can become a strong adult wolf, you don’t see the mother wolf heading to the nearest grocer to pick up a bag of perfectly balanced formulated food for a canine. Once the pups are weaned the mother wolf brings them across of meat and bones to start strengthening those teeth and gums.

When you take a food of any sort, and you break it down which skyrockets the sugar levels, and then you heat those ingredients to temperatures so high that there is almost zero actual nutrient value left . Now all kibbles do not weigh the same and this is where I’ll get into my experience over the years.

Dogs fed big name brands that are mainly filler such as corn and wheat on average have the most amount of plaque and tarter build up. This is mainly caused by the naturally occurring sugars from corn and wheat but like I mentioned above, once processed the glycemic rate goes through the roof. A dog’s digestion was not designed with enzymes capable of breaking down grains of any sort. Nowhere in the wild will you see a wolf eating rice or wheat. It’s not a part of their natural design at all. So what happens is the body rejects it and what that looks like is a greasy and smelly coat, dirty ears, yeasty armpits and feet, allergies, weak joints, typically get hip dysplasia early on, bad breath, soft yellow stools with little to no form, and sugar spikes and crashes.

I’ve found that dogs who are fed a higher quality kibble such as NOW or Horizon have less shedding. This is because the body is not trying to get rid of too much waste. They have cleaner coats, cleaner teeth, calmer demeanour, strong developed muscle/hips/joints, and dark firm stools. Higher quality brands will cook their kibbles at cooler temperatures which keeps more nutrients locked in. On top of that, higher quality brands will have more actual meat inclusion as well as not include any grains.

It is physically obvious to me when a dog is fed raw. Their teeth are remarkable, no odour to their stools, no body odour, shedding decrease, calmer demeanour, and their coats shine! Their nails are strong, they don’t crack and aren’t brittle, and they have been proven to live longer than kibble fed dogs. Raw is unmatched. Due to the fact that there is little to no processing, and no cooking, all nutrients remain within the food. I’ve seen 14-16 year old dogs on raw who have stronger joints and more mobility than the average 6 year old dog on low quality kibble.”

Canine Nutrition

Dogs do not have the proper enzymes in their stomach to breakdown sugars, processed food, and grain. You will notice with dogs on a high sugar or processed feed diet that their teeth have plaque and tartar buildup. They will shed their coat a lot more, as there is much waste and filler not being absorbed by the body and is not nutrient dense so the body gets rid of it through shedding. They will have an oily coat, smelly poops and smelly breath.

Dogs on a raw meat diet do not drink nearly as much water as dogs on a processed diet. That is due to the naturally occurring moisture found in raw meat. Dogs on a processed diet are in a constant state of dehydration. When the processed food reaches their stomach it expands up to 5 times the size and absorbs the dogs moisture. When this expansion happens there is risk for bloat, which in serious cases results in an expensive surgery and sometimes death.

The best treats to give your dog are bully sticks and raw bones. Raw bones are going to keep your dogs teeth clean, while strengthening your dogs jaw, gums, and teeth and prevent plaque and tartar build up. Stick to bully sticks until they have their adult teeth (around 5 – 6 months of age) as bones have the ability to break fragile puppy teeth. Single ingredient treats are the best way to go!

• Stay away from processed biscuits unless they are grain free.

• Stay away from rawhide! Rawhide expands up to 5 times the size once it reaches the dogs stomach and it’s also a risk for bloat. Rawhide is bleached and preserved with some very scary chemicals such as formaldehyde.

Daily Diet

Jax recommends feeding a variety of protein options for optimal canine health. Starting out, we advise purchasing 1 of each protein type, or a minimum of 2 proteins, and rotating through each protein on a daily basis.

Dogs should be ingesting only 10% vegetable and 90% raw meat in their daily diet. Steam or roast veggies at the beginning of each week then add 1/4 cup to each meal for large dogs and 1/4 cup daily for small dogs.

Some excellent veggies to add into your pups’ diets include: yams, squash, zucchini, pumpkin, string beans, beets, carrots, Swiss chard, potatoes, or steamed spinach are some great options. Most fruits except grapes and citrus fruits are a fantastic source of fibre and vitamins as well!

DO NOT FEED THE VEGGIES RAW. They’re not dangerous given raw, but more so uncomfortable. Raw veggies are hard on their system and tough to digest.

Stay away from onions, garlic, grapes, nuts, and tomatoes as they are toxic!