ALL THESE FOODS ARE SUITABLE FOR PUPPIES & ADULT DOGS
This is not a definitive list by any means. As you gain experience in feeding your dog holistically and naturally, you will grow in your knowledge of what is good and best.
PROTEIN: (Muscle building - Amino acids - Real food for the carnivore) FEED THESE RAW !! Cooked meat is alien to iie-dogs digestive system!
Raw Green Tripe: Probably the finest of the protein foods. Try to obtain a quality supply. Chicken: Wings; carcass; necks; or packet from supplier.
Lamb: Breast; neck(; or packet from supplier. Mutton also very good.
Beef: Any cut is fine. When ox lip and cheek was available it was ideal - maybe one day.
Turkey: Carcass; necks; meat.
Offal: Hearts; small amounts of liver of any type. Kidney; small amount of lights(lungs)
(often found in cheaper pet food minces as'bulk'i.e. economy pet minces.) Fish: (Occasionally) Oily fish; herring/mackerel etc; white fish.
Eggs: Ideally raw, but occasionally a boiled egg is ok as a treat - you just kill the biotin.
CEREALS: (CHO = Carbohydrate = Long Term Energy)
Wholebake Original; Others: Rice; Barley; Oats; Some rye; small anmnts of wheatgerm, buckwheat, cous-mus. Always use the wholegrain (brown/wholegrain) rather than white, polished products. They are far more nubitious.
OILS: (Short term energy)
Sunflower; Linseed; Grapeseed; Hempseed; Fish; Safflower; Olive (occasionally); Cod Liver. Ideally use organic, cold pressed. Only then can you be sure of the safety and purity. Use them for yourselfl
OTHERS: (Providing other sources of minerals & vitamins, energy, oils, fats etc.)
Raw goats Milk (Pups only); Clabbered milk; Gotage cheese; Honey; Malt extract; Bio Yoghurt; Bones; Vegetables & vegetable matter; Fruits; Grass fed animal's muck (this is one form of vegetable matter)
BONES:
Holistically you cannot get away from the fact that dogs are primarily carnivores and carnivores eat bones. Bones are a food and packed with nutrition. Dogs have eaten them with very little harm since they were around. That was what they were created for - they cleared up all the carcasses and lots of other things - literally, the dog is a scavenger. We have fed bones to our dogs for umpteen years. The sort of gnaw, rip, crunch, chew, swallow type of bones. Where better for a dog to get totally natural, easily assimilated, top quality calcium! If you have been listening to the following phrase "But dogs need a highly scientific, measured levels of calcium . . " then you have been completely misled. Just ask any wolf, fox, dingo, jackal, or wild Canaan Dog what they do. They do not scientifically measure their intake of calcium or of any other vitamins or minerals, Wing desperately to achieve a 'balanced diet'. This 'balanced diet' is yet another ploy of the complete pet food industry to make you all feel as though you can only trust them. Trust yourself And read Dr Ian Billinghurst's book,'Give Your Dog A Bone', in my opinion the best ever book on the whole aspect of looking after your dog, Juliette de Sairacil-Levy's book, 'The Complete Herbal Handbook for the Dog & Cat'. No wonder the pet food industry doesnt like them. Maybe they dont like us much either.
VEGETABLES:
Give vegetables with either CHO (ideally) or Protein meal. You can give them finely grated raw, or pulped. Or you can cook them, which is what we have thurid best, as they are utilised extremely well and Wll give you some excellent and nutritious vegetable water to plrt on your cereal meal. After all, you probably cook some vegetables nearly every day of the week. Use the water on the biscuit, which dogs seem to prefer moistened. Although, some dogs as they get into adulthood may show a preference for dry biscuit or cereals.
SPROUTED GRAINS/SEEDS (i.e. pumpkin/sunflower/alfalfa/ or use beansprouts)
Only need to let them just sprout, about 12 to 18 hours should see it right. Trouble is, it's another bother to do it. If using seeds, you can also grind them, instead of sprouting.
FRUIT:
Yes, fruit. Give bananas, an excellent source of potassium and long term energy in the form of CHO, with the cereal meal or, you can give as a meal on their own, especially to puppies. If you want to put it in a bowl, then you can also give it with some clabbered milk* or yoghurt (Always try to give Bio yoghurt. Or make a bit of effort - very little in fact - and make your own With a yoghurt maker)
Apples, you can grate at first for a pup, and is often best that way for all dogs, as they tend to get more from it. You can find that if they have eaten a whole apple, it comes out the back end in un-broken down chunks. If they have a really strong digestive system they will break more of it down.
Kiwis are good - full of vitamin C.
Oranges; dogs love them as long as you get them used to them early on in life. Again, great vitamin C.
Dried fruits are super, and needless to say, they like them a lot. Probably because they feel they are some form of t-eat, being chewy. Another great source of energy with totally harmless, natural sugars, also fibre and potassium. Give dates (stoned, and not the sugared ones), figs, apricots.
SUPPLEMENTS:
Seaweed. Absolutely vital and a brilliant vitamin and mineral source. Careful of what make. Some, indeed most that are available are often said to be "fresh from the such and such a coast". Yes. Dredged off the beaches with sand, oil and other pollution. Only Natural Choice has the finest in the world. That is proven. Cannot speak highly enough of seaweed.
Powdered Almonds. Great for the immune system, especially for the developing, growing puppy. Give once a week to the adult.
Brewers Yeast. Great source of the B group of vitamins. Worth using if you're careful to see it's not being fermentative in the dog's stomach. If you find it is, stop it for that dog. Some are absolutely fine on it. Give it about 2 or 3 times a week, about half a teaspoon.
Weak marmite water can be used on the cereal meal if you haven't got any other veg water.
All the above will give you a healthy dog, especially if done from weaning (and throughout a breeding programme for life!)
This is without going into the herbs that are beneficial. That's a whole book; and already done by others. Herbs cover the treatment of illness and sickness too.
Finally, don't stop your dog eating the muck of grass fed animals. It will come to no harm whatsoever, as long as you worm them about once or twice a year. Remember the healthy wild dog probably has some worms all the time.
If you ever want to put a bit of condition/might on a dog let it lick a spoon of smooth peanut butter once a day, for a few days.
Garlic. Do try to get your dog to have a bit of fresh garlic; usually you can get them to eat it if it's grated or crushed onto green tripe. If you have real problems, then cook plenty of it in the veg water or use garlic pearls.
Desiccated coconut is useful occasionally, helps to keep the worms at bay, and full of good quality oil for condition. About a couple of teaspoons, once or twice a week.
Carob powder, great for the growing pup. About one teaspoon on a cereal a)meal, twice a week. Good for the adult too, as they seem to love it. Full of natural sugars and lots of vitamins and minerals.
* Clabbered Milk
Firstly, know this: Milk as you buy it, is not a good food for dogs. In fact it is bad for them. It's all to do with the lactose it contains. The following is the best you can do, or to feed plain (natural) Bio yoghurt. Clabbered milk is sometimes called Buttermilk, but it is right to say that clabbered milk is a more crude and inexpensive product, easily made by you at home. It is excellent for putting condition onto and i~= a dog. The fats are completely broken down and utilised. You will see a real shine, with depth to it come into the coat. Be warmed though, too much and your dog will get grossly overweight if fed too much. Personally, I never feed it more than once a week, unless it is to a nursing bitch or puppies.
Like other milk foods such as Bio yoghurt, it is said to have worm removing properties. Let's hope that one day that can be proven.
Here is my way to make clabbered milk, quickly and easily.
Take a two, or four-pint carton of milk, full cream or semi skimmed. (You must decide if your dog can take the extra fat - probably not with the way that so many dogs seem to be overweight these days rather than lean, which is the way they would survive and thrive in the wild). Remove about a cup of milk for your own use and to give you the air room needed when you come to shake it up. Shake it hard for about ten seconds and leave it in a warm place like a sunny window or by an Aga to literally, go off. Ideally, do this three times a day (remove the top to let the air out after each shaking - and don't forget to put it back!) After as little as 3 or 4 days in warm weather (Summer) a little longer, say about 5 or 6 days if the weather is colder (Winter) it will have become a thick fluid a little like yoghurt and it will smell fresh, yet a touch cheesy. This is the wonderful stuff that is clabbered milk. If you forget to shake it, or you let it go on longer you will, quite simply, end up with curds and whey. You can still feed it to your dog, but give it a good shake to mix them. It may just separate into curds and whey again, when left.
Finally, with all the calls and sometimes, letters we receive, we are always overjoyed to hear what fantastic~c results people are finding when they feed Natural Choice Wholebake to their dogs. We believe that to feed naturally you are doing the right and proper thing for your dog. The results show that. Especially with those who have previously fed a complete dog food and then gone onto Wholebake.
And when all is said and done .....
Remember this: Because of the evolved physiology of the dog there is not one single food that can be called complete. Convenient, yes. But then, only for the owner. People who profess to be dog lovers, whether owners or breeders should, first and foremost, understand where and how the dog evolved, indeed, what makes it tick, health wise. If only dog owners, in whatever shape or form they come in, tried a little harder to understand such things they would begin to excel in stockmanship. That in turn would lead to better dog health, vitality, temperament, longevity and well being all round.
That, surely, has to be a prize worth striving for.