Rocky's Testimonial

I took on a dog that was very, very skinny, extremely stressed, and sick with a major cold and diarrhea caused by an intestinal parasite that he picked up at an overcrowded animal shelter. That was August 22. He was only the second dog I've had, and I didn't feel all that equipped to handle him (I'm still learning!). I was scared to death he was going to die on my watch. But I immediately ditched all commercially prepared food and started feeding him by hand, scrambled eggs, rice, and cheese. I started doing research and found your book, which I enjoyed and printed. I've employed its recipes (for the most part -- I still have a cultural need to just sear the meat before serving, still mostly raw, and I still include rice), but the results have been phenomenal. I bought a $20 food chopper at Wal-Mart to chop the vegetables and the organ meats, and for most things it works just fine. I use cheese as training treats. And this was while he was on medication, which as we all know can hinder weight gain.

Now he's a happy bundle of energy, more than I can handle, actually. We go out for long, energetic walks and today I bought my first set of running shoes in over 15 years. We may wind up saving each other here!

Because of his poor health, I took pictures of him every day to examine his progress in detail to make sure I could tell for sure whether he was improving or getting worse. They wound up being great "before" and "after" testimonials for the power of healthy food for your dog. These pictures are only 10 days apart! Except for the last, which is 3 weeks from the first, I think. I'm allowing him to stay lean and energetic, and we're working on building up muscle.

Thank you for your very helpful website,

Nancy Nies & Rocky

"Rocky" because he had such a rocky road in front of him and I wanted him to come through like the champ he is.

The following pictures were taken over a 3 week period with some pictures being no more than a few days apart.

 

 

 

Since Nancy contacted me and showed me these pictures, she has decided to stop feeding rice (grains).

I sent her the following reply regarding grains:

Just remember, there is no need to feed grains (:

The grains reduce the digestive effectiveness and unless you severely over cook the grains, there is just no way for Rocky to even break down the grain.

A carnivore has an intestinal tract that is essentially 1/3 the length of a herbivore.

Now a herbivore has a long intestinal tract because it takes a long time to break down and digest vegetation. So the longer intestinal tract is needed for the extra length in time needed for digestion.

A carnivore has a short digestive system because meat is, relatively speaking especially when compared to grains and vegetation, fast to digest. So a carnivore has a short digestive tract because meat is quick to be digested.

Now, understanding this, we can begin to look at the opposite...

A herbivore has a long digestive tract. If you feed a herbivore meat, due to the length of the digestive tract, the meat is now in the body for too long of a period and thus begins to rot and putrefy within the body. That's why meat is never good for a herbivore.

A carnivore, with its short digestive tract, is designed to eat meat, digest it and eliminate the meat before the meat begins to rot and putrefy in the body. But when you add grains, first the digestive tract is not long enough to digest the grains, but second, the grains slow down the digestion just enough to potentially cause the meat to begin to putrefy within the body.

Leading holistic vets and others say that our pets can get the nutrition of a grain just from eating meat and vegetables alone.

So do consider eliminating those grains. Rocky will thank you for it (:

Searing the meat just before feeding is okay. As long as most of the meat is raw, that's what is important. But searing the meat helps to make the meat warm which is good too... so this is okay (:

Nancy then replied and asked if dogs eat vegetables via the digestive tract of their prey, wouldn't the same hold true for grains?

My reply was as follows:

Yes and no is the answer to your question.

If you observe grazing animals... or other herbivores, you will notice that they are not really eating grains.

They will eat some grains and seeds, but even herbivores cannot fully digest or break down the seeds. As an example, a goat may eat an apple and the apple knows this. But the apple also knows that the goat will then disperse the seeds to a new location when it has a bowel movement.

Elephants eat only vegetation but have a terrible time digesting what they eat.

Most grazing animals, such as cows, are really only eating the young shoots which are free of seeds or grains. The cows are not eating the long grass with the seeds on it.

Now for the herbivores that digest grains, the grain is like mush in the digestive system.

Humans who feed grains to their pets usually feed too much to begin with and second, they don't cook the grains long enough. In order for the grains to be even slightly digested by our pets, you need to cook the grains until they are like mush and you can no longer see the original grain. Failure to do this and the grain will just come out the other end.

If you were to examine the stools or Rocky, then you might just see the stools coming out.

If you were to feed Rocky a whole carrot, as an example, you will see the carrot in the stools and the same will happen with the grains even if you cannot easily see it.

Overall, it has been shown by leading holistic vets that the nutrition of grains can be obtained from the combination of meat and vegetables.

At the same time because grains take so long to digest and requires different digestive enzymes, by feeding grains you are not allowing the digestive system to work at 100%.

If you try feeding a grain free diet, you will begin to notice an even greater difference in Rocky and quite possibly, you will also notice that Rocky will need less food.

Fiber is one of the worst things you can give our dogs and cats. Our pets intestinal tracts are not designed for fiber and the fiber can irritate them even more. Not in every situation, but overall, our pets are meant to have almost no fiber.

When it comes to commercial pet food, the only reason why grains are used is because they are cheap... not because they are nutritious for our pets.