It’s a hot topic and we always want to give our dogs the very best in life, so today TV Vet Joe Inglis tells us about the benefits of natural pet foods. Why not make an early New Year’s resolution to look at what your pet is eating – and maybe make a further commitment to their health? You could do like Joe – decide to start your very own brand to make sure!
Feeding your pets a natural diet
The word ‘natural’ is used increasingly in the pet food industry, but what exactly does it mean – and are natural foods really that much better for your pets?
Pet foods described as ‘natural’ contain nothing but simple, natural ingredients – with no artificial additives such as colours, preservatives or flavours. By contrast, most traditional complete pet foods contain a range of artificial additives. For example, artificial colours are often used, but not for the benefit of the pet – your dog isn’t impressed by bright red kibbles or green synthetic peas, they are all there to convince you the pet owner how delicious and healthy the food is!
Doing without these additives demands more of the natural pet food producer, since creating tasty foods that stay fresh without additives is a real challenge. But it’s a worthwhile challenge as the health benefits of eating a diet free from artificial additives are very real. Synthetic preservatives, flavours and colours have been implicated in all sorts of health scares from behaviour to cancer, and there is very real evidence for the dangers they pose.
As a vet, I see pets on a regular basis with health problems related to their diet, and it’s not just in my surgery – many pet health professionals agree that additives in pet foods can cause problems.
Obviously, avoiding these dangerous additives is the best way to keep your pet healthy, but it’s not just what’s not in natural foods that’s so good – it’s also what is in them. Most pet foods contain surprisingly little of the quality ingredients you might expect such as meat, relying instead on chemicals to make the foods acceptable to pets, whereas natural pet foods need to use a much higher standard of ingredients as the pets can taste exactly what is in the food.
Rather than sit back and complain about this, Joe made a positive decision to produce his own range of natural pet foods, inspired by his own pets.
“I created the recipes for Joe & Jack’s and Joe & Jill’s, named after my faithful collie cross Jack and mischievous tabby cat Jill. I set up my own natural pet food company called Pets’ Kitchen, and my foods are all completely natural and contain no artificial chemicals”
“I’ve found that by packing my recipes with top quality ingredients, there is no need to use any artificial chemicals and pets not only prefer the fresh, natural taste – they also do amazingly well on my foods and owners really notice the difference”.
Pet’s Kitchen natural dog and cat foods contain at least 26% real meat along with other natural ingredients such as rice, seaweed, brewer’s yeast and yucca extract.
Would you like to try some of Pet’s Kitchen foods for your pets? Joe has given us an exclusive offer. Enter the voucher code KW10 at the www.petskitchen.co.uk checkout, you’ll get 10% off your first order
Competition
If you would like your dog to try some, we have a spot prize to give away today. Joe’s book ‘Doggie Dinners’ is up for grabs! Simply add your comment below for Joe (fan mail!), for a chance to win!
And also, Joe has donated some food as a prize for our fantastic hamper to be drawn by Pickles on Christmas Eve so don’t miss your chance!
I’m a full-time U.K. dog trainer and behaviour consultant based in Peterborough with 17 years in the field. My work ranges from class teaching, obedience, flyball, agility and working trials, competition, to running a popular dog display team.
Couldn’t agree more with Joe. When we first got our lurcher she was being fed a well known brand (rhymes with makers), which was chock full of colours & additives. We soon realised that one of the reasons she was so hyper was due all these colours & additives.
So, we switched to a more natural diet without colourants & additives…. and hey presto, a calmer dog soon materialised.
I would always urge pet owners to buy the best they can afford and avoid foods with loads of additives & colours.
It can also be fun cooking for your pet and Joe’s book looks a real good source of inspiration.
We’ve always fed ours natural food (she’s eating Burns Chicken/Pork at the moment) after reading online some of the crap which goes into cheaper foods. Once you organise home delivery of large quantities, it works out no more expensive than buying the rubbish food in the supermarket, and the dog tends to eat less of it, too.
We also changed our cat food to natural after the dog, and the difference in their coats is amazing.
I always try and feed my 2 dogs (Springer & Staffy) good quality food. I’ve seen too many tales of hyper dogs on the Staffy forum to do anything else. Normally I feed Arden Grange or Burns, as I tend to go for hypoallergenic foods. I used to give my Staffy Joe & Jacks ‘wet’ variety, but sadly can’t get it at Tesco any more.
Mollie dog was on a well known commercial brand when we got her and had some real focus issues. We changed her over to natural foods and the change in behaviour was both fundamental and immediate. She’s calmer, more attentive and generally much happier.
I totally agree! When I got my GSD Desperado as a puppy he was being fed a low quality puppy food. I kept him on it because frankly I didn’t know any better. Well, needless to say he didn’t thrive on it. His immune system and digestive system went completely haywire to the point where I was looking at some serious vet bills. I put him on a completely raw diet for a few months then switched him to a rotation of several super premium holistic brands of kibble and he is doing fantastic! Thank God for people who make good food for our dogs.
Thanks Joe for the good information. I am a Springer and I will eat anything but my mum and dad are good and they only give me good quality food twice a day. I like the look of Joe and Jack’s so I will pester and paw my dad until he buys some. (Don’t tell them but I just stole some biscuits that they left hanging around he he hee!) Love Oswald x
I used to feed my puppy on a branded puppy food, and as she reached 10 months it really started disagreeing with her giving her tummy upsets, after a bit of advice from my twitter buddies, I weaned her onto a natural adult food and she loves it, she now loves meal times where as before she’d look at it then leave it unti she was really hungry! I couldn’t agree more with Joe about natural foods, I’m 100% converted!!
Since changing my greyhound to a higher quality food (we are feeding Orijen), I’ve noticed changes in his coat, ears, teeth, and eyes, it wasn’t immediate but over the months the difference was amazing. Also, even though the less expensive brand said I could feed the same amount, he was losing weight, so I ended up feeding him much more. With the higher quality food I was paying more per bag, but I am feeding him a lot less (almost half), so cost wise it is almost the same with the added benefit of less doggy waste pickup (and less must-the-leave-the-room-that-smell-could-only-be-the-dog-moments).
More good advice today. I have for a long time wanted to feed my Lurcher completely naturally but am not sure how much & what is correct balance as I have a friend who includes pasta/rice/raw veg for her dog but she is still a bit overweight. (Unlike my friend)! Jake eats raw carrot as most dogs will but when I tried giving him same as my friend’s dog I found raw cauliflower arranged neatly round the bowl, on the floor. Point made.
I feed all my pets natural food and they all thrive. I think it’s a little sad what the big companies can get away with. I honestly don’t think it’s the pet owners fault as so little is said about commercial pet food and it is so readily available.
Thanks Joe for your advice. I have always fed my dogs with a standard dry food mix, I know it is not good for them.
But they have plenty of leftovers from my meals, including chicken and all sorts of vegetables. It still amazes me how dogs love vegetables. I am sure if other owners just popped a dish of cooked veg down for there dogs they woule see how much they enjoy it. I think this is a big part missing from a dogs diet, and its fat free.
It’s amazing what a big difference a high quality diet makes. Our bulldog came to us with a very poor coat, a little unsteady on his legs and very very smelly! Feeding him a natural, healthy diet has given him a new lease of life. His coat is beatifully soft and his digestion has improved ten fold. He also has limitless amounts of energy to enjoy life. We wouldn’t eat cheap, over-processed rubbish ourselves, and I refuse to feed it to my dogs!
I LOVE food! All food, no matter what! Thankfully my Mum says she knows best and chooses most of my food for me … But I never stop searching, especially this lovely natural little bunny drops!