dog eating sardine

At Ridgy Didge Cobberdogs, we are always learning and looking for ways to do things better. With this in mind, let’s talk about feeding our Cobberdogs.

What are dogs meant to eat?

Think about dogs in the wild.  What do they eat? Wild dogs kill and eat small animals, birds, lizards; in packs they can bring down bigger prey and even stock! They also eat grasses, leaves, berries, vegetables and fruit; we know people who have seen dingoes climbing up to pull avocados from trees to eat the flesh!  

Dogs will also scavenge on carcasses too if given the chance!  And, sorry to be so frank, but it is a well-known fact that they LOVE poo from plant-eating animals (full of gut-boosting bacteria!).

Ultimately, this is a diverse raw diet; in fact, the ultimate raw diet! So if we believe that animals in the wild would consume what is available and GOOD for them, how do dry and processed foods measure up?

Doesn't dry food provide 'complete nutrition'?

Dry and processed foods seem so quick, convenient and cheap to serve up; and raw foods at first glance seem difficult and expensive! Over time, we have fallen under the spell of the pet food company marketing that describes processed food as complete nutrition, “especially for a growing puppy”!

We’ve been looking into this, and the facts may surprise you. We would encourage you to do a little personal research too and consider the following questions. What ingredients are in your dog’s food; do you know what those ingredient words mean? What is meat ‘meal’ and why is it NOT meat at all? Is the cereal and grain that is abundant in processed foods good for my dog? Why do synthetic vitamins and minerals added to processed foods have little nutritional value? Why do dogs on dry food diets often have poor stomach acid levels and gut bacteria imbalances? What pet health issues can be related back to long-term poor diets?

Facts around dogs food include: dogs’ energy comes from protein and fat, carbs are excess and stored as fat; poor diet can lead to obesity, diabetes and hormone imbalances, benign tumours and cancers, skin and gut allergies, dental disease, kidney and liver diseases, just to name a few; dogs need moderate amounts of healthy fats; intensively farmed grain-fed meats create imbalances which are associated with behaviour issues and depression, obesity, cancer and arthritis!

Will raw food cost me more?

Wow! Look at that list of health issues and imagine the cost of a poor diet to your wallet and your dog’s quality and length of life. And then consider how little your pet’s health would really cost if it mostly depended on a healthy raw food diet alone, without lifetime expensive vet treatments and medicines.  
Cost of feeding a medium Cobberdog good quality diet would be from $7 to $10 per day.

More information please?

Recently we had a consultation with Natural Vets, at Forest Glen.  They offer a qualified Vet Nurse consultation with a very comprehensive EBook for $39, a wonderful opportunity to have specific expert advice and a great resource to reference for ongoing support. There is also a lot of great information on this subject freely available on the Raw4Paws website, including food hygiene practices that should be applied with handling all raw foods -  for both humans and pets!

We are now fully convinced that a raw food diet is the very best thing for the health of our puppies and dogs, and we are weaning all our puppies onto a raw food diet comprising a great range of solid raw foods. This includes a selection of meat - free range chicken drumsticks, grass fed beef; sardines; free range eggs; vegetables, avocado, tomatoes; and sometimes raw barf patties.  

There are commercial raw foods that can meet your dog’s needs too if it makes raw feeding easier for you; freeze dried and frozen options.  These can be safely sourced from ethical companies like Raw4Paws, Organic Paws, Ziwi, Frontier Pets, Whoa Nelly and Proudi. We want to mention Inner Wolf here on the Sunshine Coast, where we have bought great raw food; they stock Raw4Paws, ethically farmed sardines and much more, all at reasonable prices.

If you commit to a raw diet for your dog, please note! Dogs that have been on a dry food diet must transition to raw food over a period of time.  They can be at risk of developing real gut issues from new raw diets because their stomach acid imbalance and disturbed gut bacteria may not cope with the change. Transitioning does NOT mean mixing processed foods with dry foods, this is never recommended.

If you would like to adopt a Ridgy Didge Australian Cobberdog, please read our Adopting a Puppy information, before you continue the adoption process. For more information, pm us on Facebook, or contact us at our website. Like and follow us on Facebook to keep up to date with ongoing puppy news and announcements.