I spent some time this past weekend learning the truth about raw-fed cats and dogs from Dakota Bawden-Tutte of True Carnivores in Kerrisdale. I personally have about a decade of experience feeding raw to my own pets, and I asked her to help me debunk some of the myths of raw feeding and answer questions for pet owners who would like to know more about how to feed their furry friends a healthier diet.
Dakota Bawden-Tutte (used with permission)
Dakota graduated from Simon Fraser University with an honours degree in English. She then got her teaching certificate and taught grades 11 and 12 English and Creative Writing for a number of years before moving over to the mental health field. She ran an adult psychiatric boarding home for about six years before becoming interested in training dogs. She currently has a Jack Russell Terrier named Trubble and a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever named Pekoe.
Back when she started, her master dog trainer at the time, Mogens Eliasen, was the one who introduced Dakota to raw by tossing his dog a raw chicken carcass in class. She said, “Oh my god; you’re going to kill your dog!” He promptly replied, “She doesn’t look very dead.”
Trubble alive and healthy and sleeping peacefully at age 16 (used with permission)
Dakota went home and thought about it, and after speaking to a vet who told her very seriously NOT to feed raw to her dog, she concluded that SOMEONE here was wrong. She set out to do her own research and found out that vets would lose about 70% of their income if they didn’t sell kibble, canned food and vaccines in their practice; they certainly had a vested interest in telling patients not to feed raw. The first time Dakota decided to feed her Jack Russell Terrier, Trubble, a piece of raw green tripe it was gobbled up with a look in her dog’s face that simply said, More, please! That whole sleepless night, Dakota was certain she had sentenced her dog to death. In the morning when Dakota woke to find her dog laying motionless, she heaved a huge sigh of relief to see Trubble finally take her breath normally. No dead doggie!
Since then, it’s been uphill all the way, and Dakota has been one of the strongest pioneers and leaders in the raw pet food movement in Vancouver. She and a few other trainers took over Mogens’ raw pet food company and renamed it Fresh Start Raw Food for Dogs and Cats. Soon after, Dakota branched off and opened Wholly Nutrition, a home-based retail raw pet food company running out of two freezers in her garage in Kits Point. Dakota now runs True Carnivores, a full retail space in upscale Kerrisdale and the first of its kind in Vancouver. True Carnivores has been operating for over a decade and offers half a dozen different brands of raw pet food, treats, toys, supplements, books and basic equipment. The staff are very friendly and knowledgeable about pet nutrition and have great connections in the holistic pet care industry, ranging from holistic vets who support and feed raw to pet chiropractors, acupuncturists, hydrotherapists, pet massage and positive-based trainers. Any questions you have regarding your pet, the staff will be able to connect you with an expert. In fact, Dakota herself has been known to go home and research topics for customers just so they have an answer.
True Carnivores
“I’d rather them have safe information than spurious information given out by people whose ethical training or moral compass is a little wayward.”
Myth number 1: The raw food diet costs a lot more.
Pets on a natural, raw food diet are healthier, have fresher breath, better teeth and produce less poop. They’re also living longer. Many people are concerned about the cost issue, which is a very good point. A few things to take into consideration are the fact that your vet bills will be lower, as will your pet dental bills, because your pet will be healthier. Healthy pets also smell better (as does their poop), so if that doesn’t immediately sell it for you, the fact that healthy pets tend to not attract fleas, worms and other parasites should.
Dakota and Pekoe (used with permission)
Nowadays, there are more and more raw pet food manufacturers available to us, and the prices can get quite competitive, which is good news for the consumer. For my own 50-pound border collie, the cost to feed the raw diet (non-organic but human-grade) is about the same if he were on a high-end commercial food, which is approximately $60 to $90 a month, including treats and depending on the variety of meat I decide to buy and how much exercise he gets, time of year, etc. For my cat, it’s actually much, much less to feed raw food than commercial food (about $20 a month). Real food is generally sold by weight, so that makes sense that smaller animals cost much less per kilo. Also, my cat’s poop and pee doesn’t smell as bad and isn’t produced as much, so I buy much less litter per month too. Also consider that if you take the grains and carbs out of commercial food (aka fillers), that is how you actually calculate the cost of the food. Pound per pound, you’re actually paying more for commercial.
The staff at True Carnivores will gladly sit down and work with a customer’s budget to come up with a menu plan that works for your household as well. If you have lots of freezer space and can buy in bulk, that will definitely cut the costs too. Also, they work with the transition process for a pet that’s never been on raw so you’re not left to figure things out by yourself. Don’t be afraid to ask for hand holding!
Myth number 2: Raw food has salmonella, so that’s bad for my pets.
The truth is that kibble has salmonella levels as well; commercial pet food companies just don’t tell you that. The fact is that pets’ stomachs are acidic, unlike our own alkaline digestive systems, and can take salmonella and e-coli bacteria. It is not only unharmful but quite natural. How many dogs and cats out there have eaten out of the garbage or munched on a rodent or bird? Guess what? They didn’t use an oven or microwave.
Red Dog Deli
For your own household’s sanitation, cleaning food preparation surfaces like you would with your own meat you bring home from the grocer is essential and makes sense. Inna from Red Dog Blue Kat says you can use a solution of bleach and water to spray surfaces and cutting boards, knives, spoons and dishes and let it sit for 20 seconds to kill off bacteria. Then washing with dish soap and water and rinsing really well is key.
Also good to note is that good raw pet food manufacturers treat the meat by deep freezing it at -20 degrees for three weeks to kill off any parasites and pathogens, which also addresses myth number 3.
Myth number 3: I can just make raw pet food at home cheaper with food I buy from the grocery store.
You certainly can, but just make sure you educate yourself before doing so. Buying the equipment to grind meat and bones and veggies (and in the correct proportions) and having a deep freezer full of pet food that can’t be touched for three weeks can be a pain for most people too. That’s why I’m so thankful for raw pet food companies that are willing to do the work for me. You can easily get full pet food meals that already have the correct bone ratio, organ meat ratio and veggie/fruit ratio and frozen all done and packaged up nicely. All I have to do is thaw and serve. True Carnivores supplies raw food from the following manufacturers: Red Dog Blue Kat, Club Canine, Paws Natural, irRAWsistible, 3P Naturals and Nature’s Variety.
Also be mindful that buying pre-ground meat in the grocery store for your pet is a no no. Ground meat is usually a lower grade meat and is exposed to air and churned over many times, which integrates and multiplies the pathogens exponentially. It is meant to be sold to humans who cook the food, thereby killing any pathogens. Buying chunks of stewing meat and grinding it yourself would be a better option.
Myth number 4: My cat or picky dog just doesn’t like the raw.
My own Raja Kitty
Transitioning a picky pet to raw can definitely be a challenge. The staff at True Carnivores are certainly experienced with dealing with that themselves, as well as hearing different ideas from their customers all the time. They can help you to transition your pet.
One of the top few techniques that work with cats, who win the award for being the pickiest, are to firstly put them on meal times instead of grazing. Cat’s aren’t cows; they shouldn’t graze. Plus, our pets’ stomachs need time between meals to be empty so that the cilia lining of the stomach has a chance to renew itself; it can’t if there is always partially digested food in there. Once the kitty is on meal times, switch them to a wet, tinned food. Dry food is very dehydrating to your pet. Most cats love wet food, so this step is usually easy. Then you can put a miniscule amount of raw food with the wet and increase the raw ratio over time. You can even start putting bits of raw in the dish beside whatever they’re eating right away to get them used to having it around. Cats are huge imprinters and don’t like change; whatever they’ve been eating, they’ll fight tooth and nail to preserve. For this reason, PATIENCE with a capital P is essential. Take it slow, slow, slow.
Also putting their food on a flat plate instead of a bowl will help. Cats’ whiskers hitting the sides of a bowl when they’re trying to adjust to something new will just be an excuse to walk away. Don’t give in!!!
Myth number 4: I have a new puppy, so I’ll just feed them whatever the breeder fed first and then think about raw later when they’re an adult.
Pekoe and Trubble, grateful for air conditionering (used with permission)
There are many breeders and rescue foster homes that are feeding raw to the pets; you just have to ask around. They are seeing firsthand the effect of generations of good health and vitality from raw feeding. Personally, I would never get a pet from a breeder who didn’t feed the mother raw and introduced the pups and kittens to raw. My own rescued border collie, Cody, was sick, half bald and flea-ridden when his rescue foster mom picked him up from the Tacoma shelter last fall. Before I got him, she had nursed him to health and brought out his still-growing and shiny coat by feeding him raw. They are out there; we as consumers just have to create the demand.
That being said, should you choose to get a young pup or kitten from a source that didn’t feed raw, most people find the transition much easier than an adult who is already picky and has already been imprinted with commercial food only. Dakota suggests starting with tripe for puppies since it has some partially-digested vegetable matter and some stomach enzymes. Raw green tripe also has a perfect 1:1 ratio of calcium and phosphorus and is loaded with omega 3 and 6 fatty acids. It’s also a medium protein, so the risk of triggering any allergens is lower. A word of caution with the white tripe you see in the grocery store: totally different and not recommended to feed your pets. The white tripe is cleaned and bleached and has no additional nutritional benefits.
Myth number 5: You should never feed chicken bones to dogs and cats.
Raw Knuckle Bones
COOKED chicken bones should NEVER be fed to dogs and cats; you are absolutely correct. Raw, meaty chicken bones are great for dogs and cats! When bones are cooked, they are denatured, and the collagen in them is killed off, and they become just like concrete, hard yet brittle. They will splinter and be very dangerous to swallow. Raw bones are flexible and full of nutritious collagen and natural glucosamine. True Carnivores carries chicken and turkey necks and carcasses, lamb necks, ox tails, whole quail carcasses, whole fish, etc. There are many textures ranging from soft and pliable to hard like with shank bones (not recommended for avid chewers who could break their teeth). Talk to the staff about specific bones to feed your particular pet’s species, size and breed.
We ended our visit talking about Dakota’s personal involvement in the community and how that’s really important to her. True Carnivores participated with Red Dog Blue Kat in Kerrisdale Days this past weekend. True Carnivores was also one of the major sponsors of the spring Petnerships trade show 2011. She really supports this event because it is one of the few where no kibble companies or non-holistic products are allowed. Dakota also holds events such as pictures with Santa that raise money for pet charities such as Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue and Richmond Animal Protection Society.
True Carnivores Interior
I asked Dakota what she thought it would take for the holistic and raw pet food industry to take over and push out the commercial companies in big-time shows such as the PNE Superdogs. She looked serious and admitted that it’s going to take money, money and demand from the consumers. I agree with her. Those of us in the pet industry (even retired dog trainers like myself) know of dog/handler teams doing professional appearances in shows and cannot admit that they feed raw or use a pet acupuncturist; they would lose their place on the team. I also know of a local vet who reported that veterinary students cannot discuss raw feeding in classes for fear they will get blackballed by their instructors. We need to change this. We need to make it not only okay to feed real food to our pets but mainstream. The commercial pet food industry has only been around for about 100 years. Even if it takes 100 years from now to change things, it will still be worth it. I look at two pairs of shiny, clear eyes and healthy wet noses every day to know that they’re worth it.
“My whole goal when I started this many years ago in my garage with two freezers was I realized I found a cure for most pet ailments, and it was the raw food diet as they would eat it in the wild. And now it’s about saving the world one dog and cat at a time.” – Dakota Bawden-Tutte
True Carnivores is at 5961 West Boulevard, Vancouver, BC V6M 3X1 (between 43rd & 44th Ave)
Telephone (604) BOS-DOGS (267-3647). They are open seven days a week.
Cheers and good eats,
Silver
***I love showcasing local food establishments, food products, food services and food businesses and the amazing people behind them. I’m always looking for people to feature in my articles, so don’t hesitate to contact me; I’d love to tell your story!***
