What is a dog’s natural food?

I’ve just fed Miss Nolene, it only took me a minute and she wolfed it down.  Yum, yum.   Was it pre-shaped chunks out of a can?   No.   Dried food from a bag then?   No.   Pouches or out of a foil tray?   No.   Did I drive down to the supermarket to stock up?   Again, no.While I was out earlier in the day I’d called at the butchers.   Two pounds of mince please.  Dogs are carnivores and raw meat is the dog’s natural food.    It wasn’t expensive, dogs don’t need the best cuts.   After all, they’ve managed for thousands of years (and done very well too) without factory made convenience food.

An old dog book we have in the sanctuary book shop tells how to keep your dog healthy by giving him a correct diet:   ‘Raw meat is the most important item when feeding a dog.   Add some brown bread (we would toast first) and a few green vegetables and this provides a healthy and excellent diet.  It can be varied by the substitution of other foods, particularly carrots (cooked or grated), unpolished (brown) cooked rice and fish.   The meat can be lightly cooked if preferred.   Two meals a day are sufficient for an adult dog and plain biscuits, which do not contain any meat, can be substituted for brown bread.   A few vitamin D drops (if they are not already in the biscuits) will ensure the assismilation of lime and phosphorus.

This book is sixty years old.   Similar doggy diets are found in books much older.    My father used to feed dogs in this way and they were invariably healthy all their lives and never had to see the vet unless it was because of an injury.   All our dogs were active to a very great age too.

How long did it take to feed Nolene?   A couple of minutes at most.   I already had the meat in the fridge (I took a portion out an hour before so that it wouldn’t be chilled).   The veg were leftovers from our meal the evening before.   There was no packaging to throw away, no cans, no pouches.  Her dinner hadn’t been made in a factory, it hadn’t come hundreds of miles (or even from the other side of the world!) in a lorry or spent weeks or months in a warehouse or on supermarket shelves.    There was no middleman to add profit to the cost.   I could see exactly what I was feeding my little doggy friend.    No animal derivatives, no chemicals, no additives, no junk.

What about the glossy packaging, the million pound t.v. ads – the hype, the free gifts, the promotion?   It’s entertaining for sure, but Nolene and I can easily manage without it.