Cory’s Story

EDITOR’S NOTE: This post is a continuation of our guest author series. Mika’s Story follows Mika and her health as she switches to a raw food diet.

So you have a dog and now you’ve heard about raw feeding, you’re curious, but no one you know feeds RAW, how can you trust these people that are saying RAW is best for your dog?

So many questions and those are just a few of the questions jumbling around in my mind when I first heard about feeding raw.
The answer to why RAW is a simple one, all you have to do is look over at your dog. When I look at Mika I see a dog who likes to chew, bite (objects and occasionaly will mouth my hand or arm), she is an animal yearning for stimulation and even a challenge, she has lovely strong teeth, shoulders and a neck made for tearing and pulling and paws to hold objects into place that she is trying catch, grip to bite or pull and dig.

Now look at that bowl of Kibble many of us are still feeding our dogs, the benefits to us are: the kibble fits in a bag and you can store it in a cupboard and you get a cute little cup to measure it and you basically throw it in a bowl and give it to your dog twice a day and plus the bag says everything your dog needs is in there, all the nutrients and lovely chicken/lamb/veggie stew and pasta flavour mmmmm just like human food, what more could your dog possibly need?

Once again I say look at your dog, they walk to their bowls smell it and in about 2 minutes all that kibble has been eaten. Looking at Mika before RAW she would need to be enticed into eating her Kibble. Which body parts did she actually use while eating kibble, uhm well she would lower her head to the bowl and eat it, she moved very little and then afterwards would need to drink about a litre of water because of the food being so dry.

Now look at her, her chicken carcasses first get sniffed, then licked, then picked up and taken to the spot she would like to eat them on (always a grassy patch) and then the fun begins, crunching the chicken carcass between those back molars, her neck moving from side to side, with larger pieces of meat often a paw gets placed on it to hold it steady as she tears pieces off. I can actually see the look of satisfaction, stimulation and concentration on her face as she feeds on food that she was designed to eat. The entire process of eating is now no longer just to fill her tummy, give her adequate nutrition (which is very questionable as we don’t really know what goes into the kibble) and to give her food so she can have energy… now eating is actually stimulating her, its actually helping her to focus and use her energy in a way that is both very beneficial to her and positive to me (she’s now biting her food and not the bumpers off our cars). Her teeth are being cleaned as she eats, because the eating process takes longer her mouth and teeth are being washed in a bath of rich anti bacterial saliva, her food is fresh, it leaves no bad smell, the high acidity level in her stomach is just dealing with flesh and bone so its easier to digest and out comes a lovely neat(and much smaller) amount of doggy doo- so much easier for me to clean and no need for her anal glands to be excreted by the groomer anymore.

With raw feeding a basic, mundane task you perform twice a day for your dog becomes an exciting and challenging experience for them, now which dog or cat for that matter owner wouldn’t love for their animals to feel that way.

As you can see Mika and I are passionate about this way of life and we welcome and urge all other humans who are owned by dogs or cats to find out more, there is a wealth of information out there.

Peace and love and bones raining from the heavens are our wishes for all of you.

Love,

Madi and Mika

EDITOR’S NOTE: This post is a continuation of our guest author series. Mika’s Story follows Mika and her health as she switches to a raw food diet.

Mika at the annual SPCA wiggle waggle walk

Our journey to Raw has been and still is an interesting one. Firstly when my husband first told me he was going to get me a puppy I started vigorously reading up on the special care she would need etc and looked at food especially as one of the most important needs. Each manufacturers site was different but all had one definate similarity: they all said never feed your dogs bones. So off I went and bought her what my vet and her parents owners had recommended, Hills Science Diet for large breed puppies. Mika ate that for a year (it cost me an absolute fortune) and I was having to mix cooked chicken breast with it as she got bored of the plain pellets.

While chatting on a topic in one of my facebook group a bunch of spirited Americans got very upset with me for feeding kibble, I got scared almost by their passion and was quite taken aback, I mean they were talking about feeding bones. My head was realing and I felt I didn’t know who to believe anymore. This was after all South Africa and I had never heard about feeding Raw before.

Mika in the water at Park Island

The subject was swept under a mat unti Mika reached 15 months and developed a rash (hot spot) on her hind leg, it took a while to heal and still looked inflammed. At this point I started reading up about the natural way of feeding Raw and looking for a supplier here in Cape town. Well we found one and started her off on their minced up free range chicken meals, they also told me I could give her whole chicken pieces. I can remember that first time, I offered Mika a chicken leg and she accepted it. I don’t know why but I expected her to daintily bite the meat off the bone, instead she crunched that whole leg between her molars, 3 chomped later and a gulp and there wasn’t a trace of that chicken bone to be seen. Believe me I checked, the shock made me actually open her mouth and check.

That was it, we were both hooked after that, the amazement and respect I had to see what her natural capabilities were still to this day baffles me. She is a carnivore and there’s no two ways about that.

That Hot spot healed right up on about a week after switching to a Raw organic diet. Her breath smelt great, her poop was firm and much less in volume, it didn’t stink anymore and turned into white little droppings and my Mika love love loved it!!

And that was the start for us.

I’m thrilled to introduce another guest author who will be sharing her story of switching her dog to raw food: Madenia and her dog Mika!

Madenia and Mika are from Cape Town, South Africa. Mika, a female malamute, made the switch to raw food 10  months ago. Look for Mika’s Story, starting tomorrow, right here!