The Healthy Active Pet Raw Dog Food Recipe Story

Firstly WELCOME to Healthy Active Pet which is a business passionate about raw dog food recipes and helping our pets live a long and healthy life.

My name is Rhian and I am the Founder of Healthy Active Pet and I wanted to explain why I launched the business and how my mission is to help educate and inform pet owners about the best health and nutrition choices for your pets and why I began feeding my dogs raw dog food recipes

I absolutely LOVE my pets (I have dogs and cats and have done all my life) and the reason I am here and have created Healthy Active Pet is that I believe that a light needs to shined on pet health and nutrition.

Just like humans - feeding our pets a NON processed and fresh raw dog food diet is the best way to keep them healthy, lean and living a long life.

However, the majority of pet owners feed kibble - which is highly processed and kind of like fast food for dogs - and it is cheap which makes it really appealing to all of us!

BUT it is so important to feed them a balanced fresh food diet as if you are feeding them a non balanced fresh food diet without the right nutrition it can also hinder their health. (please note the ALL Healthy Active Pet recipes are created by our pet nutritionist and meet AAFCO standards)

I can also thoroughly recommend watching a documentary called PET FOOLED which is a great overview of the problem that exits with so much of processed pet food and I hope that we as a business can help go someway to address and through education we can all make more informed choices.

My journey to raw dog food recipes

I have had cats and dogs most of my life and Jack Russels have always been a staple but in 2021 we got a couple of Cavoodles - and I always fed them kibble dog food.

But then my Cavoodles starting having diarrhea GALORE and after some exploration with the vets I discovered they had a chicken allergy.

I then discovered that most of all pet food had chicken in - wonderful!

This then began a BIG research and discovery part of my life into the pet food industry and nutrition for pets - and especially about raw feeding dog recipes.

And after I did a lot of research plus talking to pet nutritionists, animal experts and vets I completely changed the way I viewed pet food and what I fed my cats and dogs.

And it was here where I learnt about home made and raw feeding dog recipes. Which honestly I had never ever considered before or even been aware of.

So what did I discover?

Firstly that a lot of commercial processed pet food is not great for the health of our pets. This isn't to say all is not good but most isn't - this is where learning to read labels and what to look for is really important.

Commercial pet food is a very broad term that encompasses a lot of variety, but what I mean by this is dry and tinned processed food.

These types of foods are made from extremely processed ingredients – often waste products from other industries – that are not suitable to a dog or cat’s digestive needs or requirements.

They are generally upwards of 50% processed starches, with the bulk of the actual nutrients coming from cheap synthetic supplements.

These foods are difficult to digest, contribute to chronic inflammation, spike insulin (leading to weight gain - nearly 50% of dogs are now overweight and 35% of cats) and do not support the health or wellbeing of our pets.

Have you ever picked up a bag of dog or cat food and seen "Meat by-products and meat (poultry, beef &/or sheep)” or words to that effect? What does that even mean? (P.S pick up any of the brands in the supermarket and you will see this)

Chances are it means the manufacturer doesn’t actually know which one is in their food. 

Heavily processed pet food like kibbles and tinned dog and cat products are almost always made from meat that has either been rendered to a shelf stable powder, or otherwise processed to a meat “slurry” that is then sterilised.

Rendering is a process favoured by the fertiliser industry, whereby meat and bones that are not fit for human consumption are crushed and then heated to very high temperatures until the water and fat separate.

The remaining “meat” is dried to a long life powder that contains mostly protein and bone, and then turned into garden fertiliser, dry dog food and livestock feed. 

Some tinned pet foods also use these meat meals, while others grind whole meat and meat by-products (which may include heads, hooves, offal and basically any part of the animal that is otherwise discarded), and then add cereals and other binding ingredients to form the chunks in a tin that we might mistake for actual pieces of meat.

These ingredients are then cooked so the starches gelatinise and proteins begin to denature, before being tinned and sterilised using temperatures over 120 degrees Celsius for several minutes.

These products are basically always synthesised with vitamin and mineral supplements, because very little nutrition survives these heat intensive processes. 

Because these meats are pretty much always not of a quality fit for human consumption, prior to being turned into pet food they are regulated by a different set of rules to food intended for the human supply chain.

These rules don’t require that meat be properly labelled as “beef” or “sheep,” which is why pet food manufacturers don’t always seem to know which one is in their food.

We know that for good health we should avoid heavily processed meats and refined carbs; the same applies to our pets but in commercial pet food this is not the case.

And kibble is a BIG seller in commercial pet food and y ou can read more on what is in kibble here - and spoiler alert it's not great. 

Raw food dog food recipes

I then discovered that feeding a raw dog food recipe or fresh diet is the best one for our pets.

And that we need to feed our pets a species appropriate diet

A species appropriate diet is a diet that is well suited to the metabolic capabilities of your dog’s digestive system.

Dogs are closely related to wolves, who are well established predators that thrive on a prey-based diet of primarily other small animals.

They have no need for carbohydrates and are poorly equipped to digest them for a number of reasons.

Of course dogs aren’t wolves and it can be difficult to imagine an “oodle” or a pug ever sharing bloodlines with the grey wolf, but biologically they are still incredibly alike, and this extends to their metabolic and digestive needs and capabilities.

Dogs can digest some carbohydrate foods, such as small amounts of fresh fruits and cooked vegetables, and these provide wonderful nutritional benefits to them when they do.

But this doesn’t mean they should eat a starch-based diet of heavily processed grains - check the labels on your dog food and you will see LOTS of carbs in them - pasta, rice, corn, tapioca as this bulks out the food and makes it cheaper to make. Instead look for products that are very high in protein and low in carbs.

Like wolves, dogs thrive on an animal-based diet with the bulk of their energy coming from protein and fat. (P.S most commercial pet food is high in carbs)

But what I did discover is that it can be SUPER confusing!

Here are a few things that are confusing!

• Some vets still recommend commercial pet food and you can read why this is the case here
• The raw feeding trend is massive but can be overwhelming as just like with human meals - you need to ensure you have the correct nutrition mix to ensure your pet isn't malnourished - and for dogs this means things like organ meats and bones.
• Lots of people think raw feeding is too hard
• Lots of people think raw feeding is too expensive
• Lots of people think raw feeding is dangerous and will lead to bacteria and salmonella spread

So there was a lot to unpack! And a lot to learn.

Next steps & Solution Creation