Welcome to Healthy Active Pet!
My name is Rhian and I am the Founder of Healthy Active Pet and I am passionate about the health of pets
My mission is to help educate and inform pet owners about the best health and nutrition choices for your pets
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 couldn't believe that, like so many people do, that I was feeding my pets a processed diet that was not the best for their health.
I can also thoroughly recommend watching a documentary called PET FOOLED which is a great overview of the problem that exits and I hope that we as a business can help go someway to address and through education we can all make more informed choices.
I have had cats and dogs most of my life and Jack Russels have always been a staple but last year we got a couple of Cavoodles.
But then I discovered they had a chicken allergy.
My research
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 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. Which honestly I had never ever considered before or even been aware of
I also discovered the home made recipe niche or raw feeding niche was pretty big with some very passionate people in - which was literally a whole new world.
The truth about commercial pet food
So what did I discover?
Firstly that most commercial pet food isn't great.
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 of dubious quality – 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.
Raw feeding
What I did discover is that it can be SUPER confusing!
Here are a few things that are confusing!
Some vets still recommend kibble which is strange 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
My Next Steps
I am VERY focused on creating a supportive, informative and non judgemental platform and community for pet lovers to be part of.
We all love our animals and the last thing we want is to be made to feel like a bad pet parent - especially when we are just buying what is on the supermarket shelves.
So I brought on pet experts and pet nutritionists to help me
My aim was three fold
1) To help educate people and give lots of free information all created by our expert team as I strongly believe education is key and you can see lots of free content on our blog
2) To create home and raw feeding recipe books and meal plans that people could use that would empower and educate them. These would be created by our pet nutritionists and meet all AAFCO standards and would be simple and budget friendly. You can see these here
3) To create a convenient but healthy dog and cat food option so if people didn't want to home feed every day they had a back up. I also wanted to ensure all dog food was FREE from CHICKEN & BEEF as I discovered so many dogs were allergic to these and I wanted to provide a dog feed that didn't have chicken or beef!
Point 3 was tricky as I knew it was impossible to make a healthy kibble. But after lots of consultation I was super happy that we created air dried and freeze dried raw food with our first batch focused on weight management
For this it was literally the raw human grade ingredients in our recipes but air dried and freeze dried. A very expensive process but a brilliant and highly nutritious product. And with ZERO processing - so much so that if you ever use our product you will see the sardine heads still in tact! You can see these here
A family business
Healthy Active Pet was something me and my kids (all cat and dog mad) could help all pets be in their best health possible and empower pet owners on how they can feed their cats and dogs healthy food for health, longevity, fitness and happiness.
Plus have lots of fun along the way.
The philosophy of Healthy Active Pet is all about balance.
We know it can be hard juggling work, pets and family life and we don’t want to put pressure on anyone. Instead we want to take a balanced approach to nutrition and fitness for your pet that can fit around your life.
We want you to feel informed and empowered to make decisions on your pets health and we have an expert animal specialist team on hand to help in any way possible.
And after bringing on some amazing pet nutritionists (meet them here), we set about creating products, recipes and services to help pet owners and their pets.
P.S All our recipes have been formulated to meet the same standards commercial pet food in Australia is generally formulated to meet (the AAFCO standards).
Freeze & Air Dried Food
One of the first things we wanted to do was to create a really healthy and convenient dog food.
And we knew raw food was best. So we enlisted the help of our awesome pet nutritionist and created two products. One was a freeze dried raw turkey treat and one was a complete dog meal that was air dried.
It took a few goes to perfect but we did it and all of the dogs we tested on absolutely LOVED it which was a BIG win! And bonus is that we made the food chicken free so if you have a sensitive tummy (like Maxie and Frankie) that you could have the products.
All our food is Aussie made (in Regional Victoria) and all ingredients sourced from Australia too - we are 100% Australian owned family business.
Recipe programs
The next thing we focused on was a series of 4 week nutrition and exercise challenges (created by our pet nutritionist) to get your pet back on track.
The recipe programs include a do weight management program, a dog healthy living and wellness program for when they are at their goal weight, plus a sensitive dog wellness program which is jammed with recipes for pooches with sensitive tummies.
Plus we also have a cat weight management program too if you have cats needing to get back on track with their health.
All the programs revolve around home made food so you can control what your pet is eating and feed them fresh, whole foods - but if you don't want to make home made food every day - or don't want to do meal prep - we have also created a range of air dried complete raw meals which take the exact whole raw food ingredients with nothing added and air dried them for your convenience. The ingredients are all organic and are the highest quality human grade food available - and all sourced and made in Australia.
All food is ethically sourced and we only use recyclable packaging as we are also conscious about the health of the environment
P.S All our recipes have been formulated to meet the same standards commercial pet food in Australia is generally formulated to meet (the AAFCO standards).
I hope you love the programs and food and that your pets are healthier and happier from them.
Rhian and the Healthy Active Pet team xx
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