Are you considering a raw dog food diet or a raw cat food diet for your beloved companion, but feeling hesitant because your veterinarian doesn’t support raw feeding?
At The Happy Beast, we frequently hear this concern: ‘My vet is against raw food.’ This is a common challenge for pet parents advocating for fresh pet food or biologically appropriate raw food (BARF) diets.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. While some veterinarians are open to fresh feeding and even recommend it, other vets express caution regarding raw food diets, primarily due to concerns about bacterial contamination and nutritional imbalances, often stemming from limited education on fresh food in vet school.
These vets still default to conventional kibble brands like Purina, Hill’s, or Royal Canin. This isn’t necessarily because your vet is uninformed or doesn’t care; it’s often because they’ve only been taught one side of the story.
In addition to dispelling concerns, we also believe it’s super important to highlight the benefits of raw pet food diets. For example, many pet parents observe significant health improvements in their animals, including glossier coats, improved digestion (leading to smaller, firmer stools), increased energy levels, and better management of allergies when switching to a species-appropriate raw diet. (Check out our blog for more info on the benefits of raw food!)
So how do you navigate this conversation respectfully, advocate for your pet’s health, and make informed choices when your vet isn’t well-versed in raw pet food or fresh diets? Let’s break it down.
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How to talk to your vet about raw pet food diets
Are you considering a raw dog food diet or a raw cat food diet for your beloved companion, but feeling hesitant because your veterinarian doesn’t support raw feeding?
At The Happy Beast, we frequently hear this concern: ‘My vet is against raw food.’ This is a common challenge for pet parents advocating for fresh pet food or biologically appropriate raw food (BARF) diets.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. While some veterinarians are open to fresh feeding and even recommend it, other vets express caution regarding raw food diets, primarily due to concerns about bacterial contamination and nutritional imbalances, often stemming from limited education on fresh food in vet school.
These vets still default to conventional kibble brands like Purina, Hill’s, or Royal Canin. This isn’t necessarily because your vet is uninformed or doesn’t care; it’s often because they’ve only been taught one side of the story.
In addition to dispelling concerns, we also believe it’s super important to highlight the benefits of raw pet food diets. For example, many pet parents observe significant health improvements in their animals, including glossier coats, improved digestion (leading to smaller, firmer stools), increased energy levels, and better management of allergies when switching to a species-appropriate raw diet. (Check out our blog for more info on the benefits of raw food!)
So how do you navigate this conversation respectfully, advocate for your pet’s health, and make informed choices when your vet isn’t well-versed in raw pet food or fresh diets? Let’s break it down.
Read moreThe Vegetarian’s Pet Food Dilemma
As our understanding of livestock animals, and the conditions in which they are “farmed,” continues to grow, more and more American’s are avoiding meat – or at least being choosier about where their meat comes from. A recent survey found that two-thirds of Americans are actively reducing their meat consumption and 75% of Americans are concerned about the welfare of farm animals raised for food. Between 2014 and 2017, the number of vegans in the United States increased by 600%.
At the same time, pet ownership has steadily increased over the last few decades with approximately 85 million families including at least one pet. Dogs and cats make up the overwhelming majority of U.S. companion animals, which can lead to an ethical conundrum for the plant-based consumer who decides to welcome one of these carnivores into their home.
Although vegan and vegetarian dog foods are available, most experts agree that dogs are healthier on a species-appropriate, meat-based diet. Eating meat is even more vital for cats and we discourage ever putting a cat on a vegetarian/vegan diet as the likelihood of chronic illness increases dramatically. This is because despite thousands of years of domestication, dogs are still biologically, domesticated wolves, and cats are nearly indistinguishable from their African wildcat ancestors. As carnivores, there are a host of essential vitamins and minerals that dogs and cats can only acquire from meat.
If you’re one of the 90% of pet owners feeding your pet kibble, this may not seem like much of a dilemma, however, even the best kibble has devastating consequences for livestock animals, the environment, and the health of our pets.
Read moreMeat & The Environment: Beef
Now more than ever is the time to support our communities, family, friends, and the environment. We are all trying to cope with a world that will be forever changed by the current pandemic. This is a time for serious introspection. A time to nourish ourselves physically and emotionally and take an honest look at how our actions or inactions affect the environment around us and result in far-reaching consequences. I hope we can all take this time to find ways we can live more gently and lessen our impact on an ever-changing climate and landscape.
With that in mind, this month we’re kicking off our “Meat & The Environment” blog series with a discussion about a very common protein – beef.
For starters, let’s get a couple of points out of the way. We love meat at The Happy Beast. In fact, a large part of our mission is to educate pet guardians about the importance of a fresh food diet that is high in animal protein and low in carbohydrates. However, there is a price that comes with the consumption of meat by us and our pets.
Read moreDiscontinuing Single-Use Plastic Cat Food Pouches
Sustainability and reducing our plastic use is a very important goal at The Happy Beast. Unfortunately, this is not an easy task to accomplish in the pet food industry. However, we still feel strongly that it is an important goal to strive towards, which is why we are discontinuing our single-use plastic cat food pouches.
Single-use plastic pouches have been growing in popularity over the past 5 years as an alternative to canned foods. This is because pouches are supposed to retain the flavor of the food better than a typical aluminum can since no heat is used in the sterilization process. However, this relatively small benefit to flavor has come at a significant cost to our environment.
Read moreProbiotics vs. Prebiotics for Dogs & Cats
Dogs and cats can sometimes struggle with health issues, and the most prevalent one we encounter is gastrointestinal or stomach problems. From protein allergies to irritable bowel disease, there are several solutions you can use to help alleviate the symptoms of stomach upsets in dogs and cats. In this post, I’ll be talking about probiotics and prebiotics, what the differences are, and the benefits of each for your animal. If you’re looking for more help or other solutions for chronic bowel problems, please visit us at the store or read our other blog posts on similar topics, which you can find at the end of this post.
One of solutions or tools you can use to help your animal with upset stomach are probiotics. Probiotics are healthy, beneficial bacteria that are part of a complex ecosystem that resides in our pet’s gut. In this ecosystem, a lack of good bacteria can result in poor digestion and nutrient absorption, which can result in a spider-web of other symptoms such as skin and coat issues, bad breath, or persistent, loose stool. This complex ecosystem of bacteria can be thrown off by balance by a variety of factors, including your pet’s genes, environmental factors, or medicines like antibiotics. Some dogs or cats with IBS or IBD (irritable bowl syndrome or irritable bowel disease) need an extra boost of these beneficial bacteria to help stabilize them during certain periods when they’re showing symptoms.
Read moreLet’s Do Some Cat Wrangling! Our Review of GPS Pet Trackers for Cats
This post is definitely a work-in-progress, kind of like our efforts to keep tabs on Fax, our eight-year old, 20-pound tabby cat who fancies himself king of the neighborhood. Fax has been known to walk in our neighbors’ garages, backyards, and cars so we thought it would be good to see more of what he was up to – enter the GPS pet tracker!
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