Raw Reasons

Benefits of Raw Feeding
Digestibility
Lifespan and Health
What’s Wrong with Heat Processing?
Why Dry is Dreadful
They want to feed your dog what?
Are studies necessary?

Whether you’re chatting in the vet’s waiting room, talking at the dog park or researching online, you know that something terrible is happening to the health of dogs:

Life-spans are shortening,
Allergies are proliferating,
Degenerative diseases are striking at younger and younger ages,
Obesity is burgeoning,
Vet bills are skyrocketing.

Commercials and advertisements bombard us with images of fresh ingredients and happy healthy dogs, but the reality is far different. Processed dry kibble, cooked, canned, freeze dried or dehydrated dog food can never deliver the nutrition that our dogs need to live the vibrant, active and happy lives they deserve.

Benefits of Raw Feeding

The changes that take place when a dog is transitioned to a raw dog food diet are nothing short of amazing.

As any raw feeder would attest, the changes in their animals are a transformation.

Healthy, soft, lustrous coat
Radiant health
Normalization of weight
Cleaner teeth, no bad breath
Less body odor
Increased energy, focus and happiness

And often just as exciting are the symptoms that seem to disappear:

Irritable bowel
Allergies
Food intolerances
Overweight or underweight issues
Skin conditions
Diabetes
Degenerative disease

Digestibility

Raw food has the highest digestibility of any diet available. This is only one reason why dogs with irritable bowel symptoms find immediate relief in a natural raw diet.

Many dry dog foods claim high digestibility. Pulverizing, heating, pressurizing, hydrolyzing and grinding allows poor quality ingredients to be digestible – on their own they would come out the same way they came in. This is simply marketing propaganda. Apparent claims of digestibility out shadow the fact that these are poor quality foods.

Raw food is truly the easiest dog food to digest, it can be utilized to a much greater degree, and results in significantly less backyard clean up – that’s digestibility in a nutshell.

When naturally occurring enzymes are inactivated by heat processing, your dog’s pancreas must now carry the burden to produce more enzymes to digest the protein, fats, and extremely high levels of carbohydrates present in dry foods.

This effectively stresses the pancreas. Years of bombardment decreases the pancreas’ ability to perform. This coupled with constant insulin spikes caused by carbohydrate laden foods opens the gates for irritable bowel symptoms, yeast overgrowth, insulin resistance and diabetes.

Lifespan and Health

Placing your dog on a natural diet can only improve their health. After all, we can only be as healthy as what we put into our body.

It comes as no surprise that some of the oldest dogs on record were fed unprocessed raw diets, as in the case of a 27 year old bull terrier mix in Australia by the name of Jerry.

It is unfortunate that some people inaccurately cite that wild wolves do not live as long as domestic dogs due to their diet. In reality, when taken out of the harsh environment that is the greatest threat to their life span, wolves in captivity often live up to the ripe age of 20 eating a raw diet.

Many people who thought their dogs looked healthy before switching to raw became astonished by the improvements that followed. We hear stories all the time of raw feeders who often get stopped at dog parks or receive compliments on just how healthy their pets look – this is how rare of a commodity radiant health is these days.

Many people that switch their dog to a raw diet regret not doing it sooner. Likewise many seek raw food as a last resort to improve conditions that could have been prevented in the first place. The once normal flare ups of skin issues, digestive upsets, dry coats, weight problems and other chronic irritations no longer occur. Many report that outside of normal check-ups, they rarely have a need to visit the vet, except to show off their healthy pet!

When you decide to incorporate raw food into your dog’s diet, know that you are on the right track.

What to expect? West Coast raw dog food comes in convenient ¼ lb patties. Just break on the score line.

They are nutritionally balanced with the correct ratios of finely ground meat, bones and organs. Some varieties also include carefully selected, easy to digest, ground veggies and fruit in addition to the MBO (meat, bone, organs).

And of course, raw food is appropriate for all breeds and life stages, for happy, healthy dogs.

What’s Wrong with Heat Processing?

While the methods vary, the common enemy in almost every kind of mass produced commercial dog food is heat. The digestive systems of dogs were not designed to eat heat processed foods. Unfortunately, the further we force them from their natural diet, the more problems can crop up in their health.

The effects of heat processing include:

Denatured Proteins –

Where proteins become damaged as the chains between amino acids are broken and destroyed. These “unnatural” proteins are foreign to the dog’s physiology and it reacts, manifesting this backlash in the form of allergy symptoms that can range from irritable bowel or loose stools to skin issues to ear infections.

Enzyme Inactivation –

Enzymes naturally present in raw food are destroyed, creating a difficult to digest product, placing a high burden on the pancreas to produce enzymes to digest and break down protein, fats and carbohydrates.

Destruction of Vitamins –

Naturally occurring vitamins are destroyed. To replace these nutrients poor quality synthetic vitamins are added, only replacing some with bear minimums required for survival. Any beneficial bacteria or probiotics are also destroyed.

Production of Harmful Compounds –

Well known carcinogens known as nitrosamines may form as by-products of heat processing.

Fat Rancidity –

Heat accelerates the reaction between oxygen and fats, producing rancidity in fats and oils.

Why Dry is Dreadful

Try this. If you have some kibble sitting around (it’s okay, we forgive you!), measure a cup into a bowl and add a cup of water. Let it soak for an hour. Now measure it again. Is it more than a cup? Of course.

Imagine your dog eating his fill of dry kibble and then going to lay down. The kibble is “thirsty” and begins absorbing liquid. Where does that liquid come from? He either drinks thirstily from his water bowl, diluting his digestive juices that are already struggling to break down this foreign material. Or the liquid is drawn from the body, stressing the vital organs, including the kidneys, that must work harder to function.

What’s the result?

Digestion is further inhibited,
Vital organs are stressed,
Your dog is uncomfortable from the swollen food.

Carnivores are designed to obtain the majority of their water intake from prey animals in the form of raw food. Raw food contains up to 80% naturally occurring moisture, providing a natural source of water pets require. Additionally, the naturally occurring moisture in raw food is also loaded with vitamins and minerals. Rest assured that when it comes to West Coast Raw dog food we take nothing out and add no moisture in.

They want to feed your dog what?

The high levels of processing used are not the only problem with mass produced commercial dog foods.

The grocery store brands and many foods available at big box or pet stores are completely unnatural to carnivorous animals, such as our dogs.

These foods are loaded with inferior protein sources, including by-products, incomplete vegetables proteins, and empty carbohydrates. Many contain artificial additives and dangerous petroleum based preservatives while lacking any human grade ingredients.

Throughout the decades, processed foods claimed to be 100% complete and balanced because of the nutrients added but have created imbalances and nutrient deficient animals. If a pet needs vitamins, minerals and supplements added to it to make it balanced after processing, then the animal should not be eating it in the first place. The parts of the whole cannot possibly be made up with the addition of synthetic nutrients as the original value the food possessed prior to processing can never be regained.

Your dog is a carnivore, not an herbivore or even an omnivore.

Compare her teeth to your own or to those of a bear or cow. You might want to use a mirror for yourself and photos for the bear and cow. Your dog’s teeth are designed for tearing, not grinding. Compare your dog’s digestive tract to yours, the cow’s or the bear’s. Use diagrams. Photos and mirrors won’t work.

Your dog’s stomach is simple, with an undeveloped caecum She has a relatively short fore-gut and a short, smooth, emasculated colon. This means food passes through quickly.

Grains, seeds and most plant matter need time to sit and ferment. That’s why you, the bear and the cow have longer, maculated colons, larger and longer small intestines, and occasionally the presence of a caecum. Dogs have none of these, but have the shorter foregut and hindgut consistent with carnivorous animals.

This explains why grains, seeds and most plant matter comes out the same way it came in; there was no time for it to be broken down and digested (among other things). People know this; this is why they tell you that vegetables and grains have to be preprocessed for your dog to get anything out of them. But even then, feeding vegetables and grains to a carnivorous animal is a questionable practice.

Dogs do not normally produce the necessary enzymes in their saliva (amylase, for example) to start the break-down of carbohydrates and starches; amylase in saliva is something omnivorous and herbivorous animals possess, but not carnivorous animals.

This places the burden entirely on the pancreas, forcing it to produce large amounts of amylase to deal with the starch, cellulose, and carbohydrates in plant matter.

Thus, feeding dogs as though they were omnivores taxes the pancreas and places extra strain on it, as it must work harder for the dog to digest the starchy, carbohydrate-filled food instead of just producing normal amounts of the enzymes needed to digest proteins and fats (which, when fed raw, begin to “self-digest” when the cells are crushed through chewing and tearing and their enzymes are released).

Dogs ARE very adaptable, but just because they can survive on an omnivorous diet does not mean it is the best diet for them. Why give them food that provides little value to them and is hard for them to process? Is it any wonder why dogs forced to eat such a diet over time develop a host of health issues, become sluggish and lethargic and can’t enjoy the life they deserve.

Are studies necessary?

Veterinarians such as Dr. Ian Billinghurst and Dr. Karen Becker have a host of information on raw food diets and canine nutrition and are highly recommended as information sources.

When you consider the facts about the anatomy and dietary needs of dogs, and how they have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to eat, are studies really necessary?

Isn’t it obvious?

Your dog deserves its best chance at a long healthy and vibrant life.

That’s what West Coast Raw dog food is here for.

Carefully selected premium all-natural ingredients

We blend carefully selected, premium, all-natural, human-grade ingredients in small batches to ensure even and optimum nutrition in every raw food meal you serve your dog.

Free shipping throughout the Metro Vancouver region and into the Fraser Valley: Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Richmond, Delta, White Rock, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford and Maple Ridge.

If you live in the British Columbia Canada area, order our quality blends online today!

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