If you’ve ever had a mysterious or ongoing health issue with your pet, you’ll know just how frustrating it can be to try and get to the bottom of the problem. With pet dogs now viewed as family members within the typical Australian household, we wanted to dedicate an entire episode to pet health! And who better to speak to than animal naturopath, Ruth Hatten. In this podcast, you’re going to learn about all the foods that can dramatically improve your pet’s health, particularly if you have a dog in the family. 

Jo’s 18-month-old chocolate Labrador Molly has had ongoing issues with terrible, itchy skin. After countless trips to the vet, costly steroid creams, antibiotics and advice on which pet foods to buy, this dog just couldn’t stop itching. Jo has always fed her quite a wholefood diet, with everything cooked or slow-cooked, and plenty of grains on offer. After our chat with Ruth, Jo has implemented quite a few changes and noticed some pretty impressive differences in Molly’s skin problem.

Just how does a lawyer transition into an animal naturopath?

Believe it or not, Ruth is a lawyer of 14 years but first and foremost she is an animal lover at heart. For this reason, she transitioned from construction law to animal law, assisting groups in protecting the rights of voiceless animals. Her role mostly advocated for legislative changes, particularly around improving conditions for factory farming, along with the commercial kangaroo industry. She also had a strong legal focus on educating the public about the truth of these industries.

Any small change that can be made in helping the animals that were directly responsible for, such as our pet dogs and cats, is a driving force behind Ruth’s career.

Around four years ago, she had a burning desire to formulate a profession, where she could spend her time with animals instead of Supreme Court Judges! One thing was for sure, she wanted to have direct interaction with animals and of course help them in some way, but also sought to combine her passion for all things health and nutrition.

With ideas buzzing around in her head, and lots of input from those close to her, she decided animal naturopathy was the path she would follow. Four years later, Ruth is on the edge of completing her Small Animal Naturopathy Diploma. Ruth continues to add modalities to her repertoire and now proudly practices in animal massage therapy, nutrition, and herbal medicine.

Dry dog food is like McDonald’s for pets!

This is not exactly a topic that too many people are familiar with, or think twice about. You simply buy dog food in cans or packets (that you’ve likely seen on cute TV ads), and your pet’s tail will always wag at their full bowl of food regardless. However, Ruth has a different take on the importance of feeding your animals with nutritious foods rather than commercially purchased food. But why?

The pet food industry is very powerful (and very rich!) which means lots of money for clever marketing campaigns. Campaigns you’ve likely fallen for, in your genuine quest to provide your doted pet with nothing but the best. Both supermarkets and vet practices have their fingers on the pulse when it comes to telling us what we should be feeding our pets.

Those behind clever campaigns play on the fact that we all lead pretty fast-paced lifestyles, and the average person doesn’t have the time or energy to question these industries, on whether their pet foods are actually beneficial for their pet’s health.

Dried dog food, or kibble, are products based on natural ingredients such as meats and grains. So that’s good, right? Well, there’s a lot of heat and processing going on, that greatly reduces the nutritional value of the food, to then compress that original ingredient into a tiny biscuit. So the answer is no!

Furthermore, the pet food companies then attempt to add back in what they have lost through that process, by supplementing with synthetic vitamins and minerals. It then becomes very hard for the body to digest that food, and absorb whatever nutrients are left.

Just think what would happen to the human body, if we ate McDonald’s for breakfast and dinner every single day! This is essentially what we are feeding our pets.

Eating as close to nature also applies to animals

While humans can eat just about anything, we must ask what is appropriate for species-specific animals, such as our dogs and cats. Jo thought she was doing an incredible job in saving all her veggie scraps, particularly organic, then adding chicken, meat or fish, lentils, oats or rice, before throwing into the slow cooker.

Regardless of these efforts, she still couldn’t find a way to reduce her dog’s itching and the terrible rash. The vet thought Jo was absolutely mad by giving her dog all this fancy food and not the usual dog kibble!

Raw is best

It wasn’t until we got Ruth on the airwaves, that she reminded Jo that dogs can’t go and get a slow cooker and cook their own food! Jo has now had her choc lab on a raw food diet, for the past 2.5 weeks and guess what? Her rash has almost completely vanished! While this has been a simple switch, the results have been miraculous.

While Jo didn’t know it, feeding dogs a cooked diet only creates disease and increases aging. When Ruth works with her clients, she focuses on prolonging their pet’s lives and allowing them to pass away from old age, not from disease.

  1. It’s more species appropriate for your dog to eat raw.
  2. There’s a much higher nutrient level in raw food than when you cook it, therefore the body can function better.

What about dog bones?

When introducing bones for the first time to dogs (or cats for that matter), always supervise them

There are two types of bones:

 1.Weight bearing bones (the big ones)

A cow is very heavy, with a lot of weight being carried by those legs, therefore the effect of that, is that the bones get weaker over time, meaning there’s a lesser nutrient value within the bone.

If your dog suffers from separation anxiety or gets bored easily, causing destruction, then these bones are being chewed for a long period of time. This is a great reason why you should choose big weight bearing bones for your dog.

2. Non-weight bearing bones

These bones give all-round better nutrition and are preferable. They are also less likely to splinter because they’re much stronger. Uncooked chicken frames, for example, are good, because they won’t splinter in their uncooked state.

And offal?

Liver and kidneys are readily available in the supermarket, are very cost effective and great for getting started on your offal journey.  It’s so important, however, to feed only organic from liver and kidneys, because these are the body’s elimination organs. Intensively farmed animals have a much higher toxic load, than organically raised animals, traces of which ends up in this offal in particular.

Offal is much needed in an animal’s diet, although home food-prep can put some people off (especially if you’re vegan). One option is to have your butcher cut everything up for you, or he may even be able to place an order of offal for you.

What about cats?

Cats are very different from dogs and are quite often left out when it comes to nutrition. Cats, in general, are a lot more finicky and are actually obligate carnivores, whereas dogs are scavenging carnivores, surviving on the food that’s available around them. This means cats have to have protein and again raw meat is best.  Hearts are one of the best sources of taurine, which is an amino acid that is absolutely vital for cats.

They do need some roughage in their diet though, as a sole meat diet will likely create a constipated cat, given the lack of fibre in meat.  Wheatgrass, fresh cat grass, barley grass or catnip is perfect for nibbling on.

If you have an adult cat that’s never eaten bones before, you might be up for a challenge. They don’t seem to even identify it as food, and generally, pass it off as too much work trying to figure it all out! However, if you have a young kitten or cat, start them on bones and they will enjoy them for their whole life, meaning amazing dental health.

Interestingly, most cats are actually lactose intolerant! If you do want to feed them something creamy you’re better off trying coconut yoghurt (great source of probiotics for gut health) and coconut milk. Your focus should be on their main meals first, over treats, as main meals contain the most nutrients.

Nature intends to have dogs and cats around for a long time, so by drastically improving their diet and feeding predominately raw, you’re doing everything you can to help your pet lead a long and happy life, free from disease. If you want to learn more about how to help transition your pet to a new diet then we recommend checking out 7 tips for transitioning your pet to a new diet by Ruth Hatten.

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