Archive for the ‘Raw Dog Food’ Category

In general, the proper ratio of veggies to meat, bones and organs should be approximately 5:1 (meat to veggies).  Now that its YOUR choice you can play with that ratio to find what works best for your individual dog BUT using the 5:1 ratio as a starting point is easy and perfect.

This means that for every 5 parts of meat, bones and organs, you are adding 1 part veggies.  Its not rocket science by a long shot and getting somewhere in that general neighborhood is fine.  Most importantly -don’t stress about it!  Most of the time its sufficient to estimate and throw in a spoonful (what size spoonful depends on the amount you are feeding of course) straight from the container.

In general we recommend dividing your order in the following manner with the following combinations:

• 50# boxes combined with 12# Veggies
• 40# of meat (20 two pound containers) with 8# of Veggies
• 20# of meat (10 two pound containers) with 4# of Veggies
• 10# of meat (5 two pound containers) with 2# of Veggies

These combinations will give you approximately a 4:1 – 5:1 ratio of meat to veggies for your dog’s meals.  We recommend simply thawing out a one pound container of veggies and keeping it on hand in the fridge for easy mixing.  The veggies will last up to a week in the fridge and for most people it won’t even be as long as that before you are through them.  For smaller dogs, partially thaw your veggies as you would your two pound containers of food and keep half out and ready to use while you put the other half back in the fridge.  It won’t hurt the veggies and gives you a more manageable amount to work with.

Some people add veggies to their dog’s tripe.  We don’t find it necessary being that tripe is just about the most complete food that you can give and adding veggies is overkill BUT it won’t hurt to add them and some dogs may eat their veggies better when they are mixed with something as irresistible as tripe.  If you choose to not add veggies to tripe but tripe is part of your order, reduce the number of veggies ordered proportionally and you will still have the right amount of veggies for the amount of meat you have.

In order to make things a little easier for all of our customers we have developed several packages for ease of ordering.  Check out our raw packages page to see if any of these meet your dog’s needs!   If none of these packages are exactly what you are looking for than please give us a call and we will be more than happy to walk you through your order and figure out what is going to work best for you.

Though it may seem daunting to some customers, adding your own veggies is actually one of the best things you can do for your dog.  YOU decide what works best because YOU know your dog the best.  We supply the building blocks and you construct the perfect natural diet to ensure your pet’s optimal health!

A Place For Paws has always operated under the thought that your pet DOES derive beneficial nutrition from raw veggies.  Dogs are opportunistic carnivores and scavengers and often can pick up needed nutrients from a thoughtful veggie mix.

In the past, APFP has offered two different veggie mixes as a supplement to your pet’s diet.  Its now time for a little change!  We decided to make things more basic, more simple, more to the point.  To that end we are blending our two

Nom Nom Nom!

mixes into one succinct product that will address all of your veggie needs!

A brief rundown of the new ingredient list as well as the main benefits of each veggie will make it as clear to you as it is to us that this is THE best veggie mix you can hope for!

Zucchini is a low glycemic veggie that is high in vitamin A as well as vitamin C which acts as an anti-oxidant as well as is touted for its anti-inflammatory properties – great for the joints!

Yellow squash is another vitamin rich veggie (Vitamin A, C and magnesium to name a few) that not only has been shown to help prevent cancer but also to have beneficial effects in heart, bone and eye health

Cabbage seems like such a low cost simple thing…but did you know that it is FULL of vitamin C for superior immune system health as well as vitamin E which contributes to skin, hair and eye health?

Carrots are above all sweet and a favorite of many pets.  In addition they are full of B vitamins, vitamin K and potassium making them helpful in preventing cancer and exceptionally good for heart and, of course, eye health

Spinach is a wonder veggie – anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties as well as bone and eye health from the plethora of vitamins it contains

Celery contains all sorts of nutrients – vitamin C, potassium, folic acid and calcium to name a few.  Did you know that it also is great for urinary tract health, relieving allergy symptoms and aiding in digestion?

Kale is a hidden treasure.  Full of vitamins A, K and C, kale also has anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties.  It is also integral to helping the body in detoxification.

Parsley is high in vitamin K which bodes well for your pet’s bone and joint health.  It also helps to keep a heart healthy and what can be more important than that?!

In addition to these veggies, our raw “salad” includes olive oil which contains essential fatty acids for beautiful skin and coat and is chock full of vitamins like K, A, D and E.  We also add apple cider vinegar which, in addition to being full of potassium in an easy to absorb form, it further aids in digestion and helps inhibit the growth of unfriendly bacterias.

There you have it – the new and improved Basic Veggies!  Streamlined to be one of the most nutrient packed vitamin rich veggie mixes that you can buy.  Why do the work yourself?  Time consuming and messy to boot!  Supplement your pet’s diet with wholesome pureed ready to eat veggies!

Probably the calls we get most at A Place For Paws are in reference to Raw Green Beef Tripe and Raw Green Lamb Tripe.  Why is everyone so interested?  Likely because more than anything else, tripe is THE best food for your dog!

Lamb tripe can make a nice alternative to beef tripe and is especially great for dogs with beef allergies that include beef tripe

If you could feed absolutely nothing else, the best choice you could make would be an exclusive diet of tripe.  Its pretty near complete, great for iffy digestive systems, a low allergen (in fact, some dogs who can’t tolerate beef muscle meat CAN eat beef tripe without issue), great for sensitive pups and full of digestive enzymes and probiotics.  Its tasty enough so that even the most picky of dogs gobble it up.

How about dog who just won’t eat?  Tripe often does the trick.  Sometimes dogs are just picky – like a lot of people are!  While you don’t want to cater to them giving them all sorts of weird and strange concoctions and five different things at every meal, how about finding something perfectly healthy for them that they actually will like?   Often this lack of appetite is true of a dog who has an illness.  Just like people, the appetite is often the first thing to go – dog doesn’t eat, dog gets weak, dog can’t fight off whatever the sickness might be.  Dogs with terminal illnesses have actually lived far longer than expected because they retained the ability to eat and stay strong.  Tripe can often be the answer you’ve been looking for.  It incorporates something your ailing dog will eat along with something that is actually good for him – better than good.

While tripe in THIS form looks a bit scary, the ground easy to feed tripe from A Place For Paws should cause no fears if you decide to feed it to your lucky dog

Yes tripe smells sort of…iffy.  Sort of a barnyard smell reminiscent of drives in the country….Okay, well maybe that’s putting a little bit too much “poetry” to the smell BUT its honestly NOT THAT BAD!  Since dogs tend to gobble it up as quickly as you put it down it only last for a few seconds anyway!  Rest assured – you’ll get used to it.

Tripe is also a great thing to wean puppies to when they are starting to venture away from mom’s milk.  Watered down tripe is gentle enough for young pups (as young as 3-4 weeks even!) and no worries, any mess left behind on the ground or on the puppies will be cleaned up by mom with GUSTO!  Less work for you, good nutrition for your new babies.

The way that some people talk about tripe gives the impression that it has some sort of magical qualities.  While we can’t confirm that there is any “magic” involved, its about as close to natural perfection as you can get.  Using tripe as the basis for your dog’s diet is smart, savvy and what is BEST for your dog.  Don’t let it scare you either by virtue of what it is or because of how it smells.  If its what is best for your dog, does any of that matter?  Tripe….its what’s for DINNER!