What to add to our minces

How to be sure you are providing everything your dog needs.

Providing all the nutrition your dog needs is simpler than it seems. Our Nutrition Consultant has studied and worked in canine nutrition for 20 years and has put this guide together to give you peace of mind that you are providing everything your dog needs.

In order to provide everything your dog needs you would feed:

• A variety of The Farmer’s Dog proteins throughout the week (2 or 3 days of one in a row is ok). This can be fed as minces or raw meaty bones. We like one daily meal of mince and one of a raw meaty bone.
• An egg once or twice a week – no need to alter the food amount, simply add the raw egg on top (cooked is OK too; your dog will like it either way!).
• Wheatgrass powder of about ½ teaspoon a day for little dogs-up to 5kg, 1 teaspoon for medium 6-12kg sized and 1-2 for larger sized dogs 13kg+ .
• Occasionally you can swap the egg for a stem of tenderstem broccoli – lightly cooked. Again, do not change the amount of meat, just add this on top. If your dog cannot have eggs, broccoli is a great alternative.

Fish
You may also want to add oily fish to the menu a few times a week. This can be in the form of sardines or mackerel, tinned in spring water. No other type is suitable, it must be in spring water. You can also choose to offer defrosted sprats instead of the tinned fish.
A couple of tins a week is enough for an adult medium sized dog; feed less for a smaller dog and up to 3 tins a week for a larger dog. There is no rule if you feed sensibly, and this is enough for a maintenance amount of Omega 3 nutrition.  You would double the amount for a growing puppy, or a dog very much in need of extra Omega 3.

Bone Broth
Supporting the health of their digestive system and their joints, Bone Broth is a terrifically tempting, wonderfully nourishing, superfood for all dogs, particularly for any who are a little bit fussy. No dosage, just feed it sensibly. A couple of ice cubes a day for a medium size dog is average.

Is that all?
Anything else given to your dog is then fun to feed, rather than being needed.

Berries, for instance, are fun and are great treats.  Blueberries, strawberries and raspberries are popular.  Other vegetables can be the same but always avoid starchy vegetables where possible. Absolutely no grain, legumes or rice are needed for nutritional balance. These could also hinder the absorption of nutrients in the meat and bone, as will adding processed kibble too.

Meat with a raw bone and offal content has 95% of what a dog needs alone.

By feeding a variety of our proteins you will ensure offal is included three times a week.

Deficiencies arise easily from the feeding of processed food as the nutrient content is lower and the word ‘complete’ is not actually nutritionally complete, more of a way for processed pet food companies to use the word ‘complete’ as a marketing term.

With pivotal nutrients missing from the guidelines for using the term ‘complete’ such as (but not only), Omega 3, fully bio-available Calcium, trace minerals such as Cobalt and Chromium, Vitamin C plus nutritional elements dogs use every day such as Glutathione or Glucosamine & Chondroitin, your dog is effectively missing out on quite a bit without a diet of fresh, wholefoods. The need for the use of many common supplements reduces when the nutrients are in the food as nature intended.

Sometimes a deficiency may be related to a health condition or genetic predisposition, we recommend you work with a Canine Nutritionist if your dog is in need of a specific diet formulation.

The bottom line is that raw feeding is an easy way to provide everything your dog needs, so do enjoy feeding it.

Our team are always here to answer any of your questions.
Contact our support for a chat with our Nutrition Consultant.