Frequently Asked Questions about RAW feeding

1. How much should I feed my dog?

As a rough guideline, you should aim to feed your adult dog between 2 - 3 % of their body weight in raw food per day. Ideally, this should be split between two meals; breakfast and dinner. If you have a puppy, this will be slightly different according to their age, but typically you can expect to feed between 5-10% of their weight per day, but it will need to be split between 3 to 4 meals per day ideally. 

We can develop a pet menu for you with info about how much you should ideally feed your dog (or cat), just email us with info about your pet's weight, age and any known health issues.  

2. How should I store and defrost the product?

All our foods are frozen, and should be kept frozen until you are ready to use.
For Best Before date, please see the label or side of the pack.

To defrost the product, we suggest leaving somewhere cool (not warm) overnight.  If you forget to take food out to defrost, you may place a tub or chubb into a sink of warm water.

If the food is still partially frozen at feeding time, add some warm water from a kettle and allow to sit for five minutes.

Use within 2-3 days of defrosting.

3. What's the best way to feed from the large chubbs?

The easiest way to serve our products from the 1.4kg chubb is to either:
 a) Defrost the entire chubb, snip one end and dispense into a container with a lid
b) Skin the chubb whilst still frozen and defrost in a container with a lid.

Due to the minimal packaging, we provide our product in the chubbs in order to reduce costs, reflected in our prices.

4. What else is in the food, besides meat?

In the Nutriment products, there are several sources of proteins from fresh meats, seeds and plants to give a wider range of amino acids and nutrients. Over-consuming any single protein is not good and poses a risk of developing an allergy over time. If your pet has been eating the same food every day for months or years, there's a good chance he or she has developed an allergy to it. The protein structure in raw meat is different from that in a cooked or processed dog/cat food, so in some cases, dogs and cats with known allergies to these may find that they are fine on a raw diet.

Contrary to what you've probably been led to believe, dogs and cats need diversity in their diets just like humans do.

5. Tripe smells! Why would I feed it to my dog?

This is the stomach of a cow, which consists of four chambers - the rumen, reticulum, omasum and the abomasum.  The food the animal eats (i.e. grass, hay) is swallowed un-chewed and passes into the rumen and reticulum where it is then regurgitated, chewed and mixed with saliva.  It is then swallowed again, and passed through the reticulum and omasum in to the abomasum, where it is then further broken down by the gastric juices, amino acids and other digestive enzymes.  These gastric juices and enzymes not only aid the animal in digestion, but also can aid your dog in digesting and efficiently utilizing his or her food.  The amino acids are necessary for muscular development and the other gastric juices can assist in keeping teeth clean.  Green tripe also contains Lactic Acid Bacteria, known as Lactobacillus Acidophilus, which is the main ingredient in probiotics.  It is also low in phosphorus (0.13%) making it ideal for dogs with liver and kidney problems.

6. Isn't the bacteria in raw meat dangerous to dogs?

Healthy cats and dogs have natural defenses to bacteria in raw food.  We have all seen what they will put in their mouths or lick.  The salivary glands in cats and dogs contain the enzymes lysozyme and peroxidase, lactoferrin, defensins, cystian and an antibody, lgA, which are all antibacterial.   In the stomach the pH balance drops to 1 and 2.  That’s equal to the pH balance of Hydrochloric acid.  The strong stomach acid is not only there to digest raw meat and bone, it helps kill off unwanted bad bacteria.  This is only part of the body's defenses.  This is not to say that dog and cats can not get sick form bacterias like salmonella - they are just better at defending the body from them.

All our food products are tested for salmonella and other bacteria to the full extent required by law, and we only ever use fresh meat and other ingredients fit for human consumption.