Written by: David Lewis
Thank you for all of your hard work.
Two years ago, my girlfriend’s dog used to be quite lame – he’s a Rottweiler/Mastiff/and probably several other breeds rolled into one. Anyway, for most of his life, he ate the standard dog chow from the grocery store. You know the kind – the pellets of wheat, corn, and whatever else gets thrown away as garbage from factories.
When I met her, he was on his last legs. She said “he’s just getting old” – which was true. He was 11 then. Apparently, the average lifespan on these dogs is something like 12.
Merry Christmas!
I had heard that these big dogs always have hip problems, but I wondered if he couldn’t be helped with a better diet. I basically took everything I learned from you, did some quick research on dog diets, and also found a documentary on the Inuit. Guess what they feed their dogs? Meat scraps – sometimes even stuff that’s not really fit for humans (i.e. meat that’s starting to “turn,” etc.). The dogs in the film seemed to love it. Huh.
So, I ponied up the dough, “adopted” the dog, and started feeding Moose (that’s his nickname – “Maximus” is his business name) meat, marrow bones, and some organ meats. He also gets a few fish pills for his old hips. It seems to help with the swelling and mobility. Anyway, within a month of changing his diet, his energy levels were that of a younger dog, his teeth were visibly cleaner, his poop was smaller and not as smelly, and his coat was shinier. He also stopped “smelling like dog” if that makes any sense. My girlfriend was amazed to say the least. So was I.
He’s now 13 and, while he could probably use a bit more exercise, he seems to be quite healthy and happy for a dog his age. He does limp a bit when he walks (it’s his hips, they’re getting bad in his old age), but somehow manages to gallop for short distances when he’s feeling chipper (usually when it’s food time).
Thanks so much for everything you do. You helped save my dog’s life.
eating an evolutionarily-appropriate diet is best for everyone! when i took my dog off Iams, i decided that since other people would be taking care of him from time to time, a raw diet would be too difficult, and i simply bought him a grain-free dry food. even this imperfect item improved his health tremendously. he used to suffer from impacted anal glands, but not anymore! he’s almost 14, white German spitz, so he’s getting up there in age too…
Good job, David! Animals want to eat real food. We need to listen.
Yeah, and my cats are better for it. I did not figure out to do my cats “paleo” until a few years after I started it, but one of my cats, who was male and three years old already, gained a few pounds of muscle and got bigger after changing his diet from nasty dry kibble to good wet raw and canned food. And the cats quit needing to drink water (dehydrated from the dry kibble diet), yet used the litter box more and left bigger litter clumps.
Thank goodness for people like these:
Dr. Pieson: http://www.catinfo.org
D.r Becker: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/dr-karen-becker.aspx
Dr. Falconer: http://vitalanimal.com/about-dr-falconer/
What a lucky dog to have you as a caretaker, David! I was mostly vegetarian when I had my dog and fed her the processed kibble. It makes perfect sense that if feeding myself what humans evolved to eat improved my health, then feeding pets what they evolved to eat woud improve theirs. My next dog will be eating meat, organs and bones. My main concern is how to keep it affordable as I like big dogs and they eat a lot. Thanks for sharing!
I had a dog who developed severe neuromuscular problems. She got to the point where she could barely walk, she peed in her sleep, had difficulty swallowing and stopped barking. I did not go all the way to Paleo, but I did get rid of all the grains and what a difference. She bounced back and was a happy barking, running terrier again.
We feed our dog and cat biologically appropriate food. We do still use a purchased dry food part of the time, but I make sure it is grain-free.
It may be more expensive to feed them this way, but it is far cheaper than getting big vets bills down the line.
Our kelpie stopped being able to jump into the back the car for about a year. Any jumping made him wince with pain. The vet recommended a lifelong series of expensive anti-arthritic drugs to treat him. We declined the pharmaceutical path. Instead we simply changed his diet from his usual commercial grain based dry food to sardines, chicken necks, the odd bone and supplement this with grain-free dry food. Within a month he was back to normal. For a 10 year old dog he is completely pain free and jumps around like a puppy.
If this is what a dietary change can do to a dog imagine the relief from inflammation a change in diet can do for humans.
what a great story. moose is a very lucky boy. i’d say, for a mastiff/rottie, he is probably getting enough exercise. but the gallop toward the food bowl must be something to see. btw, that christmas photo is precious.
We have two beautiful golden retrievers who are 10 and almost 8. When I switched to a primal/ancestral diet about 18 months ago for myself I felt I could no longer expect my amazing dogs to suffer the same fate that I knew a diet including grain would hold for me. Funnily enough I found a great book for animals at the same time which laid it all out very easily, including transitioning from old food to raw food, what to feed a puppy and even how to feed a cat. My goldies now have a range of fruit and vegetables everyday which are quickly whizzed up in the food processor to resemble “jungle droppings” and have either raw chicken, lamb, kangaroo (being aware of the types of animals primitive dogs would have likely taken down in a pack situation) including offal, raw bone and eggs. We buy all the meat in 10kg packs and rebag it all into a single serving for each of them for each day of the week. Generally this means we have about a 30 day supply in the freezer at the beginning of each month. to say that “bagging hour” is popular with our goldies is a complete understatement. My husband generally gets them a “treat” which is often some pork ribs but this is really just to distract them long enough for us to finish. They are both so incredibly vibrant and they still love to wrestle for rounds and rounds with each other. Their teeth are fantastic, our younger goldy no longer has itchy skin which was previously treated with nasty creams and shampoos. We are constantly stopped in the street and told how “young” they both look but most of all feeding them a primal diet means I will have these stunning creatures in my life for a lot longer and so a little bit of extra organising and preparing in bulk rather than scooping out kibble from a massive bag is totally worth the effort.
Can you give a typical recipe, I am guessing you are in Australia.Kangaroo is 13.00 a lb. here in the US so I can’t afford that for the dogs.
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We’ve been feeding our 11 y.o. white shepherd mix raw meat and bones since she was two. It was the best thing we ever did for her! Her teeth have never needed a cleaning and people are amazed that she is as old as she is – they think she is a much younger dog because of the way she acts. Much smaller poop is also a benefit.
We’ve had dogs for 37 years now and have never fed them dried food. My first two guide dogs, both labradors, lived to the age of 15, and my third guide dog, a labrador/golden retriever has just retired this summer at the age of 12 and still in good health. My new guide dog, also a labrador/golden retriever has been fed dried food all her life, but as soon as she moved in with us, we switched her to canned meat without grains over the course of six days, and she’s slimmed down and has started enjoying her food. We also give our three dogs marrow bones and calf’s feet which they love. I get really angry about dried dog food that’s full of inappropriate grains and make my views known whenever I get the chance.
I have hunting Labradors I hunt ducks and dove as many times as possible during the season I would assume we hut about 60 to 70 times a year… (dove and duck are great paleo foods as well 🙂 ) Dude my White lab (aka Dudley Labrador) began having skin issues and licking her back foot we went through several rounds of steroid shots only for the problem to resurface as soon as the shot wore off… It was so bad that I was going to breed her but could not due to the itching and discomfort she was having. I work on a horse ranch and asked the vet what could be causing this and he immediately said grain allergy… “dogs are supposed to eat meat not plants” I switched her to a pure protein food and she is at the top of her game and no more itching.!!!