JeddyBears Tugs & Toys Dog Coats

Hello! During Winter, Diego would have free reign of the house and backyard but my house could lose heat very quickly. Diego sleeps overnight under the covers in my bed, so during the day I was worried that he might be getting cold. I had a couple of worries for dog coats though, I didn't want it to affect his movement at all. I needed it to be close fitting to his body so that he can curl up, run outside, do dog things without the coat impacting his movements or being caught on other things. If he were to get caught, I wanted something that would easily detach so that he isn't caught on something for the full day.

I was laying this out to Mady from TheDustyDingo who suggested her wonderful sister from JeddyBears Tugs & Toys could whip something up custom for Diego and I. All she needed was Diego's measurements and within a fortnight Diego was rocking this awesome new coat, for a deal of a price as well! I won't mention the price in this blog post as I am not 100% sure how she works out costs, and whether or not different fabrics or sizes will make the coat more expensive. All I can say is that these are the most reasonably priced coats I have found, that are made to measure and you have a choice in fabrics!

I got Diego's coat in this awesome tie-dye print which makes Diego look all sorts of flamboyant. I love it. The coat is attached by a large velcro strap under his belly and around his neck. This makes it super easy to get on, and off. Due to it also being made to measure, it sits snuggly along his body and hasn't yet been caught on anything or pee'd on! Big bonuses for that. The fabric is polar fleece, and is either two or three layers (I will get to it soon how I know there are three layers in some). This makes it super warming, but still easy to clean.

Mum loved the look of Diego's so much that she wanted one for Chico as he is always on the lookout for new coats. Once again, the wonderful JeddyBears Tugs & Toys whipped up an amazing coat using Chico's measurements. For Chico's coat they made it with a snood design, instead of velcro around the top making it keep his neck and ears a lot warmer.

Diego's coat has been washed and dried once in the few months he has had it because he is not super dirty. Chico's has been washed a few more times, but both have kept their shape, size and colour as if new. I can't confirm this would be the case forever, but they have definitely lasted well in the few months that we have been using them.

Chico definitely feels the cold more than Diego, and will make it known multiple times if he feels like you are not appreciating that he is cold. Due to this, we know what keeps Chico warm and what doesn't do the trick. Thankfully the JeddyBear Coat passes the Chico test of approval, as he doesn't constantly complain of the cold when he is wearing his coat. Chico loves to destroy things though, and as you can see, decided to chew the coat right off his own back. He has random bursts of energy where he will chomp whatever is closest to him, this could be a blanket, pillow, book, cord or even the coat he is wearing. This hasn't affected how warm the coat is, but it has made it look less presentable.

All in all, I love these coats so much and am tempted to buy more in different prints! For the price, and the fact that she custom makes them, she does an incredible job. I have even had people in the street come up to me to ask where they are from because Diego and Chico look so good in theirs. 10/10 would recommend if you are on the hunt for a dog coat to check her out!

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Clark & Co Shampoo and Perfume

Hey! The great thing about Facebook is the people you can connect with, and the random pages you can join that are filled with people that have the same common interest as you. One of those pages is a Girls in Business page, and that's where I first met the creator behind Clark & Co Petware. She was lovely enough to send me some of her Shampoo & Conditioner as well as some pet perfume to try out. This couldn't have come at a better time as Diego was well overdue for a wash!

I am going to start with the pet perfume because honestly, I can describe the scent better. Also I should probably mention, not only am I terrible at describing scents, I also have a very sensitive nose and therefore hate a lot of scents. If I say I hate it, I guarantee most other people will like it. We were sent the 'Warm Musk' version which is aimed towards male dogs. Their other perfume scent is 'Vanilla Pod' which you guessed it, is aimed at female dogs. Really though, what they are aimed at doesn't really matter and it's a human preference for scent anyway. Here comes me trying to describe the Warm Musk scent... I would say it is like a woody incense smell. It is super strong, and one spritz will go along way!

The perfume can be used in multiple ways, with the common options being straight onto your dogs fur and brushed through, or my preferred option which is spritzing it onto your dogs bedding, coats and areas to make them smell nicer. I prefer Diego's body to be pretty neutral in regards to scent due to me having to sleep with him, and my distaste to most smells. That's why I decided not to spray it directly onto him. However, I sprayed all of his dog bed, blanket (Not that he uses these very often) and coat. I maybe spritzed a couple on his bed, couple on his blanket and one on his coat and that was enough to make our house smell nice for at least a week afterwards. It's been over a fortnight now since I originally spritzed his bedding, but still when I move it or get close you can smell the nice scent. This is such a good thing because dog perfumes I have tried in the past generally wear off within a day, or start to smell strange after a length of time. If I am being honest, this smell actually ages really nicely and smells better the more 'worn in' it is.

Funny story, I took the perfume up to my mums house as there are always complaints about the wet dog smell that Ollie brings into the house. I told her to use it on the bedding, her top sheet that Chico lays on, his coats, pretty much anything the dogs have ever looked at, I told her to spritz. A worker came over to the house to measure some lights up, and I went out to take the dogs for a walk. When I returned, the scent slammed me in the face when I walked through the door. My mother obviously missed the memo I gave her about a little going along way, and COATED EVERYTHING in the perfume. You couldn't smell a thing but a woody incense. The best part, the man had to come back to give her some paperwork and I was certain it looked like she put the scent around to show him her house as more appealing.

Now to the shampoo, we were gifted the Sensitive version of their 2 in 1 formula as I told her about how Chico has flakey skin and I was going to be trialling it on him. I cannot for the life of me tell you what this smells like, but what I definitely know is that I like it. I have a dislike to the smell of most dog shampoos, I find they make me very queazy so to find one that I actually enjoy the scent of is a big deal. Also, the scent while washing, and when on Diego is pretty consistent and doesn't leave too much of a lingering smell that is overwhelming on the dog. This is a big bonus to all us sensitive to smell people! I checked the Clark & Co site and still couldn't find a description of the scent, so you are going to have to just trust my word on this that it isn't bad!

I love this shampoo. It is super easy to use as it's in a reasonably sized bottle, with a pump that is the right sensitivity level that you can press down with ease while holding a dog that wants to leave the shower, but also not too easy to press that when it gets hit over it leaks liquid. You do not need more than a pump to give a good lather which means it lasts a long time too. I have washed Diego twice; and Ollie and Chico once and the bottle looks more than 3/4 full! The most important part is that it cleans them, and I find that it does. We washed all the dogs after a beach trip where both Diego and Chico decided to roll in a goat carcass, which trust me is not a scent you ever want to smell. The shampoo worked a treat and both dogs smelled as good as new! It also left both dogs with glowing, soft coats and Chico had no flakey skin or dandruff.

All in all, I will definitely be purchasing the shampoo again and is something that I would recommend to people looking for a good, local shampoo. The perfume is lovely, but is somewhat of a luxury and not something that I believe everyone needs. The good thing is though, that one bottle would last you a lifetime as you need to use very little to get good payoff. I will continue to use the perfume on Diego's bedding as it works a treat for that, and who knows, maybe once it does run out I will realise how much I need it. The price point that both these products stand at is very reasonable for how many uses you will get, and how effectively they work. I have to admit I don't usually go for a liquid shampoo because of how messy they get, how easily the run out and the plastic element, however this shampoo from Clark & Co removes two of these problems for me.

Let me know your thoughts if you have tried these products!

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Eco-Friendly Ways of Disposing of Dog Waste

Hey! This post came about due to the Plastic-Free July movement, and was originally meant to be written in July but we can see how well that went. Although, it could be a good thing as it keeps eco-friendly and plastic free at the front of our minds. I think disposing of dog waste has to be one of the biggest struggles I have had with retaining a plastic free lifestyle. Dog waste is not something that we really want to spend too long touching or dealing with, so therefore it doesn’t come up in our minds very much either. Let me be honest in saying, that I haven’t really found the perfect answer yet, but have found some options that I don’t absolutely hate. 

Dog waste at the home is the easiest to deal with, comparative to that that occurs on dog walks. There are multiple options, and most of them are not too disgusting or time consuming. 

What I used to do, and what I feel like lots of families do is use one supermarket plastic bag and use it until it is filled up. This does mean that you are still using plastic, so that’s a downside, but you are also utilising that plastic to the utter most limit. With Diego, this is a couple of weeks worth of poo to one bag. For bigger, or for multiple dogs it could just be a weeks worth. Another downside is that you either have to only pick up dog poo weekly/fortnightly or you have to keep a bag of dog crap somewhere on your property for the same period. Both options are not the most pleasant, but I would say the latter is my option.

I have recently converted over to this technique, which I admit is a lot more time consuming, and would only be realistic for a small property. I have been picking up his waste and putting it straight into the toilet. This means there is no use of plastic, and you can clean up the yard as you wish. This one takes a lot longer because you have to go from the yard, inside to the bathroom, and repeat. This one does use water though, so it’s one of those things that you have to weigh up what you care more about, plastic or water use. 

At a local store, I found a dog waste composting system which is currently on my Wishlist for a future pay. This works by digging the system into your yard, or where you plant flowers (no human-consumption plants though). You then place the dog waste in, sprinkle some of their powder on it and supposedly it will then decompose nicely and make a nutrient rich soil. I talked to the woman at the store and she couldn’t speak more highly of the system. She said there is no smell which you would expect of a pile of poo decomposing in your yard, and that it actually decomposes. Once the system is full in that area, you can just move it to a new spot. I can’t speak of how well this works since I haven’t used it, but I personally think that this is an amazing idea and I will be trying it in the future.

When walking your dog I think it’s a lot harder. You obviously have to pick this waste up, without any apparatuses (unless you want to take them on a walk with you) and generally will have to carry it for a length of time. A lot of the hikes I go on do not have dog waste bins along the trail, or even at the entrance so we are often having to bring waste home too! 

I currently don’t have the best option for this type of waste removal. I still use plastic bags, however I have been using a range of eco-friendly, biodegradable bags. I have currently a couple of rolls of bags in rotation (I have found having multiple bag holders, one for each lead works better than swapping them out) some of them being Earth Rated. These ones supposedly can break down within 24 months, which is a much shorter lifetime than traditional bags. These ones also smell of lavender, which takes over any scent of poo no matter how long you hold the bag. It is actually incredible and changes the way I look at picking up dog poo, especially when I am out walking with non-dog people. 

I know this post was a bit of a weird one, but I hope you enjoyed it, and potentially learnt something new. I think its good to make small steps towards being eco-friendly. Dog waste is something that always makes me feel bad about my plastic consumption, but I think making small steps every walk/poop is amazing. I really would love to hear what you do, or have read as to another option on how to deal with this! 

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September Book Club

I love a good animal themed book, and have done a few book reviews in the past. Instead of doing an individual book review for each, I decided to put two of my most recent reads into one post. It is always hard for me to write book reviews because for one, I am not an English major so cannot give you any good answers on how a book is written, and two, I don't want to give too much information away. I am still unsure of how much is too much to ruin a book, and how much is too little that it doesn't interest people. I hope I have found a medium, but I am really not sure. I also apologise in advance for my lack of personal photos. I did take them, but with the breakdown of my Macbook, I have been unable to get them off of my camera. Hopefully, i'll be able to get that fixed in time for my next post.

The Elephant Whisperer | Lawrence Anthony

I don't know if you know, but all my life I have wanted to travel to Africa. I wanted to travel to Africa before I even realised it wasn't a country, but was made up of many countries. I have always loved the idea of wildlife just free roaming across plains as far as the eye can see, and my favourite animal for the longest time has been the hippopotamus. I love Jane Goodall and the work she has done over there. I used to spend my hours watching documentaries about wild animals in Africa, so this book was kind of nostalgic in that way.

The book follows Lawrence as he recently purchases Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand, and from there is asked to take on a herd of wild elephants that were anything but easy. As with any book that follows the life of creatures in the wild, it contains a lot of hair-raising moments, but also many happy and sad tales. I loved the mix of these throughout the book, and will admit to crying at a few moments, thankfully in the comfort of my own bed and not on the train where I often read this book.

I think anyone that works with any type of animal will really connect with this book, with Lawrence and with the herd of elephants. I think we can all grasp the concept of how these giant beasts will all have minds, feelings and memories of their own and why they were the way they were. The bond that Lawrence makes with these giants is unlike anything I have ever heard of, and something truly special. Enough so to make me want to urgently buy a plane ticket and go to Thula Thula myself!

This is probably one of my favourite books I have read all year, and one that I think many people would enjoy. Lawrence's writing was easy to follow along, and it was an enjoyable, easy read. Some books are hard to follow/read before bed, but I found this book the perfect way to relax after a long day. I love a book with a picture section as well, and often found myself going back to look at photos that relate to the current section I was reading to get a better idea of what was happening. 

A Wolf called Romeo | Nick Jans

This book was harder to get into than the first book. I found Nick's writing style to be harder to follow along, and more repetitive in what he was talking about. At points it felt like Nick was just writing for the sake of bulking the book out, instead of writing to give us more context. I think that is a shame though because the books topic is a great one.

About half way through the book I finally managed to get wrapped up in it, and learn to love the characters within the book. By the way, both of these books are biographies and 100% real. This book follows a wolf, affectionately dubbed Romeo by the town, that lived within a National Park. The difference about this wolf is that it loved dogs, and would spend many an hour playing with the local dogs that walked this park. The book centres around Romeo, but is written from Nick's point of view. Nick lived close to the National Park and became obsessed with the wolf, as you can imagine one would with a friendly wolf living so close.

I have to say that one of my favourite parts of this book was the amount of photos that were added in. This really gave me a feel for the story, and gave me something to compare the stories to. You could really see the size difference between Romeo and the dogs he interacted with, as well as take in the amazing Alaskan scenery that Romeo was amongst.

This story, like the Elephant story, contains both happy and sad moments, and near the end I felt myself more and more gripped by the tales. I personally didn't like Nick's writing style, and that prevented me from wholeheartedly loving this book. The storyline, and story of Romeo is fantastic and is what I think saved this book. If you have patience to read through more details than necessary, I believe you will enjoy this book and the lessens that can be learnt from it.


I would love to know your book recommendations, they can also be non-animal related as the next book I am reading is 'Hearts in Atlantis' by Stephen King. I love a bit of variety in my reading, but really do love sinking back into an animal related book to fuel my passion for them, but also inspire me to be a better person.

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Sourcing Meat for Raw Feeding

Hello! This is part 2 in our Raw Feeding Series that Nicole from WildCardMeela writes. If you haven't read the introduction post, quickly head over there and then come back to read this one! 

Now, one of the biggest blocks people have when approaching raw feeding is the price tag that comes with it. While it can be pricey and cost you more than an arm and leg, it can also be economical if you know where to go and what to buy to best suit your situation and your pooch. While meal prep day is the moment you put your hard work into little individual plastic containers, the prep should start a few weeks prior.

One thing you need to be aware of when raw feeding is the parasites that may potentially be living in the meat, particularly in the offal. When we as humans prepare and eat meat, we usually kill these parasites during the cooking process, hence why we often don’t give worms inside our lambs fry a second thought (Morgan joining in to say that eating worms out of lamb sounds grotesque). 

However, as the name describes, raw feeding is raw, and the meat is not cooked so any existing parasites will not get killed. The best way for a raw feeder to avoid this is to freeze the meat for a substantial period. Most people I’ve spoken to recommend three weeks to be extra safe, however I’ve given Meela plenty of organ that has been frozen about a week and so far we don’t have any worms crawling out of her nostrils. This is up to you and what you feel best about, because after all it is a confident owner that will make or break the raw food diet.

I like to go out and buy the raw meaty bone on the day before/day of the prep, but I will freeze the offal for my next prep. I do this because I find it much easier (and much more enjoyable) to use defrosted chicken bones and muscle meats that I have just purchased, instead of trying with all my strength to pry apart half frozen chicken drumsticks.

The first part of my overall prep is shopping and sourcing all the meat that I use for Meela’s meals. There are three main places I go to get this meat: 

• The supermarket (particularly Pak’n’Save because the stickman gives sweet deals)
• Asian supermarkets
• Online shops 

So, Pak’n’Save is usually my go to for the raw meaty bone that makes up the bone portion and some of the meat portion of Meela’s meal. You know you’re a raw feeder when $2.95/KG chicken drumsticks gets you more excited than 2 for 1 doughnuts. I find that Pak’n’Save have affordable meat (particularly chicken) so this is where I get all my chicken drumsticks, thighs, legs, wings and sometimes whole chicken carcasses. They can also have reasonable specials on other proteins, but I’ll only get these as a treat for Meela or if it’s on a big special. Something I’ve learnt to do to keep the costs down is trying to buy the raw meaty bone that has the smallest bone percentage for the smallest price. Smaller bone percentage = more meat. Since bone seems to be the cheapest part of raw feeding, I am getting a better deal if I’m buying chicken drumsticks (34% bone) at $2.95/KG rather than chicken wings (46% bone) which might be $7.99/KG. The chicken drumstick is the better option for my wallet because what’s not bone is muscle meat and skin, which I’ve found to be the most expensive part of raw feeding. 

Asian supermarkets are where I go for most of my offal. I find it’s the cheapest and you also come across far different cuts to what you see in at the popular supermarkets. Things like tongue, brains, spleen are cuts I’ve only found in Asian supermarkets or Asian butcher shops. I do sometimes wonder what some of the staff must think as I lug around a basket of tongue, spleen and brains, I can’t help getting child-like intrigued when I’m searching for the different organs. Probably should have said this before but DIY raw feeding probably is not for the faint-hearted. The prices are also reasonable at these supermarkets.

The third and final source for the meat is online shops. The one I have been using is petfoodsales.co.nz and it’s probably only suitable if you are crazy enough to have another freezer for your dogs because it all comes in 10kg or 20kg boxes. I get green tripe, minced chicken frames, minced heart as well as minced beef and mutton from this site because I find it to be the most affordable option. This is especially true for beef and mutton which can get pricey if you only buy it from the supermarket. Online is also where I get a couple of the supplements that I’ll discuss more in another blog post.

Those are my main sources for meat so I hope that helped a few of you out on where to find raw meat that is dog edible. The next blog post will be about my meal prep day, and how I turn the meat I have purchased into something that resembles a meal. 

See you next time, and happy meat purchasing!

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Kong Genius Leo

Hello! If you have followed our blog, or social media at all, you would know that we are a big fan of using toys that will prolong the time it takes for Diego to eat his breakfast. Over the past few years we have gone through a good number of toys, and tried a range of different types of the toys available. The Kong Genius Leo is similar to a few toys that we have tried in which you put the treats inside of the toy and they have to work them out. However, the difference is in the shape of this toy and this adds more of a challenge for Diego to earn his breakfast. We got sent this toy from Animates in July of last year, but have only just started using it more religiously within the past few months. That is not due to the toy itself being inadequate, more due to me not understanding how to best use this toy.

The Kong Genius Leo is made out of the same rubber that you would be used to seeing from the traditional Kong, however I believe it could potentially even be a tougher version of that. Let me start by saying that this toy starts off very firm, and is hard to manoeuvre to get the food inside. Trust me, after a few uses it does loosen up making it easier to use. The Leo also comes in multiple different colour options, but of course, Diego had to have a nice bright pink to match his personality. It also comes in two sizes, a small and large which makes this toy great for any sized dog.

There are a couple of ways that I use this toy using Diego’s general kibble. The easiest way is to just fill it with his breakfast, and give it to him. He spends his time both trying to squeeze the kibble out, and dropping it off the bed onto the floor where it will hopefully bounce out the treats. This means Diego is getting out a few pieces of kibble out at a time, making this the most time efficient toy that we own. No matter his technique, he struggles to get more out than those few pieces at a time. If you want it to take even longer, I smear a tiny bit of peanut butter just inside of the toy, which prevents the kibble from easily bouncing out. It also acts as a glue for the pieces to get stuck together into a larger piece of kibble, thus making it even harder for Diego to remove. I have come home after a day at work and Diego will still be working on getting the treats out.

Another thing I like to do is stick a longer treat down the top of the toy. This helps to prevent the kibble falling out of the top, but also gives Diego another challenge of trying to work out how to get the more rewarding treat out. I like to put things like bully sticks, ribs, and any other tougher, longer chew.

The main problem I had when first using this toy was that I was used to the Original Kong which could be used for both dry kibble and wet ingredients. I don’t find that this toy works well with wet food inside. It is generally too hard for Diego to get out, and ends up just being smeared inside for me to wash out later in the day. I have seen that other people put their raw food into it, however I just personally didn’t find this very effective with Diego’s sized snout/tongue. The ‘flaps’ on the side and bottom of the toy are too sturdy for Diego to manoeuvre them well enough to push food out of the Genius Leo with his tongue. That is why smaller, drier kibble pieces work better as they fall through the little gaps between.

A thing I definitely need to mention is that Diego has ripped part of the top of the toy. This was done super early on, within the first couple of uses, and has since remained intact where it is joined. This is also with me still sticking harder treats down it, it still is connected. Diego likes to find the weakest link in toys and really chew on these areas. This just happens to be the top of the toy where the rubber is thinner, and it is easy to get a good grip on it for the teeth and pull manoeuvre. None of the remaining part of the toy shows any sign of wear apart from some minor scratch marks.

The material of this toy also picks up every piece of hair that has ever been on your floor. Due to Diego often dropping it, and rolling it over the floor in hopes of getting kibble out, it does pick up an excessive amount of dust and hair. It means that after pretty much every use, you do need to clean it. The great part of this is that it is an easy clean, you just have to put it under a trickle of water and gently rub and it will completely remove all that disgusting stuff it picked up off your floor. I am telling you this because no matter how much I vacuum, the Kong Genius Leo still manages to find hair that I didn’t realise was there.

All in all, I am super happy and surprised with how good the Kong Genius Leo is. It’s one of those toys that I highly doubted at the beginning, but once I got used to how well it could work, I haven’t looked back. This is the toy I use pretty much 99% of the time now, knowing that it takes Diego at least a few hours to get all the kibble out and could keep him entertained for longer depending on whether I use peanut butter or not. I would definitely recommend this to any type of dog owner, from the crazy destroyers like Diego, to more of a gentle dog like Chico. I think it also is a toy that no matter how much they use it, the dog doesn’t get much better at it. They will learn techniques to make it easier, but will never fully master it to last only a few minutes (unless they remove the flaps somehow hehe). I think even at the price point it stands at, it is a toy you should invest in and use with your dog on a semi-frequent rotation. Like all dog toys, I am not saying that this one is 100% dog proof, and if your dog has destroyed Kongs in the past, you may want to only use this toy when you are in their presence to make sure it isn’t also completely destroyed. However, I believe for the general dog that doesn’t completely kill Kongs, this will be an absolute asset.

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My Dog has a Better Diet than Me!

Ah, Raw Feeding. One of the biggest controversies of the pet food world. For anyone reading this I want you to know I am not saying any one way of feeding is better than the other. At the end of the day I firmly believe that what’s best for your dog is what works best for them as an individual, and what you can provide. I am just writing to share my experience and the reasons why we chose to feed raw. With everything dog, and I guess life related, I encourage you to do your own research and make your own informed decisions. This series can be part of such research but is not intended to be your complete source of information. 

Before we get into all the raw details, let me first introduce who has  put together this series. As you may know, I personally feed Diego Orijen food, but have always taken an interest in other types of food options. I was watching some Instagram stories and came across WildCardMeela showing her raw food prep. This instantly got my attention, I asked a few more questions and asked if she could possibly write a blog post about her experiences. What initially started as one blog post, became an extremely long blog post so has now been cut down into a series. I love what she has written, I find it very informative, well written and a great start to explaining why she went down the raw route. I would love if you could go follow them, and give them some love/feedback on this post as she is nerv-cited to see the response. From now on, you are in the capable hands (text) of Nicole:

We are @wildcardmeela on Instagram. My names Nicole, I’m the human (obviously) and Meela is quite literally a wild-card rescue pup from an awesome rescue down in Hamilton called DC Rescue. Oh, and we better not forget dog-dad Aidan, Meela’s favourite person by far. We adopted Meela last year in November at the age of 3 months old, and she has kept us on our toes since then. It was assumed she was a Rottweiler/Mastiff and after watching her grow for nearly 9 months we are confident she is anything but! She is a bit of an in-betweener when it comes to size and has the energy of a cattle dog.

After bringing Meela home we thought we would have no problem at all getting her to eat. In true fat, podgy little puppy style she would scoff down the kibble as if she was competing for an Olympic medal. Easy, we thought, training will be a breeze with this kind of food drive. But once we swapped her from the cheap kibble we had quickly purchased on the way home to brands like Black Hawk and Hill's Science Diet things got a little tougher. Despite waking us up by 7am with a paw to the head in true hangry style, Meela would still turn her nose up at kibble. She was obviously hungry but would only eat about half of the daily recommended amount. It wasn't a great feeling when you can tell your furry little friend is hungry but don't want their food. After a few months we decided enough was enough, Meela needed to eat.

Raw feeding was something I wanted to avoid at all costs before we got Meela. From an outsider’s perspective it looked like too much work, too much money and too much uncertainty. A lot of vets oppose it simply for lack of better understanding, so you know you aren't going to find any support there. Now, I usually like to consider myself someone not easily swayed by Netflix and movies, but after watching "Petfooled" on Netflix I was convinced: we we're going to try DIY raw feeding.

There are lots of types of raw diets for dogs. There are premade services where everything is balanced, minced and bundled up in nice packages. This is by far the easiest but likely also the most expensive. Also, you don't get as many of the dental benefits of feeding raw meaty bone. Another type is services that provide plans and meals for the dog, all portioned out and ready to. Again, these we're too expensive for us. Then there is DIY raw feeding, where you source your own meat and portion it yourself, weighing out the raw meaty bone, muscle meats and organs. This is time consuming but if you learn what works, it is the cheapest.

One major thing I have learnt is that raw feeding is what you make it to be. I've seen people post in Facebook groups about the store-bought quail they just purchased for their dogs to the other extreme of people offering to clean out freezers in exchange for keeping any unwanted freezer burnt meat. There are extremes and then there is everything in between.

With Meela now fully transitioned, she eats better than my partner and I do. She is on the Biologically Appropriate Raw Food (B.A.R.F Diet) and gets certain percentages of bone, muscle meat, organ and then vegetables/fruit. The vegetables/fruit part if optional and is another debate that we will not get into here. A typical meal for Meela might include a chicken drumstick, thigh or back and then muscle meats including green tripe, heart, tongue or standard cuts. Then she gets liver in every meal as well as another type of secreting organ like brains or kidney. On top of that she gets frozen cubes with blitzed vegetables and fruit. After months of watching her sniff the kibble before walking away, it is relieving to watch Meela lick every bowl clean. She also insists on big sloppy dog kisses after every meal, and I like to think she is telling us we are doing the right thing by her. 

On top of the meat Meela also gets various supplements. This is another part of the B.A.R.F vs Prey Model debate, as the Prey Model argues supplements are not necessary unless you are giving them for a cause or deficit. But anyway, if we got into that we would be here all day. Meela gets

·         Coconut oil to help her skin and immune system

·         Kefir for its probiotic benefits (it really helped to fight off Meela's paw yeast infection)

·         Apple cider vinegar for its help with itchy skin (and again, it REALLY helped with the yeast infection)

·         Gelatine (occasionally) for its benefits in cartilage growth for joints

·         Spirulina for the boost in immunity

·         Turmeric for its anti-inflammatory benefits

·         Bone broth as another supplement for strengthening joints

·         NZ Green lipped mussels for manganese, an essential vitamin for dogs

·         Eggs because they are a great source of digestible protein and contain lots of vitamins

Meela will get some of these every day, some she might get a few times a week and some she may only get when she is injured or needs them.

Another common misconception of raw feeding are the following 'myths". Your dog will transform overnight into a mean, bloodthirsty, eating machine- wrong! Meela has had no change in her personality, she is still as sociable as ever and continues to make generous attempts to befriend my mum's cat. Raw feeding your dog is not balanced- wrong! Well this depends on your prepping and balancing, of course if you serve your furry friend a juicy scotch steak every night they won't get what they need, but if you balance the meat, organ and bone with supplements you can definitely get it right. Raw feeding a dog exposes them to risk of Salmonella-there is a very small possibility of this but what a lot of people forget is that there is also risk of salmonella in kibble. Bones are dangerous for my dog- again, wrong, provided you are giving them the correct bones. Bones are awesome for acting like a natural toothbrush and keeping your pups teeth and jaw clean and strong, however they need to be appropriate (no weight-bearing bones) and a correct size for your dog. Also, I know we only just met and this might be a little far for first base, but let me fill you in on a big (but also little) benefit. Their poops really shrink on a balanced raw diet, plus they smell way less. Anyway, back to the raw food. 

Meela is what I would describe as ‘thriving’ on her raw diet. Her coats looking shiny, she has copious amounts of energy and the best of all, SHES EATING EVERY MEAL. Raw feeding is scary at first, but with a little guidance in the right direction, it can get quite easy! I owe HUGE thanks to Danielle, fur-mum of @eddyexplores who helped me weave through that initial scary ‘I can’t do this, I’ll never figure it out’ feeling. Other accounts that are awesome to follow for some inspiration are @rawfedandfurry, @rawfedk9 and @perfectlyrawsome. I got a lot of my supplement ideas from these pages and they are constantly trying out new types of supplements for their pooches.

Over the rest of this little mini-series we I’ll be writing about the meals Meela gets daily and how I shop for, construct and prepare these. I’ll also be writing a post with supplement ideas and a more detailed view of the supplements I give Meela and the reasons why. Please remember that all of this from personal experience and a little bit of research, I would 100% recommend doing your own research before starting a raw dog diet.

See you again soon!

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