Discussing a Natural Diet with your Vet
Do you LOVE your vet but they don’t 100% support your choice to feed a raw, natural diet? We often have concerned pet parents get in touch after a confronting trip to the vet for reassurance that their choice to feed a raw diet is the right one.
We LOVE vets! We’re animal lovers too!
Vets are animal lovers and have our pet’s best interest at heart and because they’re trained on the in’s and out’s of common commercial pet food, this is what they are most confident in recommending and we can assure you that their hearts are in the right place. Raw food diets in the commercial sense, haven’t been around for nearly as long as kibble and canned foods and as such, don’t get much mention in universities when vets are being trained. We’re hoping this won’t be the case forever.
It’s safe to say you’ll eventually need to discuss your dog’s diet with your vet; diet is such a foundation of health after all and when broaching the topic of a raw, natural diet with your vet, we recommend being prepared as some vets may passionately disagree with you. Our advice is to inform them that this is your choice and every family is different and each pet is an individual and you respect that a raw diet may not be suitable for everyone, but this is the diet that works best for you and your pet.
Show them you’ve done your research
You’re choosing a brand that’s committed to providing natural, raw diets to health conscious pet parents. You can tell them that Big Dog offers a safe raw feeding option with human-grade ingredients and advises the proper handling of our food. You can also let them know we’ve been doing this for 20 years, longer than any other commercial raw food business in Australia and we’ve been keeping pets healthy and happy for a lot longer than they may think. We have a lifelong feeding trial and many testimonials for your vet to read.
We are a proud to be a Complete and Balanced diet for healthy growth in puppies and health maintenance in adults. Our substantiation to support this claim is based on the outcome of a successful feeding trial with Smart Pups Assistance Dogs, our charity of choice. You can read more about the products in our range that are Complete and Balanced as well as what it means to be Complete and Balanced and why we choose to formulate without the use of synthetic nutrition here.
We are confident raw feeders and have been manufacturing raw pet food diets for 20 years in alignment with BARF feeding principles. We take product quality and safety seriously with a dedicated QA team testing and supervising all batches from delivery of raw ingredients through to delivery to our stockists. Read more about our QA processes here.
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Ok, now they want to show you their research
Many pet food articles and studies are funded by pet food companies, which runs a risk of bias. It also makes sense that most large-scale pet food studies have been done on processed pet foods as these types of pet food have been the norm for so long. We certainly value good science here at Big Dog but we ultimately respect nature and believe that nature gets it right when it comes to nutrition. When you look at the ingredients list of any Big Dog product, you’ll recognise everything that’s there. High-quality, pet-friendly, fresh produce loaded with natural nutrition to keep pets healthy and happy.
Can your vet look at the ingredients in any pet food they are recommending – do they recognise all the ingredients listed? Are these real food ingredients or cheap fillers? Often the nutrition in processed pet foods comes from synthetic vitamins and minerals, which poses a risk of toxicity in an unregulated industry. We encourage all pet lovers to research the ingredients in pet foods themselves.
We also suggest that pet parents and veterinarians watch ‘Pet Fooled’ an independent documentary available on Prime Video heavily featuring Dr. Karen Becker, a leading holistic veterinarian and champion of raw diets for pet health in the US.
Bring out the big guns – we’ve got you.
We’ve written a letter for you to give to your vet to support your decision to feed your dog Big Dog. This letter informs them of our Complete and Balanced status by AAFCO standards, which is reassuring for a lot of vets.
You can let your vet know that we welcome them to get in touch with us to discuss our diets or raw feeding in general. We also have a library of articles about raw feeding available here.
We hope this article and the vet letter provided gives you confidence in your choice. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our friendly team to discuss any concerns you, or your vet, may have.
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