Why Fresh Feeding is the Most Critical Factor in Your Dog's Health and Longevity (and the quickest way to convince you of that)...

Summary: Hello everyone, this is Krista with episode #122 on the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. Are you enjoying the show and the topics that we cover? Would you like to be a part of the conversation? Well, I'm bringing back past guests on the Clubhouse phone app. And we revisit topics from the Show. And of course, all dog lovers are invited. And you can take part by asking questions or commenting. We've had some great discussions so far and lots of interaction and we'd love to have you join us. So if you've already joined Clubhouse, be sure to become a member and follow the Wag Out Loud Club. Or you can check out all of the upcoming Clubhouse rooms at WagOutLoud.com and just click the Events tab. Did you know that dogs have about 1700 taste buds? Compare that to humans, we have more. And we have about 2000 to 10,000 taste buds. Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition and overall well-being. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Hi there dog lovers! This episode is going to be amazing! Here today to chat with us about why fresh feeding is the most critical factor in your dog's health and longevity is Dr. Conor Brady, and he is the author of the recent book that is in my mind the new raw feeding Bible. It's called Feeding Dogs. So Dr. Brady, please introduce yourself and share with us why were you compelled to put in 10 years of blood, sweat and tears into writing Feeding Dogs? It was while I was with Guide Dogs Australia that the true powers of raw-feeding came to light. That was 15 years ago. The time since, bar a couple of years as a producer myself, I have spent as a full-time writer, speaker and dedicated advocate for natural canine food and health.The subject fascinates and consumes me, providing me with near bottomless rabbit holes that demand exploration. What I found over the last decade of work I have recently released in book form, Feedings Dogs, which proudly made it to the top of a number of best-seller lists, including #1 in Small Animal Veterinary Medicine in the US (Amazon Charts). It remains today the top-rated book by readers on canine nutrition on Amazon.  I live with my wife and two daughters in Wicklow, Ireland. When I am not writing or doing consults, you will find me out walking with my slightly odd blue roan cocker spaniel Dudley. What he lacks in brains and overall finesse he makes up with single-minded determination, though that statement is equally true for both of us. Thanks Krista. So thanks for having me on. Yeah, like the book was it was definitely a labor of love. I can't I had to do it at nighttime, because like everybody else you have work during the day. So this book, I’m not messing… it nearly ruined my life. I would sit down at my desk at eight o'clock at night and start and not lift my head until three in the morning and then get up for work the next day. I did this for many years, it nearly cost me my marriage. I say that in a funny way. But honestly, my wife was not too happy about it. So the story behind it really is I started in guide dogs, Krista. For people that don't know me, I have a doctorate in nutrition and behavior than studying gut morphology and behavior in animals. And so when I joined guide dogs, I was always fascinated with food. And the little things you could do to them little things you could add or take away often is more important. And how it helps the dog, you know, nice, tightly controlled population of dogs. So you could you can see things. But it was really when I got to Australia and I saw the raw movement with my own eyes in 2009. it was really taking off. There are a lot of people feeding real food to dogs, which wasn't kind of normal for me. I came from Ireland, and like the States were not you know, we have to in particular, our two countries in particular, were a little bit behind the curve. And it was when I bumped into Brisbane Guide Dogs in Australia that all changed for me. The wool fell from my eyes, and I saw the difference real food could make you know, so that was the start of it. And that's when I started writing the book because I was already interested in it. But the change was so dramatic the veterinary bills, the savings were so dramatic that I thought wow, this is information that is not getting out there properly. Unfortunately, it took me 10 years to get it out there. But you know, that was the start. Well, I appreciate it. Oh my gosh, I am halfway through your book I mentioned before we hit record. And I love the studies and the information that you're giving. I'm learning about my own health and my own body, in addition to my dog, Winston. And I like that you wrote it so it's very easy to understand. You know, it's a lot of science. It really is but your writing. I just I have to commend you on the delivery of that. I guess I want to ask you first have you always fed raw? No, I haven't always fed raw. I first really saw the power of it myself. When I was living. I was over in Australia and my first few months and my old Shepherd cross Rough Collie Meg who was just the most incredible dog. She was only seven years old and at that age already she had terrible hip dysplasia. She was neutered too young. She was on dry food. And I heard that she was on shots of whatever they were putting into her and tablets and all sorts of things to keep her going. So in the few months I left there was quite a dramatic decrease in the dog's health. I came back for a couple of weeks I had already been switched on to the raw movement in Australia. And I just made some changes in the dog's life. I took her off dry food, took her off the carprofen and a couple of other things. Put in some simple additions that you would normally put into a dog with seizing joints. And I'm not messing Krista. By the time I left after two weeks, this dog was back running up the cliffs by my house, we live near the beach. And she loves this part of the beach and she was back running what she couldn't do, she didn't have the power on her back legs in two weeks. This sounds like a snake oil promise. And it really is how we're going to conclude the podcast today, which is I want to wind people up to a little simple things that they can do themselves at home so they can see the difference. You don't need other people to tell you what something's going to be like. you can do this very simple experiment at home where you do cut out the products and feed a couple of bits and pieces. And you'll see the difference in the dog like I saw because then I went back with a vengeance to Australia. That was really where I started contacting Brisbane Guide Dogs. As I bring up Brisbane Guide Dogs again, like the savings in health care costs. This is published in the paper and the courier times in Brisbane. And I've got links to all the studies that ever mentioned, Krista if anybody needs that need that they need a bit of a convincing. But 82% savings in veterinary bills in a colony of 200 working dogs 82% veterinary bill savings. So that is a staggering amount of money. So you can think about how that increases the longevity of the dog, how long they're going to work for that sort of saving for a charity organization is just impossible to put into words, you are going to change a lot more people's lives with more money. So that was what started to come to my head. But it was the start what we'll see in my own dog and the difference with my own eyes. I get back to Australia I had the 18 dogs I was training. I think six or seven of them were on non steroidal anti inflammatories. (NSAIDs), like a casual epidemic of kids on non steroidal drugs. Imagine in the classroom of 18 kids and six or seven of them are on steroids for health conditions. That might not have been acceptable, you know, so right by making I made some changes a little experiment myself, we've got these dogs off their drugs stop they stopped visiting the vet complete success just like what Brisbane Guide Dogs were seeing. And I take this back to my superiors and go guys, something's up. I just got these dogs off of atopy. You know, unexplained itch was the big thing in Australia, in these dogs anyway. And it just stopped when I started feeding raw. So like, you know, my tails wagging. I'm all excited and I run to the vets and my superiors go guys, look what I did. I did it thinking that they would join me in a rain dance. But no, they just kind of said, Well, you know, they just didn't believe me. They just didn't believe it was possible. And it maybe wasn't worth the risk. And there was money involved. And it's like yeah, not like 82% savings of vet bills money as if money was the most important thing to these dogs, you know, health. So that was when I kind of quit the job and started going out for full time I knew something was up and yeah, so the Brisbane Guide Dogs thing was really interesting, but I wanted to understand why other guide dog groups couldn't see what they were doing and see how much money they were saving. Also Brisbane Guide Dogs stuck their name on a raw dog food products because you know people are convinced that if Guide Dogs are eating this, it must be good stuff. So they also made they also got free food out of it. So now your food bill has evaporated your two biggest costs as a guide dog training school. And so there was a statement by the AAHA, the American Animal Hospital Association the year before. Brisbane guide dogs, the raw dog food kind of ended, things got shut down, unfortunately and the CEO was moved on and the CEO that came in 2015 brought with them dry food very sadly. And the Brisbane Guide Dog raw adventure ceased, rather unceremoniously. But the AAHA does not support raw feeding in the States. They're one of the most influential groups out there next to the AVMA, another American Veterinary Medical Association. But they put out a statement in 2014 that had big problems. But when you get to the science of it, it's very light. There's no there's no real huge amount of studies from these statements. They say things like the statement began past proponents of raw food diets believed that this was the healthiest choice for pets. And that word believed was very interesting. And there's no, they don't kind of develop it much. But the fact remains that while veterinary associations in the veterinary industry say, Well, where's your proof that raw is good, you know, where's the evidence, we need to see the evidence that your new idea of real food for dogs is a good idea. But that idea can be switched. While I say yes, there isn't a lot of studies showing raw is better than dry. That's correct. But you can flip that statement and say, isn't it strange that there are no studies of dry better than raw? Where are your studies, you're the one who's made this leap to this incredibly strange, high carbohydrate ultra processed foodstuff, which we know was responsible for the obesity epidemic in humans, high carbohydrate ultra processed foods. And we have an obesity epidemic mirrored the same number almost in humans in our pets, which is decimating their health. And, you know, where's your evidence that this is good for a pet long term? Can I see your study that convinced you and they go silent? Or they'll jump to the next one, which is well, well, then it's dangerous? And you said, No, no, sorry. We were talking about evidence there. If you ask me for evidence, I can ask you. So I say I'll tell you what we'll do being very generous as I am. I will go study for study. I'll tell you the most impressive head to head study that I saw and convinced me while I was very healthy for dogs, but you have to give me one as well. And then I burst into my first one, which, if I, you know, I'll send it to people if there's a way Krista, that I can share a link to the study somehow with you. Yes, we will have it in the show notes. STUDY INFO: "In 2015, DogRisk was back with their most convincing work to date (Roine et al. 2005) as it involved a head-to-head of raw and dry-fed dogs with atopy (exhibiting a heightened immune response to common allergens). This time they measured the metabolite levels in dogs suffering atopy. In particular, they were looking at homocysteine, a by-product of the metabolism, which is related to a number of diseases, but dogs suffering allergy/immune responses have higher levels of it in the blood. It’s fair to say it’s something you’d like to see less of in the body. What they found was indicative of everything we have discussed previously. First, dogs eating raw food had 0.17 nM homocysteine in their blood. Dry-fed dogs had 1.57 nM, nearly a ten-fold increase. But even more remarkably, when raw dry-fed dogs were moved to raw they suffered a near five-fold increase in homocysteine (from 0.17 nM to 0.77 nM) while dry-fed dogs changed to raw enjoyed a five-fold decrease in homocysteine (from 1.57 nM to 0.30 nM). They followed up this work with a paper presented at 42nd WSAVA Congress in 2017. They found that compared to raw, dogs eating a dry diet showed a highly changed regulation of genes in the skin, proving dry food seems to have a dramatic impact on skin gene expression. These findings were verified by Anderson et al. (2018) using peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) gene expression, microarray profiling. This catchy named technique is a minimally invasive tool commonly used in human diet intervention studies. They concluded that a meat diet was associated with a decrease in cytokine gene and receptor expression compared to a kibble diet. The kibble-fed dogs had increased expression of immune-related genes/pathways and elevated plasma IgA concentrations. These works paint a very clear picture – in comparison to raw dog food, dry food is likely causing a lot of inflammation in dogs. Whether this is due to its high cereal content, high chemical content, the types of protein used, the lack of fresh fats or maybe even processing technique, remains unknown." The studies used are  Roine, J., Roine, M. Velagapudi, V. et al. (2015). Metabolomics from a Diet Intervention in Atopic Dogs, a Model for Human Research? 12th European Nutrition Conference (FENS) 2015, Berlin, Germany Anderson, R.C., Armstrong, K.M., Young, W.et al. (2018). Effect of kibble and raw meat diets on peripheral blood mononuclear cell gene expression profile in dogs. The Veterinary Journal, 234: 7–10  More benefits of raw here! https://dogsfirst.ie/raw-faq/benefits-of-raw-food-for-dogs/ So there's lots of little studies that suggest kind of raw is, you know, advantageous small little, little things that we can come back to. Many surveys involving 1000s of people and that kind of thing. But as for direct evidence, they did a great study of dry versus raw fed dogs. And they compared dogs at rest, they just took their bloods and they analyzed it for a metabolize called homocysteine. It's like an inflammatory metabolite Look, the less of it in your blood, the better. That's that's the guts of it. And they found that raw fed dogs had .17 amount of homocysteine in their blood, but dry fed dogs had 10 times the amount of this inflammatory marker. But the really interesting thing was when they changed the dry fed dogs to raw food, this inflammatory marker fell by a factor of five. So they show that at rest, they're inflamed, but when you jump them to raw, they get less inflamed. We don't know if that's because they're eating wheat, or the chemical preservatives, or the stale fat, or the lack of bioactive compounds, on and on and on the many things that can be wrong with ultra processed food. But that was a really interesting head to head. And the people that did it was the University of Helsinki, DogRisk, these guys are called. And they have now gone after this very, because they are so enthused by the results of this, that they've produced quite a lot of studies on raw which I can share on your page. There's a link to all the studies they've done and papers they've produced, all coming down on the side of raw dog food. It's not like they're sponsored by raw dog food. They’re a university, they're not doing it to make money, right. But they found that then in the following study, they found that atopy that you know, mysterious itch, which is plaguing dogs, the number one reason you're going to go to the vet is evaporate on Raw dog food, the same thing has been Guide Dogs are seeing the same thing I saw my studies are now verified by studies. So we know that if you're sitting there with a dog, usually a small little white coated breed your little Westies or you know any dog really recurring skin conditions, recurrent ear conditions, recurring gut conditions, all those three, if your, if your dog is chronically suffering one of these, just try and make a leap to something very simple, a simple little home cooked diet that you'll find on any Facebook group or so many groups out there that can help you just try for two weeks and see if it works. If it doesn't work, the bag of dry food and the drugs are going to be waiting for you, you know. you've lost nothing trying it. your dog isn't going to flip over and die because he's been eating lovely cooked turkey mince for two weeks, you know, he's gonna have a lovely time. And then if it doesn't work, you've lost nothing. And so that's really what I want to when we get to it, I just want to show people how to make something at home that they can try on their dog sick or not, and see for themselves. Great! And I know you wanted to talk about the science of false marketing. Yeah, well, like, you know, that's kind of what half the book is about. I mean, there is a huge amount of science, behind dry food, okay, behind I mean, ultra processed food canned, dry, whatever. There's a huge amount of science behind it. But it's not the science that I need to see, which is like I'm a researcher by trade, I want to see where's the evidence for feeding this food. The science is actually more a science of marketing. It's just an incredible job has been done to convince us that this foodstuff is made by candy companies, you know, is the best food for a dog. They have no studies to back that up. But they say so. And it is just a lesson in how incredibly good they are at getting us to swallow this message. And it's not the first time they've done this. I mean, the oil companies kept back the whole climate change kind of thing for many, many years. Despite knowing for a very long time. We've had, you know, the baby formula issue where baby formula was touted as better than breast milk until voluntary organizations in the 70s and 80s, forth and back and said, Look, there's many things missing from this, and here are now the studies to show the health. I'm not slagging off for them there's a place for us. But I'm just saying they're one shot and making a complete food in humans didn't work out for us. So they still can't replace what Mother Nature puts in. So, you know, these tricks have been done many, many times to convince us that this product is so necessary, when actually, you know, what we need to see is good head to head studies that solid science randomized control trials, you hear people talking about their gold standards where we put dogs in trials on one or two sides to see, look, we don't have that we have a major problem with corporate influence in various levels of the veterinary industry. I'm not talking about individual vets. I'm not I don't want any kind of you know, angst where people start to go into their vets and say, hey, my dog’s doing great in Hong Kong food and you try to sell me this dry food as if the vet wanted harm for your dog. You know, these vets work their butts off to get into college, and to do this course. They work their butt off in college. It's a very intense course. You know, GPS, human GPS just have to learn from one animal these guys have to learn, you know large animals, cats, dogs, rabbits, ferrets, fish, you know deer, and they've got to learn not just one aspect of it, but every single “ology” you can think of biology, pharmacology surgery, you know, nutrition of every animal on the planet in four short years as an 18 year old, like five short years, give me a break, it just can't be done, all they can do is get an elevator pitch. And unfortunately, the elevator pitch that they are being given in some aspects, such as nutrition is heavily biased towards the feeding of these these products that, you know, lack any scientific credibility. So that's a big problem, but not the vets fault. You can't expect them to be reading up on every single thing that they're doing. They trust that regulation in place, they trust that the studies are really solid, they trust the reps that are coming into them, which is incredible, really, when you think about what that does trust there. But you know, I would say there is no trust in science, there's only data. So you know, I don't trust anybody. That's not a negative thing. But you know, it's probably not too positive either. But it's like, it'll show me the data. And I believe you. And the data is just not there. So that's what the whole book is about. I spend more than half the book convincing people and walking them along this road of the first section is the dog is a meat eater, to a large degree, he may eat some plant material here and there, you can just debate that all day. And I love talking about it. But ultimately, we know from the biology and the diet studies, that the dog is definitely a big meat eater. The second section, I said, Okay, if he's a meat eater, he doesn't really eat a lot of carbohydrates at all in his in his life. He can digest them, but it's not very, not a lot of them. And so what is this diet doing to them this new diet. So that's what the first half of the book is. It's only really by the third and fourth section that I get into teaching people, this is how I would feed the dog myself, you know, and it's, it's really simple, guys. You know, it's, there's a lot of we talk about science so much down. I don't want to bamboozle people and freak them out, because there's as much science about feeding a dog as there is in feeding yourself, you know, people listening here have kids, and you kind of go, Well, how much calcium Did you give the kid last week? I don't know. Oh, okay. Well tell them you know, they're already a of calcium, very, very important mineral you don't know, haven't a clue how much Where do you get your manganese from? I don't know where you get a vegetable, which vegetable? You know how much manganese did they absorb last week? Okay, so these questions, while important, I suppose to some people, you know, generally not important to mom and dad, because we do our best we look at the diet that she didn't really eat that week and the things that I wish my kids would eat more of, and I go, you know, did she get any greens in the last few days? That's really the most important thing? And yes, or no, she did. That's kind of what I weigh it up is, it's the same with dogs, we know what they need, and we do our best to provide it. And if you cycle those ingredients and offer a varied diet, not just feed the same thing every day, what a boring waste of time. You can just feed turkey one day and some sardines and pork, the next and some beef. By cycling through all the ingredients, you get balanced over time. So it eliminates that fear of, if I don't feed enough potassium his butt will fall off. You know, you don't need to worry about those things. It's still, it's it seems funny now, but that's what you're led to believe I can't feed a dog but I can feed my kids. Oh give me a break. You know. Dr. Brady, I'm gonna stop you just for one second. So we're gonna take a commercial break. So I'm just gonna pause here and we'll be right back. Thanks to our friends at AnimalBiome for sponsoring today's episode. They are brilliant at applying science to improve your dog's health. Did you know that 60 - 70% of your dog's immune cells are located right in the gut microbiome? And when their microbiome is out of balance, it can lead to inflammation associated with GI and skin issues. My dog Winston was tested and the results were shocking! He had way too many harmful bacteria, and too few strains of the beneficial bacteria. No wonder his immune system was always compromised! But thanks to the AnimalBiome team for getting him back on track, so that he can live a much healthier life. Isn't it time to test your dog's gut health? Learn more by going to AnimalBiome.com. And be sure to use the discount code WOL-20 for 20% off. And we are back with Dr. Connor Brady, author of Feeding Dogs. Dr. Brady, you're gonna give us a breakdown. And before we go any further, both you and I we don't like to shame people that are feeding dry. We are just sharing Well, the science and it can be an easy transition to try raw, right? Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. And it's definitely not about shaming. I know you're on the same page as me with that. People get very heated up. We're cliquey. we're dog people that's face it. all dog people are cliquey. There's something about us, I don't know what it is, but we love barking through a fence. So you know, take that fence down and dogs generally don't bark at each other like that. So we need to relax on social media and stuff. You know, this yes or no world we inhabit now or there's no gray area. So Yes, guys, there's lots of reasons why people might be feeding dry food at the moment. But there's definitely space here where we can just start adding things in. I mean initially, and I'm sure that's how you started as well, Krista, you're not too sure. And you're kind of like can my dog eat sardines as like delicious, delicious sardines. I go, Well, guys, you can. Delicious sardines. If they're good for you, they're probably good for the dog. Anything with a face is good for your dog, believe me, put a you know a tin of sardines in fresh water or even brine. pour off the brine, perfect protein for a cat. full of just everything that your dog needs, it's cooked. So your vet will be safe with that one, because they're very worried about raw proteins. And so little things like that can be done, you can crack in a raw egg, you can get a handful of blueberries, beautiful antioxidants, you know, and you can get a handful. and I've got a cocker spaniel who was the most obsessed dog about sniffing I've ever seen in my life. I mean, he's just only happy when he's sniffing. And he's just anyway, look, I haven't had a cocker spaniel before, obviously. So this is the first spaniel in my life. He’s nuts, but I love him. So what I would do for him is I would get a handful of if I was ever going to use dry food, the only time I would use it, you get these little sample packs, sometimes what's that dry food, like, I'll give you a sample pack great, didn't cost me anything. And I would get this “good quality” dry food. I say good quality, like you know if they say it's natural, it’s got good meat in it… who cares, it's ground. And I would get a handful of that I'd go to some sort of field where I'm running him. I'd show it to him and annoy him. I wouldn't give them any of it. And then I'd throw it out into the field. And now he spends 20 minutes half an hour looking for that. That is unbelievable exercise for a dog. You don't even need your own yard. You know, if you have your own yard, lucky you! throw it into the hedges in the bushes and make the dog work for it. That's how we feed zoo animals for a reason. It's behavioral enrichment, but also 25% of his brain is smell factory, its cognitive process and so you are churning through energy, you’re fueling the dogs happy chemicals. it's such a great thing to do. and you can do it with blueberries at home you can that kind of thing. So small little things I love. But the best thing about starting off, besides the couple of small things that you can add to the bowl which is really a cooked bit of meat that you've made yourself you can add that in yourself and you can gradually move on to raw meat. you know a lot of people step to cooked food first because it’s more normal to them. we eat cooked foods so the dog should eat cooked for or he’ll get salmonella. and that's the fear. you know what guys, a dog and bury a bone and dig it up a week later he doesn't drop dead of salmonella. there's enough on that bone that will kill a rhino and yet the dog is fine. Because they are engineered to be okay with this sort of stuff. They have big noses for smelling out carcasses and digging out animals and stuff. So they are they actually outcompete vultures where they live together. vultures won't live where packs of dogs are, because they're better at finding the carcass than a vulture, which is unbelievable what a lazy bird the vulture is. . Yeah, so like they're just unbelievable scavengers, and they can just decimate a carcass down nothing and eat the bones because they can live on it. the whole prey. cats will just eat more flesh than anything else. Whereas dogs will eat whole prey. they will eat the whole squirrel, whole rabbit, you know, nothing much bigger than that. But they'll eat till they do eat bone. that's the teeth is even shaped That way, when you look at a dog's back teeth, that huge pyramid shaped tooth, it's called the carnassial tooth. And they don't meet his teeth. They come down beside each other like a scythe. And that's how you know chops bond. So you know, he can safely eat this material. But you know, let's leave the bones for a different conversation because it can freak people out. But one way I realize I'm talking a lot here, Krista, I'm sorry. No, it's good. I get animated. But if I was a dry feeder, and I wanted to kind of move slowly into this, there's a thing that we call POWER CUBES. Okay, so the large part of the dog's diet is meat. Okay, so it's meat muscle. And in that is a little bit of cartilage and fat and a bit of bone. So that's the large part of his diet. But the really important bits, that's when we look at green veg for humans say, really important ingredient, you really can't be cutting too much of that out. a lot of problems with the Western diet is because we're not eating enough of the veg, of the dark green stuff anymore. with dogs that is organ meat. Things like liver, heart, kidney, those ingredients are just so good for the dog when you feed a whole sardine and he gets a little bit of brain a bit of eyes. Because when carnivores eat, they don't eat plants to top up on their bioactive ingredients, they eat herbivores, but herbivores are eating plants. And we know from studies that herbivores act as syncs of these bioactive compounds. So they have a lot of lutein and zeaxanthin, which is great for cancer in their eyes. It's good for a seeing. that's where you might find a lot of vitamin A. So generally, things that are good for eyes are found in eyes. So carnivores will actually pick out the bits of the prey that they need depending on the time. caterpillars will do it. If they're infected by parasitic wasps, birds will do it. All animals do it. chimps are notorious for picking up bits of food depending on what they need to get rid of parasites or whatever and dogs do it. So we try to feed the whole animal. but this organ stuff is really, really important. So what I like to do is to say to people look, you can make an unbelievably brilliant nutritional addition that you can add to dry food. That if you're putting that in, and you have to feed dry food initially, which I say is like you have to feed pizza you know with your salad. You don't really have to feed the pizza, but initially, just while I’m getting you. guys going. Let's make power cubes. here's what I would do. good quality or good quality meat is very different than bad quality meats. So meat that's been intensively reared on wheat and corn, all of its life is not going to be the sort of meat that you want to live on too long. if you guys can't afford it, or if you get really smart and find when it starts to go off in the supermarkets, because that's actually perfectly fine for your dog as well. But I would try buy the best meat I could. So try get some good quality organ meat. ideally organic if you can, that does make a difference because organs are sinks for the good stuff, but also for the bad stuff. So start getting good quality meat if you can afford it. And even if you if you can't afford it, the regular organ meat is fine. I would get a little bit of liver, a little bit of heart if you can find it, a little bit of kidney, liver and kidney always available in all the supermarket's you'll find it. you might have to start going to a butcher or getting a bit of a relationship going with him or her. You know, buy your meat from a butcher and say what else have you got there that you can give me they say, Well, you know, this beef has been out for two or three days would you take this absolutely, I'll take anything. And they love seeing you coming in then because you suddenly become a bit of an avenue for bits and pieces that they couldn't shift. So you start off and I'll give the exact ingredients to you Krista, so you can post them up okay, but to fly through them, I would use about maybe in in a bowl, I would chop up some liver, heart kidney, whatever organ meats you can find that's about 40% of the mix. And the other 40% of the mix would be a bit of veg. Okay, so your organic veg I like dark greens for the dog. a bit of broccoli, bit of kale, bit of spinach. I like some carrots, any that kind of stuff is fantastic. The thing about veg, dogs aren't great at digesting veg. So you might give the veg a little bit of a cooking. okay, a little bit of a steaming, or what lots of people do is they just skip the cooking step and just Blitz it in the food processor. So anything that breaks down the plant material is good for the dog because they lack the system they lack the their intestines are smooth, they've no way slowing the forage down, they don't have the bacteria to digest plant fiber. So that's the only ingredient have to do something to first before the dog so the meat goes in raw. And then you get your bit of veg which is another 40% of the mix. And so you're now at about 80% of the mix. These are all your window dressing ingredients I call them then you might put in some sardine initially you can buy them in the cans, don't buy sardines or fish in veg oil, you don't need that you're feeding the sardines for the omega threes. They're deflammatory those omega threes. they're great but if you cook sunflower oil which is what all the fish is cooked in, that is actually full of omega six and it becomes inflammatory so cooked veg oil is not good for us. There's a great book called Deep Nutrition by Catherine Shanahan. Guys check it out on audio on Audible, it's just staggering, but she will put you off cooked vegetable oil very quickly. And definitely don’t give it to a dog. so you'd be buying the fish in freshwater or brine. and just pour off the brine or even tomato because it's just plain tomato uncooked tomato is actually quite high in lycopene, which is anticancer very, very good. So a little bit of tomato, why not? Who cares? So I would have 40% organ meats, add 40% organic vegetables starting to fill up a bit now 10% sardine or you know handful of frozen muscles or 10% whatever in a can that looks tasty. That looks good. I'd pop in a few good quality eggs, you know outdoor eggs, outdoor foraged eggs, because that bird is then going to help give you eggs that have more nutrients in it than a barn reared egg. So you go after those eggs and you're going after the nutrients that were on the ground. So a couple of really good quality eggs, a handful of dark berries, because that's your anthocyanins and antioxidants and stuff. I like to just throw them out in the grass for the dog, but we're just making this big mess at the moment. And I throw in a few shovelfuls of full fat probiotic yogurt because that's just delicious and it's got a bit of lactobacillus a little bit of bifidobacteria. all very good for the head. You can throw in some crushed pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin seeds are great so we use seeds because you know birds eat seeds and dogs will eat a whole bird they don't shake free the stomach contents of a bird. it’s too small. there’s no eating around a bird so it just eats the whole thing. So dogs will have a little bit of seeds in their life, but particularly we know some seeds like pumpkin seeds are very high in chaotic acid and chaotic acid is as effective as phenobarbital, which is the worming chemical you use to worm your dogs for the worms that they don't have. you know if I had a dog I would just work, send his poo sample off once or twice a year. Why would you keep worming the dog that doesn't have worms? it's like you don't de-nit your kids if they don't have nits. you wait to see the nits and then you barf in your mouth and you reach for the shampoo and sort it out. you know you don't leave it's ridiculous how we do this with dogs flea treatments for dogs with no fleas I mean what a waste of money. So some crushed pumpkin seeds fantastic any type you know mash them down. You guys have loads different types of pumpkins in the US. I thought it was only one type of pumpkin but you've got like, like 10s and 10s of different pumpkins anyway, so you guys have pumpkin seeds you know more about that than I do. You can even put a little bit of crushed garlic in there people are gonna freak. Oh my god, you can't feed garlic to dogs. garlic is in the same family as onion. it's in the allium family. But, it doesn't contain any of the bad stuff that onions do what's called thiosulphate, which is gonna make a dog sick. So there's only one study of garlic use in dogs. And it was a very strange, horrible experiment which sorry for people in advance. It was an overdose study where they fed 100 and the equivalent of 125 grams of raw garlic a day to dogs, which is 25 cloves to a beagle dog every day. And after seven days, his blood was wrong, yet, no poo Sherlock. you know, so that bears no relevance to a little bit of crushed garlic now and again, because the potential benefits in that it's anthelmintic. Its anti yeast. But if there's so many things for blood, it's brilliant, but it contains allicin and allicin is the unbelievable compound for many reasons. You don't have to use the garlic at the moment, I just wanted to put that in because I'd like a bit of controversy. And then you can put in a little nutritional booster so we're not sure what the dog needs or what he's missing. So we'll put in something like I love seaweed, you know, I do I everything from a thought it just contains so many cool vitamins and minerals. But because seaweed lives in the most inhospitable place on Earth, which is the intertidal zone, it's smashed around by rocks, it's eaten by all sorts of animals. There's air and sunlight in sea. So air to sea is very difficult for plants to take. And for many other reasons, suddenly, it's hot. Sometimes it's cold. So it's full of antioxidants. And it contains antioxidants that other plants don't. loads of things in seaweed that are brilliant, and it's cheap to buy. And it's highly nutritious. So I highly recommend putting in a bit of seaweed, I put in the equivalent of one gram of dried seaweed per 10 kg of dog per day. So if I'm making this big bowl of stuff, I'm kind of saying that a couple of tablespoonfuls, you know, you'll get them, you're not going to overdose on seaweed. it's also a source of iodine, which your dogs aren't getting much if they’re dry fed. And then the last thing, which is kind of cool is a pinch of good quality salt. If your dogs are eating dry food, they are getting very, very high salt diets. I mean, there is a reason cats and dogs come to us with so much kidney disease, you know, it's just there's many things about dry food that will give you kidney disease, but the high high salt content, it's used as a taste enhancer. Without salt animals won't eat dry food, it's just it's not something that looks appetizing. And so they can’t take the salt out. But there's lots of different types of salt. There's not just sodium chloride, there’s potassium chloride and all sorts of clever ways to get the salt in there. But that's refined salt and refined salt has rightfully a bad reputation. For good quality salt, when you're going to raw dog food, for even the raw feeders listening, it's absent in salt. there's no salt in it at all. But there's lots of things in good quality salt, it's a mineral sink of not just sodium, but like potassium, magnesium, and then all sorts of electrolytes that we don't even talk about, like strontium. How much strontium do you need each day? I haven't a clue, but it's in salt. So when you are doing a race and you're drinking this electrolyte drink, you know, really, you can make that yourself on good quality local honey and a pinch of good quality salt. That's your electrolytes done. You don't need any more than that. And so I like to put a pinch of good quality salt into my mix. It's tasty, and the dogs don't get a lot of salt. So that's my bowl and actually turns a bit purple for some reason. You're looking at this purple mash in front of you. And then you are starting to curse me a bit because nobody likes work. I'm a vegetarian. By the way. I'm the bloody voice for the meat industry. So it's not ideal, but so you get this and then I buy three or four large silicone ice cube trays. I love large ice cubes. I hate small ice cubes. I drink big ice cubes. just one bouncing around my glass, perfect. So I would get it depend on the size of my dog. If I have a toy dog, I wouldn't get them too big. If I've got a Labrador, I’m getting giant ice cube trays. I just love the silicone ones because they come with a lid, which keeps that horrible frosty taste off it. And I mash my mix into the ice cube trays, and I pop the ice cube trays into the freezer, freeze them down. Then after a couple of days, I'd pop them out. And I put them into a bag and then I’ve got a bag of POWER CUBES. And in that is such a nutritional kick for the dog. I mean that is better than most dogs are doing. So it nearly you'd like to say it nearly doesn't matter what the rest of the diet does. It does. Of course, if you're feeding dry food, you're still putting in chemical preservatives which are decimating his good flora. So people put in a handful of dry food because they think there's some nutrients in it. Now you're only getting in the way of good food. But adding that little cube in once a day for your dog is a fantastic thing to do. I'd give it to give him on its own, or throw it out the backyard. I’d say, there you go dog, a little cube to eat, particularly in summertime. You know we're in the Northern Hemisphere here, it's starting to heat up. And now your little dog is chasing the ice cube around the patio. And it is incredibly nutritious. I'd give it to him outside of his dry meal. So it's on its own. And you are now going to see just from that ice cube alone, that power cube alone, you'll see the difference in your dog. You'll see the little meat boogie that he does before the cube comes out and he's going insane to get his ice cube. Very few dogs go insane to get their dry food except maybe a Labrador. he comes anyway. So like you'll see the difference in that cube alone. And then it's really once you start to see the difference in the dog, you'll see his coat change. That's the first thing. The coat is all protein Okay, the skin is protein, even the oil on your coat is protein, people think it's fat, it's not. It’s a protein based liquid. Everything about your dog will change from the skin to the type of nose that he has. His vitality will change because now he's getting a huge amount of antioxidants, B-complex. from the dark greens, all sorts of things, you'll see a slight change in the behavior, you might see a calming to the behavior. So usually coat and behavior and poos will change. And you'll see a more textured, more normal looking pool. Those alone should be enough to convince you and people then start to increase the amount of meat and go well, maybe I'll just add some chicken to this and give them a power cube. Now you're talking. extend your trial to maybe four weeks, because it takes four weeks to turn on a coat. After two weeks, you'll see it's been oilier and sleeker. But after four weeks, he'll drop his old coat. And you see the difference in the new coat. It's big, because if you're living on at the moment, dry food has the lowest amount of protein legally allowed. So they'll see AAFCO, this is recommended by AAFCO’s guidelines. But actually 18% protein is the legal minimum you're allowed to feed your dog and call a complete pet food. So suddenly, all dry foods have raised to the minimum and say, Oh, we do 18% in line with AAFCO. that's a minimum guideline. So if you're living on the minimum amount of protein, and it's from very poor sources, largely vegetable proteins you can't digest, your body's gonna say, well, I've only got a certain amount of protein here, I'm gonna keep the brain and the heart going. And then forget about your fancy hairdo, you're not getting that this week, because I don't have a lot of protein going around. When you start giving power cubes and extra meat to your dog. Suddenly, there's loads of protein to go around. So check out my do, it's going to give you this. So they're the sort of things you'll change first. And that's just the stuff on the outside guys, you're going to transform the dog on the inside, which you can't see. You just have to trust me on that. But that's the power cube idea. And I'll send you that kind of ingredients, Krista so you can post it up. It's great. Yeah, if people need a little bit more help to make the final push. There's so many groups and people doing this already. And check out Karen Becker and all these other behemoths. I mean, Rodney Habib, a big 3 million followers. So these are big, big players for a reason, because people are picking up what they're putting down. You know, it's a fact. Well, this is fantastic. And you've made it easy. It's an all in one power cube. I love it. POWER CUBE RECIPE Yeah. So Dr. Brady, I know that you've got an amazing offer for our listeners. OFFER: So anybody listening to this podcast, you can get 15% off of a consultation with Dr. Brady. He speaks with people on Zoom all over the world. And all you have to do is use the discount code WOL for Wag Out Loud. Again, that's 15% off a consultation with the Dr. Conor Brady. More benefits of raw here! https://dogsfirst.ie/raw-faq/benefits-of-raw-food-for-dogs/ So Dr. Brady, where can everyone find out more information about you? And the book Feeding Dogs and your company Dog First? Yeah, with my website is https://dogsfirst.ie/ . And that's an Irish ends to the website .ie. Really, I should have gone with.com in hindsight, Google's now punishing me. I actually had a huge amount of traffic when Google changed its rules there a few years ago and now I’m getting slaughtered. So https://dogsfirst.ie/ is where you'll find my website, you'll also find a health section there for dogs with I'm very big on pancreatitis, kidney disease, that kind of stuff. So you're gonna find all these talk to you of that first and that kind of stuff, you know, but there's no, I give that dietary advice for free, because it's just too important. So for the major health conditions, the dietary tips are there, and you can take that to your vet and discuss it with them. So I also talk a little bit about my book there. But generally, you'll hear from me most on my Facebook page @DogsFirstIreland that I check in with maybe you know, almost four or five times a week. And then my book has been sold by Amazon and Book Depository, because that gives me the biggest reach to different countries print on demand. And so you will check it out on Amazon or Book Depository. And that's where you'll find the book. Yeah, it's actually the top rated canine nutrition book at the moment. Number one. But I've had a bit of help, you know, that the influence has got behind it and the likes of Dr. Karen Becker have been very keen to kind of give it a bit of a push. And that's really, really helped, you know, so it's, it's starting to wipe its feet now. So that's where you can find the book guys. You can contact me there's a consultation button on https://dogsfirst.ie/book-an-appointment/. . I do all sorts of consults, quick short ones, longer ones for health issues that takes an hour, group kind of stuff. So you'll see the options there. But you can contact me on my email address info@dogsfirst.ie . Any questions, I can just ping them back to you No problem. And if I can help you, I will. This has been such a treat. Dr. Brady, thank you so much. I am continuing to read the book and can't wait to learn more. Everybody again, the book is Feeding Dogs and reach out to Dr. Brady. He is a wealth of information and he can help your dog to thrive as well. Thank you so much for having me, Krista. I really appreciate the opportunity. SPONSOR Thanks again to the team at AnimalBiome for sponsoring this episode. Learn more by going to AnimalBiome.com and be sure to use the discount code WOL-20 for 20% off. Your dog will thank you. Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes. And if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit WagOutLoud.com for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our bark about it page where you can suggest topics guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health or nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston, was that another tail wagging episode?