Below are some ideas and concepts to get you started but we can help you one on one. Please email us about your pet and we can taylor a menu plan specifically for your pet. We are here to help - no question is too small.
| What Meat Sources? | Transition to a fresh diet |
| Raw or Cooked Meat? | Raw Bones |
Any fresh meat will provide protein. Animal sources are complete – meaning they have at least some of all the required amino acids. This makes meat the ideal foundation for your pet's diet. Amixx provides important nutrients to ensure complete nutrition.
An amino acid, like taurine, is an essential amino acid for cats. Heart and liver are particularly high in taurine and not coincidentally is important to their function. Cats cannot make taurine in their bodies – they just don’t have the chemical capacity to do it. Cats should eat some heart and liver in their diet to ensure they get adequate amounts of taurine.
Dogs benefit from heart and liver as well – they are rich meats – full of iron, copper, and other vitamins and minerals. An entire meal of organ meat is typically too rich. Try to limit organ meat (heart, liver, gizzard, kidney) to a small portion of each meal or up to half of a meal twice a week.
Chicken and/or beef will probably be the mainstay of your pets diet. It is economical and easily accessible from your grocer or butcher. All cuts are good for your pet – some are fattier than others so watch this if you have an overweight pet.
More exotic meats like veal, ostrich, bison, quail, duck, venison and turkey are all wonderful. Variety is a good thing so try to spice up the menu from time to time.
Eggs are high in protein. It is best to soft boil them – whites cooked but yolk runny. They can be fed up to twice a week.
Fish is ok – but it must be high quality. Never feed fish that you would not eat yourself. You should not feed fish more than twice a week – particularly to cats as they can become quite unyielding in their love of seafood.
Pork is not recommended raw. It should always be cooked through.
Tripe is the stomach lining of a cow or sheep. These ruminating stomachs are excellent for pets eating raw meat. We do not suggest tripe for cooked meals. Tripe is a little smelly to us but most dogs and cats go crazy for it. It is full of ‘good bacteria’ which keep our pets systems working well.
As a loving pet owner, what do you serve? Raw meat or cooked meat?
Raw meat is just that, raw. Proponents of this method feel maximum nutrition is found in meat in its natural state. Cats and dogs have digestive systems that can process the low levels of bacteria found in today’s grocery and butcher meats. The enzymes in the meat are still active and help your pet digest the meal. We have seen great success with raw meat and encourage you to try it. If your pet is currently eating a raw diet, AMIXX will be easy to incorporate.
Raw may not be the best for all pets. Older animals fed kibble most of their lives may have a hard time switching to raw. They would be better with a lightly cooked fresh meal served with AMIXX.
Cooked meat is lightly cooked in a frying pan, pot, or the oven, the way we would cook it for ourselves. As it is not ‘superheated’ like dry kibble or canned food most of the nutritional quality is still available.
If you are transitioning your pet to a raw diet try adding a small amount of natural yoghurt to each meal just before serving. Yoghurt provides live, active bacterial cultures to help the digestive system balance.
We recommend cooking meat in the following situations:
- you are uncomfortable feeding/handling raw meat
- the pet is not ready for raw – age, health, history
- you have young children or immune compromised adults
There is no one way that is right for all pets or all families. If you are queasy about feeding raw meat, if you have young children around, if you have an elderly or unwell pet then you may want to provide cooked meals. We are confident you will find dramatic improvements in your pet’s health and vitality when you switch to a fresh, cooked meal mixed with AMIXX.
The transition to a fresh diet?
When switching your pet to a fresh diet, particularly from kibble, it’s best to do it slowly. Most pets starting on a fresh diet should start with chicken or turkey for the transition period.
The gradual transition method
DRY -> Dry topped with cooked meat and AMIXX -> decrease the portion of Dry and increase the portion of cooked meat and AMIXX over a week or two -> Cooked meat and AMIXX -> start cooking the meat less and less until you are comfortable or until the meat is completely raw
The transition period can be a week or more where the amount of fresh food per meal is slowly increased and the old food decreased. If you are feeding kibble or canned food then please cook the added fresh meat before feeding (fry, boil or bake). Feed the meat cooked through the transition period. You may continue to cook the meat for every meal or, if you wish, slowly reduce the cooking time until the meat goes from well done, to medium rare, to tartare (raw).
AMIXX is formulated to balance out meat with or without bones as long as the bone to meat ratio does not exceed 50% bone. You pet will obtain sufficient dietary calcium when using AMIXX. The bones would simply provide extra calcium.
Raw bones, when chosen correctly can be a helpful and healthful addition to your pets diet. The number one benefit is in contentment of your pet. Most pets LOVE to chew on bones. It’s a very natural behaviour – if you watch them while they do it you will see the joy in their eyes. Puppies and kittens especially benefit as it helps them with teething and with muscle development of the jaw.
The second benefit is the removal of tartar. Tartar – the brownish gunk on your pet’s teeth can be cleaned and prevented with regular ‘cleaning’ with a bone. This reduces tooth decay and dental disease. It also reduces the amount of bacterial toxins your pet has to endure – that tartar is full of harmful bacteria – all producing toxic waste products. Remove the tartar and reduce the bacteria.
Bone selection is common sense. Small dogs and cats need smaller bones and larger pets need larger bones. Do not feed long bones (leg bones like and drumsticks) as some pets will not crush them into small enough pieces. Beef knuckle bones (the ends of the femur) are great for dogs because they are soft and dogs will work for hours scraping the bone and thereby cleaning their teeth. Cats seem to prefer small poultry bones – wing tips, ribs, necks. You can also try fish bones (softer as they are cartilage, not actual bone) but make sure you pet is not going too fast and swallowing the bones whole.
One customer emailed us that her cat has a whole quail for dinner on Sunday nights, bones and all, – stuffed with AMIXX for Cats of course!. This provides him with an enviable meal but more importantly he has to crunch all those little bones – he loves it and his teeth sparkle.
The choice is yours but we do encourage you to try feeding your pet raw bones at least once a week. Supervise your pet while they chew.
NEVER feed cooked bones. They will splinter.