Healthyward

A guide to healthy eating (for your dog)

by 60 Comments

k9 naturals

Pippa with a few of favourite things – food & her Zombie toy.                                                            Anyone notice she’s poking out her tongue!?

Here’s why you should care about what you are feeding your dog.

I have to be honest and say that I hadn’t really thought too much about what was in the food I was feeding my dog but it has been in the back of my head for a long time that I probably should do a bit more research and switch to a higher quality dog food. After all, she is my baby 😉  So when I was given the chance to try out K9 Naturals for her I leapt at the chance.

Just as we need an optimal quality diet to be as healthy as possible, so do dogs.   Many cheaper dog foods are made with lots of grain based products as fillers, with less meat product.   While these provide some protein, they are less digestible for dogs than meat based products so they don’t get the same nutrition from it.

K9 Natural is a 100% NZ owned company that produces a high meat, premium quality dog food created with NZ products. K9 Natural is a complete and balanced natural diet made with 90% meat, blood, bone and offal, 5% fruit and vegetables and 5% green lipped mussels, eggs, vitamins and minerals and nothing else.

You can get K9 Naturals in both frozen and freeze dried varieties which prevents nutrient losses gives maximum flavour. I’ve been using the freeze dried variety, which you mix with a little water before feeding.  There’s a range of flavours, including venison, chicken and lamb. There’s also Green Tripe.  Sounds disgusting (and doesn’t smell too flash either….) but it’s a great source of probiotics for your dog and can be a good way to transition your dog onto the K9 Naturals products.

I have to say that I have never seen Pippa so excited to eat! She eats with gusto and licks the bowl clean, every time.  It kind of makes sense I guess, as it’s the type of foods dogs were designed to eat.  Before she might not even touch her food in the morning, and then she’d still only eat some of it when we got home from work. She’s a high energy dog, and we’re pretty active so I used to worry sometimes that she didn’t eat enough.

K9 Naturals also do a fantastic range of natural dog treats, and Pippa really LOVES the venison treats and salmon tails.  You know that something’s pretty special when she runs away to her favourite tree and eats it there, and she does that with the salmon tails. Everything she loves ends up there, bones, her balls and K9 treats.  Everything else is free to sit around the rest of the yard, but her favourites go under the tree.  Animals can be so funny with their wee routines!

What I’ve noticed since using K9 Naturals:

  • Pippa loooooves eating it!  And I love that she loves it.
  • Her coat seems thicker.  She’s a pretty furry beast anyway, but her coat does seem to be thicker.
  • Her poos are smaller but harder  – this is kinda gross but she has had a lot of trouble with her anal glands, and she’s absolutely terrified of the vets.  Taking her to get her glands expressed is stressful for us both. She shakes and I pretty much have to drag her into the vets.  She’s had to be tranquillised a few times as she’s freaked out so much.  So I’m hoping that her better quality poos mean that she’ll have less trouble with her anal glands.  I’ve been told that harder poos helps clear the glands out as they go.Pippa’s been eating this product for over a month now, and I’m going to continue her on this food range.  If you want to check it out for yourself, you can read more over at the K9 Naturals page here

    Congratulations to Belinda Smith!! Email me to arrange prize delivery

 

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Comments

  8. Eddy

    K9 Naturals sound just the ticket for our Miss Ruby, she suffers with the ole need for the glands expressed treatment from the Vet, and yes stressful for all. Premium K9 Naturals with 90% meat, blood, bone and offal, 5% fruit and vegetables and 5% green lipped mussels, eggs, vitamins, minerals and i think a must. Great that’s is New Zealand focused company too.

  9. Natalie

    You’ve inspired me talking about anal glands!!! Our Littlest pooch Luci has no end of trouble in that region… hopefully this good would make a difference

  14. Natalie

    Sounds great for my dog Toby, like Pippa he often doesn’t touch his food and I worry about how much he eats. And as a border collie, he needs a lot of fuel for all that energy he has!!

  16. Tash

    I’m trying to improve my all round being this.year, so I’m going to try and do the same for my furbaby.

  18. Crystal

    This is so cool 🙂 I would love to try this brand, where can you purchase this from ? Can you get it from supermarkets or just the supplier ? 🙂 x my big boy always takes ages it eat his food, doesn’t seem that overly keen ..

  19. Christl

    Our Golden Retreiver puppy Shelby loves the treats too! She goes nuts for the vension ones. Didn’t realise they made a dog food as well, will have to track some down to try ????

  23. Ashley Montgomery

    This would be so good for my boy Chase ???? He is a bit fussy with his food and I’m always trying to find a food that he will like, it would also benefit him in making his coat better as it is dry quite often.

  27. Marie snell

    I will have to check this out our girl Cashew has allergies we think it’s from her food won’t know till we have the blood test done that’s going to happen soon this sounds amazing would love to try

  29. Lisa Ransley

    These sound great. My German Shepherd is not much of a foodie and would rather play than eat if given the choice. I worry she doesnt eat enough some times so these sound like an ideal way to get better nutrition into her and make her more interested in her food too. Thanks 🙂

  32. Hannah West

    We take so much time to look after our own nutrition and ensure we are feeding or body the right foods, it makes sense then that we’d make sure out furry friends are getting the same treatment. Will have to try this food with our 10 week old quickly growing puppy 🙂

  35. Petrina

    Natural is definitely the way to go, since changing my furballs over there has been a marked improvement to their overall well-being.

  37. Kylie elwin

    What a great prize Rusty my cavoodle would be able to eat this my poor baby just had 14 teeth removed and is on soft food but will be back up to bikkies in no time hopefully. Love love love the bandanna that Pippa is modelling. Great blog love reading your stuff

  38. Taryn

    Have heard lots of great stuff about this food. Love that it is raw but also balanced to suit our modern domestic dogs! Keen to see what my pup thinks of the treats

  41. Michelle

    Have heard off this product and would love to try it. We have a 6 year old cocker spaniel and a 12 year old bull mastiff cross.

  43. Candice powell

    I raw feed my pup from raw essentials! I haven’t tried this brand and would love to give it a go!! He is a little Bichon Shitzu cross so it would be perfect????

  52. Jahanna

    I have been looking into a raw diet for our pup who seems to be quite sensitive to foods and environment so it’s great to hear your feed back on this as it was one of our options.

  56. Chelsea Mckenzie

    Good article! So many people forget to care for their pets nutrition like they do with their own ????

  60. Desna

    my dogs adore the salmon tails and freezedried mussels.. you can see the fish oils still in salmon tails,,, cant help but be so good for them.

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