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Common Sense Nutrition™ Carnivore Specific Diets From Land’s End to John O’Groats, Britain’s landscape is dotted with sheep grazing pastures. Its heritage as a wool producing country would probably not have been possible without its legendary working dogs. Bred for their intelligence and ability to work they are a true working dog. In the course of a normal day’s work they may cover a distance of up to 100 miles without rest. To be able to cover such distances these dogs needed a high protein/high fat diet consisting of poultry, fish, lamb, barley, oats and seaweed. We have tried to recreate this nutrient dense diet in our state of the art canid formulas. While the average pet may not run 100 miles a day, the benefits of feeding Timberwolf Organics Canid Formulas are numerous. ·
Formulated for extreme climates
(excluding lite formulas) Myths and misconceptions about dog food, by Mark Heyward WHY TIMBERWOLF ORGANICS WAS CREATED With all of the hundreds of dog foods on the market some of you must be wondering "Why make another dog food?" That is a fair question, at least before examining it in further detail. Most breeders, trainers, kennel operators and lo even the average pet owner would admit to going from one dog food to another, trying this diet and then that diet, never completely happy with any of them. One food may give good results for a while but then the condition of the dogs fade to mediocrity or worse after only several months. Also, pets fed most "natural" foods produce large stool volume, do not maintain weight, have poor coat quality, yet have a shiny coat and usually display less allergy symptoms. Dogs fed well known commercial super premium foods seem to produce good coat growth, maintain weight, produce little stool volume etc., yet have a little less shine to their coats, seem to display more dermatologic distress and the foods have less expensive ingredients and are not naturally preserved. Below, we shall try to examine why this may be. If one were to talk to one hundred people and ask them what is the best way to make a dog food they will probably get one hundred different answers. My own experience with selling and using dog food showed me that certain combinations seemed to work better than others. For example when I first started in this business I started off selling a well known natural dog food that uses millet as it's staple grain. I liked the idea of using multiple grains versus one or two and the use of flax and fish for the omega 3s. However, many complaints were lodged of dogs losing weight on this food. Many quickly realized that by putting their dogs on this companies' puppy food they looked much better I also noticed that years ago more breeders used the original formula of a dog food with a hard to pronounce name (at least until they were bought out by a large multinational company) for their puppies than anything else. There were some rumors of it causing a red tinge to the coat, but a lot of breeders swore by it. It was one of the first companies to market a super premium pet food and included high levels of chicken by-product meal and fish meal in its formula. The breeders then switched back to whatever food they liked because they thought it was too high in protein, but they swore by it for their puppies. I was then interested in a company and it's theories that made carnivore specific pet foods in a granular form made with a high amount of animal based protein that receives a lot of praise from a loyal customer base, but again they used corn (not that there is anything wrong with corn but a lot of consumers do not like it) and their prices were about two dollars per pound, out of range for most consumers. I also fed raw and had my butcher mix beef, heart, thymus, pancreas, tripe, bone dust and liver. I would mix this with oatmeal, kelp, wheat germ, herbs, romaine and red leaf lettuce, blackberries and such. I had very good results with this but wanted to create a formula as close to this ideal as possible but without the problems (parasites, salmonella, missing vitamins or minerals etc). The common denominator was that foods that contained a lot of animal based protein, or a performance or puppy versions of some dog foods seemed to get better results than maintenance or "lite" versions, or most commercial grain based foods. Lets investigate this further. Most commercial dog foods, because of cost considerations are made predominately from wheat flour, corn meal or white rice. Another reason for this is that refined flours are high in starch. In the extrusion process, the starches are gelatinized so that they may be digested. The greater the gelatinization the greater the digestibility. All things being equal the more starch the greater the overall digestibility of the kibble. As with most things in this world, that depends. This only applies to the grains or flours in a formula. We have made our food a little differently. We use high levels of a high quality low ash chicken meal that is already very digestible as are the fats and oils. A high level of starch in a formula does bind the kibble together nicely, but contributes little in the way of nutrition. With that said, what refined flours contribute to a formula nutritionally are mostly just carbohydrates. They are lacking in vitamins and minerals, amino acids and essential fatty acids. Whole grains have many times the vitamins and minerals but are still not as concentrated as animal based foods. An herbivore, with it's multiple compartment stomach specially designed to extract nutrients from plant matter, eats grasses, grains and seeds and the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients are then concentrated in it's flesh and organs. Chicken meal, fish meal, lamb meal etc., are high in amino acids, essential fatty acids, calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese and vitamins. In fact we add no extra calcium to our formulas as our ingredients supply enough necessary. Fats and oils supply essential fatty acids and some vitamins but refined flours only supply carbohydrates. We use only a small amount of grains and we use only whole grains which include the germ and bran where the vitamins/minerals are most concentrated and are run twice through a high speed hammer mill right before going into the extruder for freshness. Some other "natural" foods use whole grains as well and spend a lot to advertise that fact. The problem is that their formulas are comprised of a high percentage of grains just as most commercial foods have a high percentage of flours. The WHOLE grains however contain a high level of fiber and other components that are hard to digest, thereby causing large stool volume, dogs that have a hard time keeping weight, mediocre coat growth and other problems. We still feel that by using whole grains we are providing salubrious benefits to your pet, yet because they comprise a small percentage of the total formula, you avoid the above mentioned problems as well. Another problem is that not only must there be enough vitamins and minerals, but as many vitamins and minerals interact, the balance of nutrients must be correct. For example, the higher the level of omega 6 essential fatty acids, the higher the level of vitamin E. The higher the fat, the higher the protein. Copper and manganese, copper and zinc, zinc and magnesium, zinc and vitamin E, as well as other nutrients, must all be present in the correct ratios The other part of the equation is the packaging, the use of quality expensive ingredients and/or probiotics and digestive enzymes, and the use herbs, seeds and unrefined oils. There are a number of unique foods on the market which use high levels of animal based protein or use foil barrier packaging, or have innovative ingredients such as fruits, vegetables, probiotics or seeds, but which also seem to be lacking in some manner. No one has brought everything together. Why not combine all of the best properties and eliminate the weaknesses? Why not make a formula that was carnivore specific with high levels of animal based amino acids but also include multiple grains, fruits, vegetables, seeds and herbs? Why not have probiotics and barrier bags but eliminate corn, soy and refined flours? Why not make a food with expensive high quality ingredients but that goes against the grain (no pun intended) of the industry in the way it is made? Finally, why not make a formula with all of these traits included but make it concentrated and nutrient dense so that you feed less? We feel that with the Timberwolf Organics formulas that that has been accomplished. Think of the Timberwolf Organics foods as a carnivore specific ultra concentrated performance (more expensive) formulas but with herbs, seaweeds, seeds, multiple grains and gourmet unrefined oils and packaged in barrier bags. Sincerely, Mark
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