Brad Clinthorne: How to Transition Your Dog To Raw Food Diet Safely | E25

[00:00:00] Stool is a great way of deciding how are checking in to see how your dog's digestion is doing.

[00:00:06] If you're finding some very loose stools, you know within the first few days of starting

[00:00:11] transitioning if your dog has really been regimented on his standard prescription

[00:00:15] food for a long time, yeah I could see maybe a little soft stool at first during transitioning.

[00:00:24] Generally, especially after transitioning, you should expect some pretty nice stools.

[00:00:39] Welcome to the Pet Care Report podcast by Pet Summits.

[00:00:42] Here's your natural dog health care host, Alora McKinley.

[00:00:46] We'll get a guys welcome back to another episode of The Pet Care Report.

[00:00:50] Now one trending theme in all our dog health episodes is the importance of a good diet

[00:00:55] and how that affects our dog's entire life and wellbeing.

[00:00:58] And you probably noticed that many of these experts have recommended a fresh food,

[00:01:03] whole-fruge, whole-food approach to feeding which we know is based on a slowly increasing

[00:01:07] amount of new scientific research.

[00:01:10] And on that note, I'd love to introduce you to Brad Clington to the podcast.

[00:01:14] Now he is an animal lover, a nutrition enthusiast, avid gardener and a family man.

[00:01:19] He entered the pet industry in 2012 and fell in love with helping pet parents to live their best life

[00:01:24] through nutrition and pet parent education.

[00:01:27] He joined Steve's real food in 2021 to help a larger group of pet parents discover

[00:01:32] the real difference food can make.

[00:01:34] Welcome to The Podcast, Brad.

[00:01:35] Oh well thank you so much for having me on.

[00:01:37] Now today we're going to talk about a raw food diet and how we can help transition our dogs.

[00:01:42] For many pet owners, this idea of a raw food diet is really intriguing but also daunting.

[00:01:48] Can you walk us through that the basic principles of a raw food diet and why some might

[00:01:52] eat as much as to make the shift?

[00:01:54] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:01:55] So I mean the raw food diet is based on definitely not a new principle.

[00:02:01] The idea that every animal on the planet should get real fresh food or food at least in cellular form

[00:02:08] and then our dogs and cats should get something heavily processed is really very outlandish.

[00:02:14] And so many people are kind of waking up to that idea.

[00:02:16] Wait a minute.

[00:02:17] I need more fresh food for myself if I if you're dealing with a health issue or

[00:02:21] you just want to be healthier, that's one of the first things that occurs to you.

[00:02:25] I should eat fresh food and more and more people are waking up to the idea that wait a minute

[00:02:30] maybe my dog or cat also needs fresh food in their life.

[00:02:35] And in fact, I would argue that they need it more than we do as we've been eating cooked food

[00:02:39] significantly longer than our furry family members.

[00:02:43] So, you know the whole idea arises from just what should our pets be eating?

[00:02:53] Really taking a step back and thinking based on their physiology, based on their history,

[00:02:59] based on the the recurrent research which you have pointed out more and more we are seeing

[00:03:05] that these fresh real diets benefit our dogs in so many ways.

[00:03:09] I mean, I put my dog on just a 20% fresh diet and he had been eating some really high quality

[00:03:17] processed foods up until then. And I put him on just a 20% fresh diet and kept him on 80% of the

[00:03:24] processed stuff and even with just that amount, I saw huge improvements.

[00:03:29] And so I think people are hearing more of these stories. They're running into more issues.

[00:03:34] They're thinking more critically about their own diets and their own health and all of these

[00:03:38] things that are just kind of coming together to push more people into exploring raw food for their

[00:03:45] dogs at home. Yeah, and so then what do you think holds on his back from starting a real free diet?

[00:03:50] There's a lot because there's a lot of misconceptions and myth out there. There's a lot of just

[00:03:57] being unsure. You know, I was actually running a pet store for probably three years

[00:04:02] and at that time still unsure about raw food. I even headed in my freezer at the store

[00:04:08] and I still wasn't sure how to recommend it, how to feed it. I didn't really know anything about

[00:04:13] it and I was like this I'm the kind of guy who I was going home after work and sitting down

[00:04:18] and reading about dogs and reading about their physiology and reading about what they should be eating.

[00:04:23] You know, and at the time the information wasn't as available then it took a lot

[00:04:28] of looking around to find anything about raw foods. But um, yeah, there is a lot. There's a lot

[00:04:35] of fears, misconceptions and concerns out there. Luckily nowadays there is so much information

[00:04:43] available, you know, it's becoming easier and easier to cross that barrier of misconception.

[00:04:51] I often run into two or three reasons that people don't do it. That people are a little bit concerned.

[00:04:57] A, they're just not sure how to start. Okay, so you want me to feed raw meat to my dog? What do I do?

[00:05:04] Should I just go to the store and slap some burger down in front of them? In fact, I was talking to a

[00:05:09] friend the other day about his dog and we got started talking about fresh food and I got him sold

[00:05:14] on the idea and he said okay. So what do I do? Do I just go grab some salmon and feed it to my dog?

[00:05:21] You know, and it's just so many people are at that level where yes they would love to do better for

[00:05:26] their animals but they're really not sure how to start. So that's the first part is figuring out

[00:05:30] how to start and you know you guys are so helpful for that. So instrumental in teaching people

[00:05:35] how to feed fresh diets, you know whether they want to make them at home or if they want to you

[00:05:40] know buy some there's so many beautiful commercially prepared raw foods out there now as well.

[00:05:46] But then there are two other big holdouts that I run into A bacteria and B nutrient imbalance.

[00:05:55] Those are two really big concerns and we actually have a webinar actually have a webinar that

[00:06:01] completely addresses those as well as all of the other misconceptions and we really dive into it but

[00:06:08] you know bacteria our dogs, our dogs have been eating carcasses they find you know they've been

[00:06:16] foraging they've been scavenging for thousands and thousands of years and then this is built on top

[00:06:22] of animals that have been scavenging for millions of years. They can absolutely handle

[00:06:30] crazy different amounts of bacteria than we can but most foods either in the human food chain

[00:06:39] or especially if you're buying like a commercially prepared raw food the bacterial content

[00:06:44] of those is going to be incredibly low if it's pathogenic bacteria almost every raw food company will

[00:06:50] have multiple safety steps in place nobody wants to hurt an animal we're all doing this from a

[00:06:55] place of love and then you know the human side as long as you're handling things well your dog

[00:07:02] should be able to handle most of the bacteria in those foods you know one of the big concerns is

[00:07:07] what Saminella. Well Saminella needs a pH between what four and six in order to grow and thrive

[00:07:16] whereas your dog's stomach when he's digesting a meal dips down to a pH of like one that's

[00:07:21] like sulfuric acid it just the same no it doesn't stand a chance in there. Good to note too that it's

[00:07:26] not just raw food that can carry some vanilla your kibble can absolutely in fact pound per pound

[00:07:33] kibble is responsible for far more bacteria recalls that they had raw foods are in the past you know

[00:07:39] 15 years so the fact that bacteria in general is a raw food problem it is definitely a misnomer it's

[00:07:48] not a raw food problem it's a pet food concern and as long as the company you're buying from is

[00:07:52] really thoroughly addressing it it's not something you should have to be concerned about just wash

[00:07:57] your hands after you serve it just like you're dealing with kibble. Yeah what's a good point

[00:08:02] for your hands and maybe not letting your dog lick you in the face and things like that that

[00:08:07] will definitely help prevent any cross contaminate. Oh absolutely dogs are licking all sorts of

[00:08:12] stuff it's not the raw food that's going to give you problems if your dog's licking your face you

[00:08:16] know it's all of the other thing I mean every dog cleans his own but come on it's an

[00:08:22] it's weird things at the dog park right absolutely yeah now you mentioned two other good points

[00:08:28] there what are some precautions that owners could take to ensure that they are feeding raw foods

[00:08:34] so you definitely want to make sure you're feeding a balance to diet it doesn't have to be

[00:08:38] balanced every single day but you want it balanced over time so if you're making it yourself don't

[00:08:43] just go to the store and grab some salmon and slap it in front of your dog find a really good

[00:08:49] recipe from somebody who you trust and somebody who has the credentials um if you're buying a

[00:08:54] commercially prepared food research that company reach out to them if you have to go on their website

[00:09:00] really do some research and reach out to them you know you want to make sure that they're testing

[00:09:04] their food to make sure that it's balanced that they have some safety steps in place for bacteria

[00:09:09] and things like that um anywhere you're getting your ingredients just vet them a little bit do

[00:09:16] some research remember you only have to do this once once you find some places that you can trust

[00:09:24] you don't need to keep redoing this every time you buy a bag of dog food you know once you've

[00:09:28] established who you can buy from who you trust and who you know is safe uh your homework is done

[00:09:34] at least in that particular area so that's the first thing it's just um making sure that

[00:09:41] you can trust that there's a lot of trust between you and whoever you're buying your food from

[00:09:46] and then like I said the other thing making sure your diet is balanced um again if you're going to

[00:09:51] be making it at home definitely uh tap into some of the amazing brilliant minds that are available

[00:09:58] these days people who are just spilling all sorts of beautiful information and sharing recipes with

[00:10:04] us to help feed our dogs fresh food yeah and you can also get to some parents that are you know

[00:10:09] very anxious about malice in their meals you can get like um stuff from the pet store now

[00:10:15] that has different minerals that you can add to your dog food just to make sure you're covering

[00:10:18] all the bases so it's not as scary as it sounds yeah and it really comes down to this is food this

[00:10:24] isn't a prescription you know our bodies are all made for balance over time so yeah as long

[00:10:31] as you do your homework you're not you're not kind of your dog's not going to drop dead yeah he's

[00:10:35] not going to kill over from it's from the slightly mixed up uh especially if you're feeding whole foods

[00:10:41] you're really not going to screw up that badly in a short amount of time but seriously you over

[00:10:46] a long term you definitely can you know cause some damage so do some homework yeah now should

[00:10:52] let's say a dog owner wants to introduce some raw food to their dog star does it have to be

[00:10:57] dog food that is specifically for pets like raw meat or can they also use meat that's for human

[00:11:03] consumption as well oh they can absolutely use meat that's for human consumption I will cut you

[00:11:07] know little bits off of food that i'm preparing and toss them to my dogs I do you know I work for

[00:11:12] a dog food company I do personally really prefer getting the meat from you know the company

[00:11:18] I work for but that's only because in my area there's not a lot of really great meat available

[00:11:24] and so there's a lot of trust there with me so sometimes I think you can actually get higher

[00:11:30] quality stuff if you can really establish that trust um now meat in the human supply chain if

[00:11:38] you have an immunocompromised animal or something definitely consult with a holistic vet or you know

[00:11:43] your veterinarian if they're raw friendly before you start feeding that because if you have like an

[00:11:47] immunocompromised dog or something meat in the human supply chain will have a higher bacterial load

[00:11:55] it's usually not you know out of this world crazy but there's like a zero tolerance um

[00:12:02] there's a zero tolerance level set for commercial dog food companies and so they can not have

[00:12:09] pathogenic bacteria in their raw meats whereas at the grocery store there is a little bit of room

[00:12:14] to move around that is still that should not scare you off from going to the store and finding some

[00:12:20] great meat and sharing it with your dogs um but just keep that in mind if you have an animal who's

[00:12:25] immunocompromised talk to your vet first yeah and now for people that are going to maybe look at

[00:12:30] making their own raw pet food what kind of things like that raw food is it just meat and bones but

[00:12:36] what should i be expecting? So there's a few different philosophies uh behind that some people do

[00:12:42] believe in the prey model diet which you know is really mostly animal even if you're still doing

[00:12:47] mostly animal you're going to have to add some other things. I personally am all about the barf

[00:12:53] diet but biologically appropriate raw foods i love seeing a mix of meat organ bone some fresh produce

[00:13:02] you know some beautiful veggies some tasty fruits some herbs mushrooms there's all sorts of fantastic

[00:13:08] stuff that are full of benefits and phytonutrients and beautiful things that can help your dog um live

[00:13:16] a longer healthier happier life and so personally i really do like to include some fruits and veggies

[00:13:24] and some other great extras in my dogs food if i'm ever making a meal you know and you can add some

[00:13:30] fun fermented things as well i do a low salt kimchi at my house um i guess i shouldn't call it

[00:13:36] kimchi it doesn't really have any spices added to it this one's for the dogs but it's an awesome

[00:13:42] awesome pro and prebiotic and even postbiotic um so yeah i'm a big fan of including some fruits and

[00:13:51] veggies now i do believe that dogs diets should be mostly animal based um that they really do better

[00:13:58] on a mostly animal based diet and so including that muscle meat including that organ meat incredibly

[00:14:04] important including that bone ridiculously important um but i also again do believe in adding some

[00:14:13] produce and i guess the thought that dogs need carbohydrates has been around for quite a long time

[00:14:19] so many will add um maybe rice to their dog's food what's your thought on adding a carbohydrate

[00:14:25] yes so dogs have no actual need for carbohydrates um now you definitely can add some but i

[00:14:35] personally don't really think their body has a great use for those um so i typically try to go

[00:14:41] lower carb with with the the foods that i choose from my dogs i do like more

[00:14:46] fibrous vegetables i'll add things like broccoli and kale stuff like that um carats apples

[00:14:54] even apples are a great source of fiber um i definitely try to go low glycemic low sugar i'm

[00:15:01] not going to add mango to my dogs bowl that often um so yeah personally i don't really subscribe

[00:15:08] to the belief that you need to give your dog carbs or go out of your way to give your dog carbs

[00:15:13] they're naturally going to come in through some of the amazing foods you're already giving them

[00:15:18] and i certainly wouldn't go out of my way to add them to the bowl yeah absolutely me too now

[00:15:23] how do pep owners work out how much raw food to feed their dog is there a um like a chart or

[00:15:30] something they can follow yeah typically if you're doing like a mostly meat diet you would feed

[00:15:34] about two and a half percent of their body weight every day um and then you could adjust that

[00:15:41] depending on your dog every dog is a different i know there are so many great charts out there

[00:15:47] there are so many great guides that's actually a really great question for google probably because

[00:15:52] it's some easy quantitative data you can just type in and get some some good answers um but typically

[00:16:00] you know if i'm feeding it diet if my bowl is uh 80 percent meat organ and bone and 20 percent

[00:16:07] produce and a little goat milk and you know a little coconut oil or something like that

[00:16:12] then i'm going to feed my uh 80 pound dog about two pounds of that a day

[00:16:18] yeah it's not that hard and especially learning about your dog and how you want them to be

[00:16:23] because we want them to be overweight and we don't want them to be underweight we want them to be

[00:16:26] just right so finding that amount of food that's going to work for our dogs i know i've got active

[00:16:30] dogs so i feed them a little bit more than what's usually recommended just to keep them healthy

[00:16:36] yeah and i recommend that people uh establish a baseline wait for their dogs i'll actually pick up my

[00:16:41] my golden retriever chuck and i'll step up there on the scale and we'll check in every once in a while

[00:16:46] just to make sure we're not overdoing it you know because we'd love to add some extra eggs fresh

[00:16:50] from the chickens things like that and if we're not careful he'll creep up to 85 90 you know

[00:16:57] we know that being just a moderately overweight can significantly impact their life so

[00:17:02] yeah i always always recommend establishing a baseline that way you can just check in every once in a

[00:17:07] while yeah great idea now let's say and i'm gonna has transition their dog to a raw food diet

[00:17:12] how can they ensure that their pet is thriving and when they might need to make some adjustments

[00:17:17] yes so the first one of the first things you should notice is more energy more vitality

[00:17:21] that was the first thing i noticed from my dog when i started transitioning him to a rod diet

[00:17:26] that was probably within at least two weeks of transition and i was not fully transitioning

[00:17:31] at this point i was just including it in his diet but i saw more vitality i saw more energy if

[00:17:37] you're seeing with largy then you might want to look into that there there may be some reason

[00:17:41] that you may should maybe should reach out to your vet or you're maybe just not feeding enough now i

[00:17:46] doubt that's the case but it's possibility um you also want to look at their stool obviously stool

[00:17:52] is a great way of deciding how are checking in to see how your dog's digestion is doing if you're

[00:17:58] finding some very loose stools you know within the first few days of starting transitioning if

[00:18:04] your dog has really been regimented on his standard prescription food for a long time

[00:18:09] yeah i i could see maybe a little soft stool at first during transitioning

[00:18:16] but generally especially after transitioning you should expect some pretty nice stools

[00:18:23] my dog stools got smaller they got tighter they're a little firmer much much healthier than

[00:18:29] they were when he was eating a processed food diet and they were those big old fluffy poops you know

[00:18:35] as he's in two poop bags per walk um so stool is a great way to keep an eye on your dogs overall health

[00:18:41] and how you're doing with your current meal plan um wait of course is a great

[00:18:48] way to see how things are going if he's ballooning up well time to slow down and adjust figure out

[00:18:53] what's going on um but also if he's losing weight if he's visibly losing weights especially quickly

[00:18:59] that's something you definitely want to address um and then finally something i like to look at this

[00:19:04] is a little longer term but coat you know skin and coat health um that it's a great way to check

[00:19:11] in make sure your dog's getting enough of the right oils enough of the right fats enough protein

[00:19:15] a lot of protein a lot of the protein they eat goes into their skin and coats like 30% of the

[00:19:20] protein they eat goes to their skin and coat alone you know so um that's another great way

[00:19:26] to keep an eye on your dog and just make sure that he's doing fine something i hear quite often is

[00:19:32] people transitioning their dog to a raw food diet and then say my dog is not drinking enough

[00:19:37] they've changed you know they used to drink all full of water now they're not drinking any what would

[00:19:41] you say about that so the processed food they were eating is what 10% moisture most likely

[00:19:47] they're they're not made for that their body has to rehydrate it in their stomach before they can

[00:19:52] even start digesting it and that's pulling water from their body it's pulling water from their

[00:19:56] cells so they're going to be gulp and down water left and right to try to rehydrate which they cannot

[00:20:02] unfortunately do as effectively as we wish they could when they start eating that fresh raw food

[00:20:08] that stuff is loaded with water that's like 80% water on average and so they're they're just going

[00:20:14] to be hydrating naturally through their food which is exactly how they're designed to hydrate

[00:20:18] that's exactly how dogs should be hydrating is through that intracellular moisture

[00:20:23] that's the best way to rehydrate that's why we drink things like gatorade and stuff that tries

[00:20:28] to replicate that intracellular moisture or why they say eating cucumber hydrates you better than

[00:20:33] drinking a glass of water your body can really use that very well and so that's what's going on

[00:20:39] in your dog a he doesn't need as much moisture for aiding his digestion and then be he's hydrating

[00:20:45] more effectively through his food and you mentioned the difference in stool tart theory so a raw fat dog

[00:20:51] has much smaller stools traditionally yeah absolutely smaller firmer stools they naturally express

[00:20:57] the anal glands on the way out yeah that is a great great sign of health they should deteriorate

[00:21:04] pretty quickly out left out in nature I know I don't have to do nearly as much poo pick up nowadays

[00:21:10] I've got a great big yard and I try to let as much of it as I can return to nature and feed the soil

[00:21:18] and now that they're eating a fully fresh diet it does not sit around nearly as long

[00:21:23] yeah now that's so great we've come into really great things because raw feeding really isn't as

[00:21:28] scary as sometimes people make it out to be so if we're going to sum it up safely what can

[00:21:33] parents do to raw feed safely if you're going to make your own diets again just find some really

[00:21:39] great people who have great um have a few great recipes you can start from there it's so easy

[00:21:47] if you have a brand new to raw feeding and you have never stuck your toe in it even start tossing

[00:21:53] your dog some fresh fruits and veggies just get them started on that give them a little fresh raw

[00:21:58] goat milk that's a great way to get started dip your toe in and start getting familiar with feeding

[00:22:04] your dog actual food these animals are so flexible and so able to eat so many different things

[00:22:11] but they only really thrive once you start giving them the foods that their bodies are made to digest

[00:22:16] and interact with so it's never too late to start it's never all or nothing you can always just

[00:22:24] do a little bit you can always dip your toe in but again either do your research and find some

[00:22:32] fantastic recipes from people who formulate or um talk to some great you know there are some

[00:22:38] great commercially available dog foods out there as well I would just have a conversation with the

[00:22:43] company behind the food yeah and then just basic common sense too I think you're not going to

[00:22:48] leave your raw food sitting out for a few hours in in the summer heat so um yeah basic basic

[00:22:54] sense wash your hands yeah absolutely once you set it down for your dog I like to treat it like

[00:23:00] cooked food you know I don't leave it down for more than two hours just like with a cooked dish or

[00:23:05] something like that um and then after you handle it wash your hands after your dog eats it wash

[00:23:10] the bowl just like you should be doing with kibble or canned food or any of those as well um yeah very

[00:23:16] common sense it's very easy to get started it took me three years in the pen and industry to get started

[00:23:22] and I wish wish wish I had done it earlier because once I started I was like oh man this is easy

[00:23:28] and I far prefer feeding some of my frozen food to feeding uh that greasy kibble scooping

[00:23:35] it out of the bag getting it you know sticking my arm down to the elbow getting on my sleeve no thank

[00:23:40] you well thank you so much Brad that's been really interesting if that follows want to find out more

[00:23:45] about you where can they find you uh it's so steves real food you can either go onto the the home page

[00:23:53] or you can check out the Facebook um I'm always doing webinars with you know I'm I work four steves

[00:24:01] and so for steves I'm always presenting great uh some fun webinars and we have our own Facebook

[00:24:06] live channel as well so we are uh often bringing on experts and doing fun interviews so you can

[00:24:11] always join us there to learn some more beautiful put some links to that in the show notes and just

[00:24:16] you mentioned steves real food I assume they make like a raw food blend as well yeah absolutely so

[00:24:21] steves was actually the first commercially available raw food in the US back in the night back in 1998

[00:24:26] um started the game absolutely and yeah we make a uh 80% meat organ and I'm sorry yeah 80%

[00:24:36] meat organ and bone in 20% awesome produce and extras recipe for dogs and cats and then we make

[00:24:44] some other great stuff as well so if you're interested in learning more check us out for sure yeah

[00:24:49] lovely we'll put some put a link again down below now thank you so much everyone for joining me

[00:24:54] if you want to watch more you need to follow and subscribe and leave a review um and if there's

[00:24:59] something you've found interesting let us know or if there's something you want to cover in the

[00:25:02] future um then shoot us a message too all right we'll see you next time

[00:25:24] you