Why a raw food diet for dogs and cats may be the best

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December 16, 2022

At Miller’s Bio Farm, we believe in raising animals the way nature intended… and that includes pets. However, the modern conventional pet food industry doesn’t seem to agree. Let’s take a step back to understand why.

**Domesticated dogs and cats are descendants of wild animals.**

Dogs are descendants of wolves and would hunt for larger mammals like elk, deer, and rabbit. Cats are descendants of wildcats and would hunt smaller mammals like mice, rats, and voles as well as fish and birds like ducks, turkey, and small perching birds.

Dogs and cats wouldn’t make a fire and cook their prey. They would eat it raw. This is what their bodies are naturally designed to digest and what is biologically appropriate.

Thousands of years ago, dogs and cats were domesticated, bred to live closer to humans and have certain traits. Humans did this for a couple reasons: (1) They enjoyed their companionship; and (2) They provided a service for their caretakers.

Some dogs are fantastic protectors. They will bark to alert an intruder or guard livestock. On our farm, we have dogs to guard the chickens and turkeys. Some dogs are great trackers and retrievers, which can be a great help if you are a hunter or sailor.

Cats are wonderful hunters. They are natural pest control. By keeping the mice population down, they can help save your animal feed and human food and maintain a more sanitary environment. We have cats on the farm for exactly this reason.

Once dogs and cats became domesticated, they continued to hunt as their primary food source but would also be fed scraps from their caretakers’ meals - whole meats, fruits, vegetables, and grains.

Over the past hundred years, processed dry and canned foods have become the standard. This is for convenience and cost savings. However, it takes millions of years for significant evolutionary changes (dogs and cats are 99% identical to their wild descendants).

This trend has damaged the health of our pets. Just like with humans, with a conventional processed diet, nutrition is simply not as bioavailable. And, I mean, dogs and cats aren’t designed to digest soy protein, pea protein, potatoes, synthetic vitamins, etc. Dry food is a big concern and can lead to dehydration, urinary tract issues, and kidney disease (if your pet is not drinking enough water). This is a high concern for cats who are not naturally drawn to drink water.

A species-appropriate raw diet is what dogs’ and cats’ bodies handle best. It makes all nutrition bioavailable, supports a long life in good health, and can help heal from an array of health issues.

Raw diets are naturally low in carbohydrates and high in moisture. The idea is for meals to mimic what a wolf or wildcat would eat in the wild. A species-appropriate meal for most healthy adult dogs and cats can be 80% muscle meat and fat (with 10-15% fat), 5% liver, 5% other offal, and 10% soft bone.

Please keep in mind that, just like with humans, no pet diet is "one size fits all". The "foundation numbers" (80% meat, 10% organ, 10% bone) can vary for each pet's individual needs. Here are some examples:

Bone percentages can vary from 6-15% for adult cats and dogs.
Puppies and kittens need special care and their percentages are completely different and will change as they continue to grow. Puppies may need up to 20% bone.
Some pets have health conditions, which require different diets. For example, a pet with pancreatitis will need to be fed less fat. Another example is a pet with kidney disease, which should be fed a "low phosphorous diet".
Some pets will also require different sources of calcium (such as eggshells) for optimal health.

The amount you should feed will depend on your particular pet. How old are they? How much do they exercise? How fast is their metabolism? The latter two may change with the season. A good amount is usually 1.5-3% of an adult animal’s ideal body weight, fed in 2-3 meals per day.

Keep in mind that feeding rotationally (in other words, not the same thing every day or week) and supplementing may be necessary to reach optimum nutrient levels. Adding in some kelp, whole veggies, egg yolks, or raw dairy is great for adding extra nutrition, healthy fats, and probiotics.

You can purchase pre-made raw diets or make your own at home.

Premade is obviously easier, but making it at home has some benefits:

Can be made in bulk quantities and frozen. When frozen for more than a month, this should also kill parasites, if there are any.
Can be more cost effective when you source individual ingredients in bulk.
You have complete control over quality and ingredients. This may be particularly important for picky eaters or pets with allergies.

If you’re currently feeding processed dry kibble or wet food, please don’t be stressed. There are easy ways to add some raw food or transition to a raw diet.

Here are some things to try:

Put a raw egg yolk on top of the food.
Pour some raw half-and-half or milk or yogurt over the food. Raw A2/A2 dairy can boost your pet’s health.
Mix some of the scraps from the meat (or myoglobin, the red liquid left in the bag) left from trimming into their food.
Pour unseasoned bone broth over the food. I know this is cooked, but it provides lots of moisture and nutrition. Make sure to avoid onion, which is toxic for dogs and cats.

You can continue to feed raw and cooked foods together. That’s perfectly fine. The more raw food you feed, the better your pet’s nutritional needs will be met.

Or, you can continue to add more and more raw foods to their meals until you are feeding 100% raw. A slow transition to raw is best. This will avoid shocking your pet's digestive system.

And, by the way, mixing up your pets’ food with some variety is excellent pet enrichment.

Just like for humans, there is no one diet that is appropriate for every individual animal. But, just like humans, quality matters. Be sure you are feeding your pets high quality and “human grade” foods.

By “human grade”, I don’t mean feeding your pets human food. I mean that you should feed them foods produced to the same standards as your food.

For example, the pet industry allows sick animals or animals that mysteriously died to be made into pet food. The human food industry does not allow that.

Another example is that the pet industry allows tainted raw milk with dyes and additives to be sold as pet food. The human food industry does not allow that. And, that’s why we go above and beyond to produce our A2/A2 pet dairy to the highest standards.

You might be wondering - what about e. coli and salmonella? The internet tells me that it’s a risk for my pet.

Keep in mind that your pet’s digestive system is different from a human’s. It’s shorter, food moves through it more quickly, and the stomach juices are much more acidic. All of these factors help neutralize potentially harmful bacteria. A healthy dog or cat with a normal immune system should have no problems.

One more thing to keep in mind - when you start adding raw foods to your pets’ diet, you may notice a change in their stool.

Because nearly 100% of the nutrients are bioavailable, pets on a raw food diet typically have smaller, firmer stools. And there may be some inconsistencies when you’re transitioning to a 100% raw diet.

**I recommend just getting started. I know when I did, I was amazed at how my pets preferred the raw diet.**

What do you feed your pets? Have you tried a raw food diet or will you consider it in the future? Have you figured out any tricks for making pet food at home?

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Why it's nearly impossible to avoid maltodextrin in fermented dairy.

If you dove deep on our website and clicked on a product to get all the nitty gritty details, you may have noticed the "Honest Disclosure" section. That's right. We believe you deserve to know everything about your food - the big, the small, the good... and even the bad. On most of our fermented dairy (cheese, yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese, etc), you may have noticed a message saying that the freeze dried culture contains a trace amount of maltodextrin 😱 And you may have thought, "What!? I thought they made the most natural food around!" You're right. We do aim to provide you with the most natural foods around, from the farming practices to how they're made in small batches. We want you to have max nutrition and the least toxins possible. And honestly, we're not thrilled to have even a trace of a trace amount of maltodextrin in our fermented dairy. But, sadly, there's simply no way to do that nowadays, especially considering the demand for specific flavors, consistent textures, and a reliable food source. Like seriously, when it comes to maltodextrin, the only difference between Miller's dairy and any other dairy (whether from a supermarket or a farm) is that we did the research and are actually telling you about it. We don't need to. It's not required. But... you deserve to know. So, what's going on with maltodextrin? There's so much more to this story! Keep reading to be a smart natural food shopper and get all the info. What is maltodextrin anyway? Maltodextrin is a sugar, a very simple sugar. Scientifically speaking, it's "short chains of glucose units", a type of "oligosaccharide". Maltodextrin is 100% a lab-produced ingredient. They take a starch (a complex carbohydrate that your body would digest into sugar) and break it down using enzymes or acids. The result is a simple sugar. Labs are basically cutting that long, complex chain that makes up a starch into shorter, simpler segments. Maltodextrin can be made from a bunch of different kinds of starches - corn, wheat, rice, potato, cassava, etc. In the US, it's most commonly made with corn. Depending on what the maltodextrin is derived from and how it's made, it can have different properties and uses. It's most commonly dried into a white powder but can also be found in syrup form. Maltodextrin is used in food as a stabilizer, thickener, anti-caking agent, and bulking agent. I mean, it's in soooo many processed foods. It can also be used in livestock feed or healthcare products as an easily digestible sugar source. Maltodextrin does NOT need to be certified organic in healthcare products (supplements, etc). But, it does need to be certified organic in livestock feed and foods that are certified organic. What would make maltodextrin certified organic? It's how it's broken down. According to OMRI (the Organic Materials Review Institute that approves things for organic use), maltodextrin made with acid is NOT certified organic. Maltodextrin made with enzymes is certified organic. Apparently they believe the enzymatic way is considered "natural". Why would people want to avoid maltodextrin? The FDA classes maltodextrin as a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) food additive. That being said, there are known risks to consuming maltodextrin, especially in larger amounts (which you can absolutely get from processed foods). Here are some potential negative health consequences of overconsumption of maltodextrin: High cholesterolWeight gainType 2 diabetesBlood sugar spikes (particularly in people with diabetes or insulin resistance)Imbalance of gut bacteriaAllergies or intolerances (to corn or wheat) with a range of side effectsExposure to GMOs (when derived from GMO corn) Keep in mind that any of the above side effects typically arise from consuming maltodextrin in large amounts. A trace amount usually won't negatively impact your health unless you have a severe allergy to it (or what it's derived from or made with). What is a freeze dried culture? Freeze dried cultures are surprisingly old. They originated in the late 1800s as a way to preserve the best cheese and dairy cultures and share them over distances. But the technology didn't become really good and reliable until the mid 1900s. That's when they started becoming popular. The process to make them is fairly simple. Like, you can totally do it at home (maybe you've done it with sourdough starter...?). But... for best accuracy and use, freeze dried cultures are best for commercial use and are made in labs nowadays. Here's how it's done: 1- Strains of microorganisms are isolated and grown. The first cultures were made by letting raw milk grow wild. Then, each strain of bacteria, yeast, etc was isolated. This can be done with a particular solution or by putting fermented raw milk on a medium that only supports a specific kind of microorganisms. It's kinda like terrain theory here. Nowadays, labs generally aren't isolating their own cultures much. Instead, they're maintaining cultures separated a longtime ago. It's kind of like culture makers are literal "micro farmers" growing microorganisms. But, instead of planting in the soil, they let each culture grow in pasteurized milk or a specific growing medium (like some kind of something scientific in a petri dish). And, it's 100% in a controlled lab environment. There might be one type of lactic acid bacteria multiplying in one tray and a certain kind of yeast in another. 2- Strains are freeze dried. Each isolated strain is usually freeze dried individually. A freeze dryer is a freezer... but with a vacuum that removes the air. Cool! You could freeze dry anything in a regular freezer, but it would take much much longer. The vacuum element of a freeze dryer makes it so any water turns right into vapor (or dries out) instead of turning to ice. 3- Strains are mixed together to make a specific culture "recipe". It's like a recipe. It might be 3 parts Bifidobacterium lactis, 2 parts Lactobacillus acidophilus, and 1 part Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus. The specific strains mixed together are what give each fermented dairy product it's unique texture and flavor. Other ingredients might be added for specific reasons. Sugars (like maltodextrin or sucrose) help keep the culture in good condition and aid it in coming back to life when used. Enzymes (like lipase) might be added to give better flavor. Or colors (like annatto or synthetic dyes) might be added for a desired yellow or orange color. Why is maltodextrin added to freeze dried cultures? In cheese cultures, maltodextrin has a double purpose. It's an anti-caking agent, keeping the culture as a powder... not an unusable clump. It's also a simple sugar that gives the culture something super easy to digest as it comes back to life. Without maltodextrin, freeze dried culture issues would be quite common. They would stop working or have spotty success. How much maltodextrin ends up in the final product? Maltodextrin is used in small amounts in a freeze dried culture. Maybe with some cultures it's more, but with ours, it's less than 1%. Just a little bit is needed. I'm not sure about this with other dairy makers. But, I can tell you how much culture is in Miller's dairy items. For our cheese, about 1/2 tsp of culture is used in 1lb of cheese. For our fresh fermented dairy like yogurt or kefir, about 1 teaspoon of culture is used per quart of milk. There are 96 teaspoons in a pound of cheese and 192 teaspoons in a quart of milk. So, culture alone is 0.5% or less of the final product. And, if maltodextrin is less than 1% of the culture, we're talking less than 0.005% maltodextrin. On top of that, once the culture is added, it eats up that maltodextrin immediately. I mean, that's the whole point. It's a quick simple food to get those freeze dried cultures active again. Let's say that only half of the maltodextrin is eaten by the cultures. Then there would be less than 0.0025% maltodextrin in the final product. Can we round that to zero...? You see where I'm going. This is why we are ok with the level of maltodextrin in our cheese cultures. We absolutely wouldn't choose it as an ingredient. But, as it stands now, the only cultures available have maltodextrin. If you know of one that doesn't, please let me know!!! If I'm NOT shopping at Miller's, how can I find out if maltodextrin is in my food? Maltodextrin is only required on an ingredient list if it's more than 1% of the final product. If it's less than 1%, then it's not required on a food label, because it's considered a "trace amount". 1% and 0.0025% are very different trace amount levels but are treated the same when it comes to labeling. In fact, when shopping for cheese cultures, maltodextrin typically isn't listed as an ingredient. The only way to find out is to look at the Safety Data Sheet or to call the manufacturer and cross your fingers that they'll talk to you. I think that most farms or dairy makers that get this question would simply say, "Nope, there's no maltodextrin." But, that's not the way we roll at Miller's. A few years ago, someone who had a severe allergy reached out about this. It led me down a rabbit hole, talking to the scientists behind our cultures. And now, I'm sharing what I learned with you. Is there a way to make fermented dairy without maltodextrin, like a wild (not freeze dried) culture? Sure, wild cultured dairy is 100% a thing. It's like the sourdough bread of the dairy world. But... as the name implies, the final product can be a bit "wild". This is how we make our bursting kefirs. They're made with real kefir grains (a wild culture) that's been passed down in our community for generations. As this name implies, it can be explosive and super bubbly. It can be quite strong in flavor (not everyone's cup of tea). And it varies a lot from week to week. If we made cheese with culture we saved, it wouldn't turn out the same every time. We wouldn't be able to have a reliable cheddar and gouda and mozzarella... we'd just have one cheese that turns out a little different every time. If we made yogurt with culture we saved, it's a little more reliable. But, it still wouldn't give you the expected texture and flavor of the yogurt you're expecting. And, there would likely be weeks it simply didn't turn out right. Which Miller's dairy products contain trace amounts of maltodextrin and which don't? NO CULTURE = NO MALTODEXTRIN MilkCreamHalf & HalfIce CreamButter ColostrumGhee WILD CULTURE = NO MALTODEXTRIN Bursting Kefir FREEZE DRIED CULTURE = TRACE MALTODEXTRIN CheeseYogurtMild KefirCottage CheeseSour Cream What do you think? Are you ok with minuscule amounts of maltodextrin in fermented dairy? Why or why not? What trace ingredients are you most concerned about? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below to share your thoughts with our amazing community (no account required), or contact us to keep it private 😊 ----- Sources MaltodextrinWhat is maltodextrin and is it safe?Cheese Making Cultures FAQ Cultured Milk Starters

Does the A2 thing or raw milk thing matter more? It depends.

What's up with soooo many people not being able to tolerate dairy these days? Could it be how conventional milk is being altered? Sure, switching to conventional "certified organic" milk that you can find in nearly any supermarket might help. You're eliminating some of the modern milk alterations. With organic, you're getting rid of the antibiotics. Antibiotics are routinely given to conventional cows to help keep them disease-free, even when in unsanitary or unnatural living environments (like indoors on concrete all the time). With organic, you're getting rid of hormones, which are given to conventional cows to make them produce more milk. More milk + the same amount of feed = more profit.With organic, you're removing some weird, unnatural stuff in the feed. This includes GMO fragments that might make their way into the milk as well as the awful chemicals like glyphosate used to grow GMO crops. But, keep in mind that "organic" does NOT mean chemical free. It simply means that any chemicals used are "approved for organic". Switching to organic is a great step in the right direction. But... what if you already did that and are still experiencing dairy issues? There are so many symptoms of dairy allergies or intolerances. They range from bloating to tummy troubles to nausea to brain fog. In this scenario, it's most likely one of two things, the lactose or the casein protein. There's a different solution for each: Lactose Intolerance → Can be solved with raw or cultured dairy Some people are "born to dance", some are "born to lead", and some are "born to rock"... but all humans are born to drink milk! I mean, breast milk is our first food after all! Babies are naturally designed to digest lactose (milk sugar). That means that, as a baby, you naturally produce tons and tons of lactase, the enzyme required to digest lactose, in your gut. But, over time, a human naturally produces less and less lactase. This is especially true if a human stops eating dairy or foods with the living microbiology present in raw dairy like lactic acid bacteria. After all, why would your body continue producing something if it's useless? Here's the good news. It can be reversed! You may be able to produce lactase again, you may be able to drink milk again, and may be able to eat cheese again. At least, this is true for many, many people. The living dairy microbiology in raw and fermented dairy (even yogurt or kefir made from pasteurized milk as long as it has live cultures in it) can jumpstart your body into producing more and more lactase. Pretty neat! A1 Protein Intolerance → Can be solved with A2/A2 dairy The A1 beta-casein protein is relatively new. A few thousand years ago, humans made cows in Europe pretty stressed. They moved them indoors in cities and started feeding them grain (the byproduct of making whisky and other stuff). And what do organisms tend to do under stress? Mutate! Unlike any other mammal, those European cows had a genetic mutation that makes them produce a new type of protein - the A1 beta-casein protein. Those cows made their way to the US. And now, basically all American milk has a mix of A1 and A2 beta casein proteins. Some people, especially those from eastern countries like India (where cows didn't mutate) or who drink pasteurized or boiled milk, might have an issue with A1 but can handle the A2 beta-casein protein just fine. Switching to A2/A2 milk is all they need to handle dairy again. It's important to note that the only way to know what kind of milk a cow produces is via a genetic test. We test all of our cows, and that's how we're sure our milk contains 100% A2 beta-casein protein. It's A2/A2! Do you have issues with dairy? Did raw or A2/A2 help? What solved your problem, or are you still looking for a solution? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below to share your thoughts with our amazing community (no account required), or keep it private and contact us 😊

100% grass fed and finished beef different from grain fed beef? Yes, it is!

Why grass fed beef? And, I'm not talking about that silly "grass fed" label in the supermarket, which doesn't necessarily mean what you think (read more on that here). I'm talking about truly pastured, 100% grass fed and finished beef. Feeding beef cattle 100% grass is the most natural way. Beef cattle are ruminants. That means they have 4 stomachs are are designed to graze and eat and digest plants... not fully grown seeds like corn and soy and canola or their oils. Eating 100% grass, ideally fresh from the pasture, is how cattle stay in their best health. When beef are fed grain, it creates a lot of acid in their stomach, lowering the pH. It creates an imbalance in gut microbiology, which can result in some pretty awful health outcomes for the cow (sometimes even death). And of course, the healthier the animal, the healthier and more nutrient-dense the food it produces. 100% grass fed and finished beef is more nutritious than grain fed beef! Compared to conventional grain-fed beef, 100% grass fed and finished beef has: 3x more Vitamin E2.5x more Vitamin C2-3x more B Vitamins9x more Vitamin B310x more EPA3x more DHA10x more linolenic acid (alpha/gamma)2-4x more Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) And, grass fed beef has a much better omega 6/3 ratio, usually less than 3:1. Compare that to conventional beef, which has a ratio more than a 15:1. Wow! For some reference, humans should be eating a 4:1 omega 6/3 ratio for optimal health. But, the conventional American diet typically provides a 20:1 ratio. Ugh, no wonder Americans are so sick! Truly pastured, grass fed beef is more flavorful and has a better bite compared to conventional beef. When beef cattle aren't fed a bland diet of corn and soy and instead eat biodiverse, regenerately managed pasture, the meat has more flavor. When beef cattle have plenty of room to roam and exercise those muscles, the meat has texture to it. It has a bite. When some people start eating grass fed beef, they're sometimes put off by the flavor and texture. They might describe it as gamey and tough. But, now that I've been eating grass fed beef for years, it's quite the opposite. Conventional beef is tasteless and boring and mushy. Do you choose grass fed and finished beef? Why? Is it because it's more humane, more nutritious, better tasting, or a combo of them all? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below (no account required) or keep it private and contact us 😊 ----- Sources Nutritional Comparisons Between Grass-Fed Beef and Conventional Grain-Fed Beef