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A lot of love and careful research has gone into creating this menu. If you’d like to know more about the ingredients we choose, the methods we use, the theories we trust, and what we suggest for you:

OUR MENU

What's On The Menu:
The Concepts Behind Our Creations

    Welcome to the delicious part – what’s on the menu for dinner! We want to empower you with the knowledge of exactly what your pet is eating and why. This page describes how our raw dog and cat food is prepared, what ingredients we use, and a bit of the theory and scientific research behind each recipe.

    But many of our clients are already very knowledgeable, so if you know what kind of dinners, whole foods, meat minces, special recipes, treats, or supplements you are looking for, feel free to browse our shop. Hints and guidelines on how to switch your pet to raw food or maintain a raw food diet can be found here.

    If you’re interested in having more details on what’s in our Cat of the Day and Give a Dog a Bone Dinners, or our Special Recipes, and why the Whole Foods, Treats, and Supplements were chosen for our menu, please keep reading…

    All our food

    Like humans, cats and dogs need variety in their diets, and they all have different health needs, so we have lots of options for you. Before we break down the details, let us tell you what applies to all the food we have on offer.

    Nutritious and Delicious

    • We are committed to providing cats and dogs with the best available bio-appropriate nutrition, and pledge never to inflate our profits by using cheap filler ingredients
    • We only offer real, fresh, raw foods – no added salt or preservatives. The dinners have appropriate supplements added, but these are minimal and are all natural – details to follow.
    • The food is hand-prepared in our own kitchen, where strict hygiene protocols are observed
    • All ingredients are fit for human consumption
    • We search for the best quality meat that we can find. We use free-range chicken, venison, turkey, beef and ostrich
    • Ingredients are locally sourced whenever possible
    • Our recipes have been designed in consultation with a holistic veterinarian and an animal nutritionist
    • All our recipes have undergone the strict analysis and stringent testing required by the Department of Agriculture, and our dinners are registered under Act 36/1947

    You are always welcome to come visit and see for yourselves what goes into the food and how it is made. If you bring your furry friend along to our shop, they may even be lucky enough to sample a treat or two, and will certainly be subjected to many cuddles!

    So Convenient

     

    Those are all the healthy facts, but convenience is important for our human friends too. We have you covered here:

    • All our foods are packed and frozen in re-sealable bags (ranging from 100g to 1kg). Simply defrost and serve!
    • If you’re not in Cape Town, don’t worry – we have distributors all over the country (including Johannesburg, Pretoria,  Plettenberg Bay, Route 62, and others) who are as passionate and knowledgeable about our food as we are.  We’d love to put you in contact with the right people – just let us know where you are based.
    • If you are in the Mother City, we have a very extensive delivery route to all corners of Cape Town, as well as outlying areas from Hermanus to Langebaan (email us for the full schedule), so we bring delicious pet wellness right to you. You are welcome to place a regular order for delivery to your doorstep, or ad-hoc orders.

    Our regular delivery customers all agree that it brightens their day to see our wonderful driver Precious appear at the door, always with time for a smile and a cuddle for the pets who rush to greet him with hungry eyes!

    Our dinners, whole foods and pure meat minces

    Two Ways to Feed Raw Cat Food and Dog Food (BARF and Prey Model)

    Our Menu offers two general approaches to raw feeding.  The first is our minced, prepared dinner recipes, which have a balanced blend of ingredients.  The second is the single ingredient options – whole meaty bones, or minced meat / offal.  We feed our own dogs and cats a combination of the two, and that’s what we recommend to our customers too.  Variety is the key to balance, and this way they get the best of both worlds.

    Our pre-made dinners for both dogs and cats are carefully designed to include a balance of all the nutritional elements they need, and our whole foods give them a huge amount of joy as well as many health benefits (more details in a bit).

    As Nature Intended Dinners based on the Biologically Appropriate Raw Food (BARF) Diet:

    These are our registered dinners which have been lovingly hand-prepared for maximum deliciousness.  They are nutritionally balanced, minced, pre-mixed blends.  We also make “chunky” versions of our cat and dog Free-Range Chicken, which is partially minced with some whole pieces of meat in it.

    Give a Dog a Bone recipes all have fresh raw meat and bone cuts, organ meats, and eggs, with a small amount of fruit and vegetables. The average ratio across our dinners is 78% meat and bone, 10% offal, 11% vegetables and fruit. They are boosted with natural supplements, including deep sea kelp, apple cider vinegar, and homemade yoghurt (1%). The calcium-phosphorous ratio in our dog dinners averages at 1:1.  We offer Free Range Chicken (finely minced or chunky), Venison, Beef, Tripe and Turkey Dinners.

    Cat of the Day dinners are made of pure meat and bone (87%) and offal (11%), with some egg yolk, homemade yoghurt, and essential supplements (2%), including extra vitamins, taurine and deep sea kelp. The calcium-phosphorous ratio averages at 1.1:1.  Free Range Chicken, Turkey, and Ostrich are the three protein options offered.

    All our meals are conveniently packed in smaller or larger bags to suit your needs (from 100g bags for teeny kittens to 1kg bags for big dogs!).

    For questions about food quantity and mealtimes, please contact us. Each pet’s needs may differ slightly and we are always on hand to help you get the quantities right for your furry family member. We are also happy to help you work out your pet food budget.

    As Nature Intended WHOLE FOODS and PURE MEAT MINCES for dogs and cats based on Prey Model Feeding

    Please do feed your cats and dogs some Whole Foods. If you prefer to feed your own home-made pure Prey Model or RMB diet, you can find a wide variety in this section, and can even combine with our Pure Meat Minces (some with bone included) to create your own meals. Proteins on offer include Free-Range Chicken, Venison, Ostrich, Pilchards, Beef, and Turkey, in various whole cuts or minced.

    One of our favourite Pure Meat Minces is Green Tripe – known to many raw feeders as a “superfood” for its great nutritional properties.  It is not to be confused with “white tripe” which has been bleached and is therefore unsuitable (and stripped of many of its nutritional benefits).

    Pilchards are a fantastic source of Omega-3, the one supplement we recommend that your dogs and cats get.

    Chomping on raw bones is very good for keeping teeth and jaws strong, and gripping the bones while they chew is excellent for muscle development in the paws, shoulders and backs.  No more dental worries as gnawing on a bone scrapes tartar off the teeth and keeps them clean.  Raw meaty bones are an excellent source of natural, highly digestible calcium and other vital nutrients for dogs and cats.

    Chewing also has a calming effect and counteracts boredom… which not only makes your pets happier but protects your shoes, couches, and coffee table legs!

    Some of our customers are nervous about Whole Foods at first because they have heard that it is dangerous to feed bones to dogs and cats.  Please note the vital difference here between cooked and raw bones!  As well as nullifying the nutritional benefits, cooking the bones makes them brittle, and therefore prone to breaking and splintering, which is potentially very harmful for your pet (it can lead to internal scarring, or even bleeding).  This will not happen with raw bones, which dogs and cats easily break down and gobble with glee.

    For dogs and cats with previous dental problems, and for owners who are not keen on the Whole Foods, we are happy to mince these for you so your dog or cat can still benefit from the excellent nutritional value of things like chicken feet.

    Whole Foods complement the dinners beautifully, and we recommend feeding your dogs and cats something whole two to three times a week.  Have a look at our Menu to see the wide range on offer. Some of the smaller Whole Foods are especially good for cats – chicken necks and venison ribs are great to start with, and then you can move them on to chicken wings and pilchards.

    We also offer genuine Free Range Eggs sourced from a local farmer – a whole one is a special treat for our dogs (cats get the yolks only), and we haven’t bought eggs for ourselves from a supermarket since we started stocking them.  They are fresh and delicious!

    Biologically Appropriate Raw Food (BARF) and Prey Model Feeding (Raw Meaty Bones) – The Theory

    Two main schools of thought emerged around natural feeding when the modern movement against processed pet food (pellets / kibble) began in the 1990’s. These are the BARF approach, and Prey Model Feeding or RMB.  For us, their similarities are far more notable than their differences.  They both support raw feeding, and are committed to feeding dogs and cats as nature intended them to eat.  Both promote feeding fresh, raw, real food with no preservatives and absolutely no grains.

    Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they categorically must eat meat to survive. Some BARF feeders do put a small amount of vegetable in their diet, but we find that the cats don’t want it, and the experts agree that they don’t need it as long as their vitamin and mineral needs are satisfied.

    The debate between followers of the two feeding models is mostly about dogs.  Some say that one model treats dogs as pure carnivores (like cats), while the other treats them as omnivores.  Dr Ian Billinghurst says that dogs are carnivores who also eat vegetable matter. They are scavengers, hunters, and opportunists – in other words, predominantly carnivores who also eat omnivorously (they will eat what they can find in nature).  Dr Billinghurst’s Biologically Appropriate Raw Food (BARF) diet of minced, nutritionally balanced recipes therefore includes some vegetables and fruit for dogs, though the majority of the diet is still raw meat and bones.  He also advocates the use of some whole foods.

    The goal of Prey Model Feeding is to imitate the whole carcass of the prey that a dog would eat in the wild.  Many will say that Prey Model Feeding (or Dr Tom Lonsdale’s Raw Meaty Bones / RMB) is an entirely meat-and-bone diet.  However Dr Lonsdale agrees that wild dogs and wolves do ingest a small amount of vegetable matter through eating the intestines or stomach contents of their (largely herbivorous) prey.  So neither diet actually completely banishes vegetable matter, though Prey Model focuses on meat and bones, which are served whole. Prey model feeders recommend a ratio of 80% meat, 10% offal, and 10% bone.

    Arguments between “Prey Model Feeders” and “BARF” feeders are regularly seen on social media platforms. Our experience tells us that (as one breeder put it), the BARF vs Prey Model debate is an “Imaginary War” as the two camps are actually on the same side (http://www.newcastleboxers.com/rawvsbarf.shtml).  Much has been written and said by other cat and dog nutritional experts since this debate began, and their work and research supports this assertion.  These theorists include Dr Jon Lumley, Lynn Thomson, Lew Olson, Michelle Bernhard, Margaret Gates, and Dr Eliza Katz, and many others.  Dr Karen Becker says it well when she emphasises that nutritional balance is what is important for our dogs and cats, not dogmatic adherence to this or that model.