The best food for man's best friend
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Healthy food is no longer just for humans. Sally Kidson talks with two businesses in the Nelson region making 100 percent natural dog foods.
The thought of snacking on their dog's food would turn the stomachs of most owners, but a Motueka company is making biscuits that might just change their minds.
Gary and Michelle Agnew have started a company making gourmet dog treats called K9 Cookies.
The couple are among a burgeoning number of people who are aware that what they feed their pets affects the quality and length of the animals' lives.
Gary Agnew says the K9 treats are made with natural ingredients and have no added salt, sugar, preservatives, colourings or flavourings, and no animal byproducts.
The biscuits are of a standard humans could snack on, although he concedes that this is not the target market. "It might work in Europe or North America, where they are into weird things like that," he jokes.
He says people have become increasingly conscious of what their pets eat. A quick Internet search reveals what goes into some of the major commercially-produced pet foods, and owners might be shocked.
Melamine, the chemical at the centre of the recent milk powder scandal in China, has already caused a scandal in the pet food world, after thousands of pets in the United States died from melamine poisoning linked to an ingredient used in many of that country's major pet food lines. The use of meat byproducts could mean all sorts of nasty ground-up animal products ending up in the family dog's or cat's dinner bowl.
K9 cookies come in three flavours - cheese and herbs, greenlipped mussel, and honey and cinnamon.
Agnew says he and his wife - a chef - started making the cookies for their boxer Daisy before they began producing them commercially about two months ago.
The family had another boxer that died at the relatively young age of eight, so they decided to feed Daisy a better diet in the hope it might help her to live longer.
The Agnews say Daisy seems to be more alert as a result of her improved diet, which includes raw meat, vegetables and "bits and pieces" - as well as the K9 biscuits.
The biscuits are sold at some veterinarians and at Fresh Choice in Motueka and Nelson.
Murchison Meats owner Belinda Girl is another who has started making natural dog foods to ensure her pets get a healthy balanced diet.
She's gone much further than most dog lovers to ensure she knows exactly what goes into her dog food. "I bought a butcher shop," she laughs.
Girl bred sweatan terriers, a cross she developed between a wheaten terrier and a tibetan terrier, but has since retired her dogs. "When we had 19 puppies, they ate a whole bull. Then the butcher shop came up and we thought, `We will do that - at least the dogs will get fed'."
Girl says she makes and sells two dog food products from her Murchison store, using recipes she adapted from ones in the magazine New Zealand Growing Today.
Her standard dog roll contains a wide range of ingredients to ensure the animals get the balanced diet they need.
She says people are surprised to learn that it includes beef, pork, mutton, rice, pasta, barley, split peas, garlic, olive oil, honey, carrot, silverbeet, cabbage, potatoes and other vegetables.
Her other roll uses free-range chicken, pasta and other ingredients for dogs that can't eat beef.
Her rolls are sold at her shop and at a few kennels. She hopes in the future to sell them at other outlets.
The animals thrive on them, and customers swear by them, she says.
"I just want to know what my dogs are eating, and just believe there's no reason why they need to eat anything other than the really good stuff."
- © Fairfax NZ News
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