Duke's Delicious Dog Dinners

What isn't in our meals?

This might be the most important question of all. We've never used corn products (meal, starch, dextrose, glucose, modified glucose), gluten, rice, flour, wheat or other grains, or any binders, thickening agents or fillers. We don't believe that during their evolution dogs/wolves would have had any of these substances in their diets. We don't add anything to our food for the purpose of sweetening or thickening it.

We used to add small amounts of raw garlic, corn kernels and onions but we no longer use those either. We don't use garlic because, while some feel it has beneficial effects others feel there is potential for it to act as a blood thinner which might increase the chance of hemorrhaging - we don't know the definitive answer to this but we wanted to err on the side of caution. We don't use onions for the same reasons.

Fresh healthy veggies and fruits go into the mix....

We use local produce unless achieving a specific nutritional goal means using fruits/veggies grown elsewhere. Once the ingredients have been assembled we grind the produce. This is necessary because the cells walls of plants are very difficult for dogs (and humans) to digest. That means it is hard for your dog's digestive system to get the nutrients the plant contains. In the wild dogs and wolves get these nutrients from the partially digested plants in the stomachs of their prey. They also eat root vegetables and fruit that has become over-ripe such as melons, fallen apples - the process of becoming over-ripe is one where the cell walls rupture thus making the nutrients within easily available.

Fresh produce presents your dog's digestive system with a problem. We solve that problem by grinding the produce to help make the nutrients more readily available. But unlike other producers of raw pet food we don't stop there! A portion of the ground produce is then run through a juicer to maximize the nutrients extracted. The juice and the pulp are then recombined and mixed with some of the ground produce.

Why not juice all the produce? Because the coarser grind also has a purpose - providing roughage to help keep the digestive system clean. With Duke's food your dog gets the benefits of both ways of preparing the produce. And because juicing provides much more nutrition the amount of vegetables/fruits need is reduced... instead of a meal pack that is only 65%-75% meat your dog gets one that is 85% meat or more. Some BARF producers even charge extra for "high protein" versions of their basic product! Another way of looking at it is that with Duke's there is no filler and more good food yet the pack size stays the same - so with Duke's food you may need to feed your dog smaller meals than if you were using other products.

Now the basic vegetable and fruit mixture is ready but the meal is still not complete!

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