It’s Messy, but it’s Good…..
The following quotes and video footage on weaning puppies onto The Honest Kitchen’s products, are provided courtesy of Mary Young and Gina Spadafori.
“Embark is the best food I have ever used to raise puppies. Unlike when I have used kibble or raw food, I have not had upset tummies during that critical introduction to food other than mom’s milk. The puppies then continue on Embark and mom.
I gradually introduce raw & cooked food, raw bones, and kibble to their diets. When they are ready to go to their new homes at 8-10 weeks, they have had a great start in life. The owners can choose HK, a homemade diet, a raw diet, kibble or any combination. Using Embark as the foundation food for weaning puppies has made a huge improvement in the health of my puppies. Because the puppies do so well on it, it has also improved cleanliness and made it much easier to housebreak at an exceptionally young age. This has carried over after they go their new homes.”
Watch an adorable video of the pups enjoying an Honest Kitchen meal of Embark, our grain-free recipe, which is specially formulated for puppies, pregnancy and more active adult dogs.
Mary Young is one of our Honest Kitchen distributors, and she started weaning litters of her beloved flat-coated retrievers with Embark, three years ago. Mary has had Flat-Coated Retrievers since 1976 and is past-President of Flat-Coated Retriever Society of America (FCRSA), AKC approved judge, judge for field.
Mary is the owner of Windfall Ranch, which offers the best in natural dog food and also a rare heritage breed of cattle, Irish Dexters. Mary actively competes, judges, and breeds an occasional litter. She has been competing with her own dogs since 1977 and has raised 18 litters of puppies during that time.
Mary states, “I rarely breed and I would focus on raising puppies versus breeding. The puppies I have raised on HK Embark are so clean & healthy.”
This is the fourth litter — including the one she co-owned with our good friend Gina Spadafori.
Gina is a long-time journalist and author. She is the Executive editor of Pet Connection and has written a number of award-winning books including more than a dozen that she co-authored with Dr. Marty Becker, Good Morning America’s resident veterinarian.
The first edition of Gina’s top-selling book “Dogs For Dummies,” was given the President’s Award for the best writing on dogs and the Maxwell Medallion for the best general reference work, both by the DWAA.
White As Snow!
I would like to write a review on your Keen formula. My Bichon’s been on it since the middle of September and I have seen the effects of your healthy food! The pads of his feet have become very, very black. For a while on the old food, they were looking grayish and not the dark black color pads that a Bichon Frise should have. Next, he had bad tear stains on the fur around his eyes and also stains around his mouth. They were very noticeable. After 2 weeks on Keen, they were gone! Third, he has noticeably more energy now. Fourth, he has finally stopped scratching! After being on Keen for a couple weeks, his allergies stopped. The Honest Kitchen was the only food that made his tear stains and beard stains go away completely.
It also feels so good that my dog loves his food and eats it when I put it down!
Before
After
Keb’ Mo’ finds his ‘Fountain of Youth’
When notifying a customer that their local pet shop, Cutter’s Mill Pet Store, would be carrying The Honest Kitchen, we learned of the wonders THK has done for her pup, Keb’ Mo’!
Keb’ Mo’ was named after the blues singer.
“…I can’t say enough good things about the diet. My 5 year old Vizsla, who had stomach problems, stool issues, etc. is thriving on your grain free formulations. When he was sick, his activity level was slowing down. Now that he is eating your food, his activity level is high, no more belly aches, and some of the gray hairs on his muzzle have fallen out to make way for red hairs! For my dog, it has truly been like a “fountain of youth”! My only problem now is keeping the food away from my human friends who wonder if it might make them look younger!..”
- Colleen from Plainsboro, NJ
Ready for dinner!
Thanks for sharing Colleen!!! We are glad Keb’ Mo’ is doing well and has found his youthful spirit again!
Have any great stories for us? We’d love to hear and see pictures! Send us your thoughts to Reviews@thehonestkitchen.com.
Love Bug’s Story
This story made all of us smile. Thank you Craig!
Less than one year old, our beautiful black, female German Shepherd was diagnosed with E.P.I. (Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency). In laymen’s terms, she wasn’t able to properly digest food because her pancreas was not functioning normally. In our dog’s case, her pancreas was barely functioning at all. This meant that she was getting very little, if any, nutritional value out of her food. I was nearly in tears when my veterinarian explained her problem. When your dog has E.P.I., you might say the clock is ticking because you’re dog is, without treatment, literally starving to death.
In most cases, this disease is treatable and the animal can live a normal life. The key is that you’ve got to find a food that is both low in fat as well as low in fiber.
Determined to give my dog her chance at a normal life, my search for a quality food and a plan for her treatment began in earnest!
I began to read books, scour manufacturers websites, interact with other dog owners whose dogs had E.P.I. , and I began to study holistic nutrition.
After starting my research, it didn’t take me long to become terribly disappointed in the quality of the commercial dog food that’s available today to consumers! I found a sea of questionable foods being promoted behind some colorful packaging and television ads. MY primary concern was simple; I wanted to find what I considered to be the best commercially available food with a company whose focus was on what’s best for my dog. I found all of what I was looking for in The Honest Kitchen product line.
We’ve been feeding “The Honest Kitchen”, ” Embark” variety now for over a year. It has both a fat and fiber content that’s within the generally accepted guidelines for dogs with E.P.I. We’ve learned how to feed our dog with her required porcine enzymes, and our dog is doing wonderful!
Just yesterday my Wife and I took our German Shepherd to our veterinarian, and we were tickled with his response to seeing our dog. To give you a little background on our “vet”, he’s generally a pretty stoic individual. During the length of our visit, he complimented her on how beautiful her coat is, how bright her eyes are, and how strong her heart is. He said he could see reflections in her coat. He said she has “the heart of an athlete”. If that wasn’t flattering enough, he asked if we would wait for a moment while he left to get the clinic owner to come look at our dog – he said “Let me see if Jeff is here, he’s not going to believe the difference in your dog.”
When my Wife and I asked if he had any suggestions or any other feedback…he told us to not change a thing. Before we left, he asked us if we would be willing to talk with some of his other clients (he had one gentlemen in particular in mind) and give them some advice on how we’ve been caring for and feeding our dog!
What we like best about “The Honest Kitchen” is what seems to be your driving philosophy; produce a quality food with first class ingredients and exacting standards.
We like being able to read your ingredient label and recognize the individual items like USDA turkey, organic flaxseed, potatoes, celery, spinach, carrots, etc. We like the fact that our dog gets her nutrition from the quality of the ingredients and their natural vitamins and minerals, as opposed to injected, synthetically produced vitamins.
We’d like to personally say “Thank-You” to “The Honest Kitchen”. You’ve played a very large part in the health of our dog “Alexis” whom we affectionately refer to as “LoveBug”. We look forward to many healthy, happy years with her!!!
The Biggest Loser – Doggie Style
We here at the Honest Kitchen are very eager to introduce you to George! George is an English Bull dog that is sadly overweight and has officially qualified for our very first Honest Kitchen Biggest Loser Competition.
Now George wasn’t always overweight. When George was first brought home as a 10 week old puppy, he was immediately switched to The Honest Kitchen Embark diet and grew into the most well behaved beautiful and physically fit bulldog, this was all until his parents thought things might be easier with a new human baby on the way and switched George to a kibble diet.
It was not long to notice the changes in George, his level of energy dropped, he was bored with the food not always finishing his meals and sadly he started putting on the pounds and kept putting on the pounds even when his parent tried cutting his servings down even as far as half the suggested amount!
Finally after much concern from several of their friends mentioning how fat George looked, and George not able to walk his old routine, his parents are going back to Honest Kitchen full Force (no pun intended!).
On June3rd 2009:
George weighed in at a compact 72lbs! His measurements around his armpit area(where his harness fits) is 35″, his belly is 34 1/2″, His waist 32″. WOW!!
We will be keeping track of George’s progress and keep everyone up too date on his weight now that he is on a much healtheir diet.
