"The Wolf's Natural Diet - a Feeding Guide for Your Dog?"

"The Wolf's Natural Diet - a Feeding Guide for Your Dog?" is a condensed e-book, highly inspired by Dr. David Mech's seminar on September 25, 2004 at the Willow Center in South Salem, New York, about the wolf's natural diet. Although David Mech, in respect for his honest scientific approach, had to answer many of the questions from the passionate "raw feeders" in the audience with, "We simply do not know", the apparent uncertainty in this whole area is not as bad as it appears on the surface. In fact, when we also take into consideration what we know about the genetic relationship between dogs and wolves, and about the domestication process and its known and possible impacts on our modern dogs, as seen in the perspective of evolution, we have more than enough knowledge to draw some very important conclusions about dog food.

The most important conclusion is that the wolf's natural diet is very relevant indeed for the way we feed our dogs a diet that will provide optimal health - but simply copying the wolf's diet is not only practically impossible for most dog owners, it is also not necessarily the best choice you can make for your dog's health...

In fact, once you read this book, you will understand that, no matter what kind of standard diet you might choose for your dog, you must deal with a possible risk of this diet exposing certain problems and masking others, both genetic ones, chronic medical ones, and conditional ones. You cannot eliminate that risk - but you can get a strong basis for managing it when you understand how "everything" is connected: chemistry, biology, genetics, history, evolution, wildlife management, financial interests, etc.

This e-book is not another attempt to promote any specific diets for dogs as "the best" or any brand of dog food. Mogens Eliasen has no financial ties to the food manufacturing industry or to the veterinary profession. "The Wolf's Natural Diet - a Feeding Guide for Your Dog?" is a serious attempt to have you understand what we do know about the wolf's diet and eating habits, what we do know about the dog's domestication process, and what we do know about the similarities and differences between wolves and dogs - and to what degree these similarities or differences matter. The key is to comprehend the value and the limitations of our knowledge about history, evolution, anatomy, and physiology of our dogs so we can still make some relevant and highly informed decisions about how we should approach the challenge of feeding them responsibly. This e-book gives you that key, so you can make your own decisions on an informed ethical foundation.

The objective of this e-book is to help you find out how you are going to decide about the right way for you to feed your dog. It is not a recipe for dog food, but it does give you to tools you need in order to evaluate the options you have; it contains several links to additional information that will help you further on that topic, and it gives you enough ballast to use them critically...

The e-book is in PDF format and all references are hyperlinks that make it easy to use it also as a reference (there are over 300 hyperlinks in the book...). The 125 pages are concentrated stuff! You do not need to be a scientist to understand its logic, but you do need to have an open mind for rational thinking. The important conclusions are drawn one at a time and carefully explained; we have received many comments from readers telling us that it is almost like ready a "crimi".

I found the wider implications of what we are doing to our dogs interesting. I particularly like your books because they explain the "mechanics" behind what we see happening to our dogs, i.e., why problems occur and how they manifest etc., in a way that I’ve not found in other books.

I enjoyed this book too and got some interesting information out of it. I’ve definitely found it very thought provoking. Although there is a certain amount of unavoidable overlapping, I think it complements your other book quite well because one deals with "why?" and the other explains "how?".

I would recommend others to read this book. I like the fact that it does give a bigger picture of what’s going on with our dogs, and what the future might hold if we don’t deal with the situation pretty soon.

Cheers

Jane Houston
Bonnie, Scotland

In his quest for knowledge about dogs, Mogens has also studied the natural behavior of wolves most notably from Konrad Lorenz, Erik Zimen, and David Mech. Also the contacts he has enjoyed having to the Nes Pearce tribe's restoration of the Idaho wolves when he lived close by has impacted his understanding of these topics.

• Click on the picture to see Mogens Eliasen's bio.

Above all, thank you for sharing all of this information. I am glad that I read this and your other books. You are a great resource!

Wendy Blake
North Carolina, USA

Mogens Eliasen's books are the best! Whether you're a "newbie" or have been feeding raw for years, you always learn something new from him, in this book, about the wolf, his ancestors, and his relationship to the feeding of your dogs. He is a great source of information!

Susan Strode
North Carolina, USA

You want to understand the important facts around the issue of natural diets for dogs. You don't want to rely on other people's opinions. You want to understand how closely our modern dogs in fact are related to wolves, and how exactly the differences can and will change the nutritional needs of our dogs to be different from those of the wolf.

You are tired of all the controversy with all its many semi-supported and non-supported claims that obviously do not always work in practice as their promoters preach. You want to have the basic information in a way that allows you to understand its limitations and uncertainties in simple terms.

You want to know why we can make the conclusions we can make - and what conclusions we can make.

You want to know what the facts are, so you can make you own judgment and find your own way of managing the ethics in this, particularly for your own dog, but also possibly for future breeds of dogs.

You want to understand why any rigid model for feeding dogs may not always be the optimal choice for a specific dog, and you want to know how you can approach solving that problem, without having to give up on the idea of responsible feeding.

You want to understand why some dogs don't do well on a certain diet others do just fine on.

You want to be clear about the ethics in the feeding discussion so you can make make your choices in accordance with your own informed decisions, based on your own high level of integrity.

You want to have a background that allows you to experiment with this, without gambling, so you can find the optimum for your dog, and the puppies you breed.

I realized I knew nothing about my "wolf"....

I loved reading about wolves because I haven't read anything by Mech, but I really got interested starting on the chapter, "Using what we know"....

I have a mile long list of books I want to read. Mech is one. This book is good for me because I can cross it off my list. I got the information on wolves that I had wanted since I rescued my dog.

The second half was exciting because I didn't realize this stuff! During this part, it was like a detective screenplay, edge of your seat! Do I feed my dog raw or not??!!! Keeps you in your seat!

I can tell you, after reading your book, I am disgusted with the human race, more so than I thought was possible. We shouldn't be breeding animals that can't eat a natural diet. Human cruelty, as usual.

I liked, "What is wrong here is the dog's ability to handle the natural food - and it should be addressed as a medical problem for the dog, not as a general problem with the diet." (Tell that to a vet!!)

Everyone operates at their own level of health consciousness (not my quote). What a mess man has made. What you wrote is instinctively what I felt, but was not able to articulate.

Fabulous, and I mean it!

Kathy Straedey
Los Angeles, California

If you, for any other reason, prefer to keep your mind closed so it doesn't get cluttered with any new disturbing information you are going to reject as "BS" anyway, then please go here instead.

Hi Mogens, I think I have read all your books, but your insights keep amazing me! In this new "wolf book", you take people by the hand into the world of responsible dog ownership and explain in very clear terms what this means. You put everything into perspective, leave no relevant objection uncommented in regards to what is important for us dog owners to learn from the wild wolf and from the history of our dogs - which is much more than what I thought. I particularly like the way you explain how breeding is involved in this. Few people understand what pet food has to do with breeding, but you get the message so clear across that I am full of awe! Although I sincerely doubt that it will happen, I still wish that the kennel clubs would learn from your respect for Nature - and stop denying or ignoring the facts you present so eloquently. Thanks for instilling some hope for the future by showing that there IS a way through this mess we have created for ourselves and our dogs. But, at least, you have now made it perfectly clear what our options are - and what the consequences of our choices will be.

Wayne Erick
Yahk, BC, Canada

Want to check some samples?
Here are a few excerpts from the 125-page book:
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I have lots of experience with feeding raw food, but I really enjoyed this information. It was completely new to me.

Nicole Bargren
Colorado, USA

It gave me an excellent understanding of the topics I wanted to know more about - very instructive! If you want to understand about how wolves eat in the wild and how it relates to your dog, I highly recommend to get and read this book. I am extremely satisfied with it.

Teri Johnston
Sparrowbush, NY, USA

If you doubt the natural raw feeding process for dogs, you won't after you have read this book. You can't ignore the facts.

Sharryn Brown
Sydney, Australia

Go ahead and buy it! It's very informative, especially if you're new to raw feeding or want to know more about dogs' needs as canid species.

Ivonne Salcedo
Mexico

A definite "must read" for anyone considering feeding raw or for anyone who has been feeding raw for many years, like me.

Deborah Garland
Toledo, Ontario

This is such a good reference book. There are clear explanations about the wolf/dog connection, and it gives step by step reasoning behind the raw diet theories, with discussion of the actual constituents of a healthy diet. It's interesting to reality-test these theories with my own dogs. Definitely buy this book!!

Jennifer Midhage
United Kingdom

This is an excellent book for someone who is wondering WHY they should feed their dog a raw diet. It takes information from many different paths of research and brings them together to present a very complete picture. Thanks to the author for creating such a wonderful resource!

Anne Clarkson
Webster, NY, USA

Buy it, now!

Irene Henkes
The Netherlands

Buy it! Even if you don't think you should...

Marian Steiskal
White City, Oregon USA

It is worth your money to buy it and your time to read it.

Susan Cohen
Montreal, Quebec

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