BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Have you ever thought about what’s in your dog’s food? It could be the cause for some of their health problems. That’s why one local couple has created their own recipes to keep your furry friends happy and healthy.
Chantelle and Zak Stewart live in St. Amant with their two dogs: 14-year-old Chloe and three-legged Delta. Their dogs didn’t always look like this though.
After being diagnosed with Cushing’s disease, Chloe was unable to walk, and Delta was constantly itching from rashes and dry skin.
“Our dogs were having a lot of issues, a lot of skin problems, just a lot of health issues, so we decided to try it and we’re about a year and a half into it and it’s really changed our dogs,” said Chantelle.
However, a new diet seems to be the cure.
After doing some research, Zak believes what was in his dog’s old food was making their conditions worse.
“You don’t hear the canned, utility, basically that’s sick and dying animals,” explained Zak. “They’ll have tumors, they’ll have cysts, abscess and all that’s included in your kid’s kibble.”
That’s when he decided to make the switch to raw foods instead.
“This is beef. This is actually prime grade black angus so they’re eating better than we are haha,” said Zak.
Zak grinds up raw ingredients like beef, chicken or bones in their kitchen with an old family meet grinder. He then adds a few other ingredients like liver or spinach and vacuum seals them in a bag to stay fresh.
Once he saw how well Chloe and Delta were doing on the diet, he decided to share it with other dog owners.
“While we’re doing this and making a mess, let’s go ahead and see if other people can have the same help that we did,” said Zak.
The Stewarts took their Bayou Chien Raw Food recipes to LSU for testing and approval before bringing it to local farmer’s markets.
“I’ve really enjoyed myself at the markets,” said Chantelle. “You get to talk to a lot of people, meet a lot of people. You also get a few people come up and go ‘Raw?? Ew I can’t do that!’ And then you talk to them and about it and they kind of understand a bit better, but if you go and buy a bag of kibble, you’re going to be spending $60, $70 these days for any kind of kibble so, you know, it’s a little bit more but it’s not that much more and to me the benefits that you get out of it are definitely worth it.”
“It’s awesome to know that their dogs are loving it,” said Zak. “They eat it up. One of them said the dog almost but their fingers off trying to get it you know!”
Chantelle admitted this is not where she thought they would be or what they would be doing but has enjoyed their journey so far.
The Stewarts are just getting started. They will also start making other products like cat food and broths. You can catch them at the next farmer’s market in St. Gabriel on August 10th.
You can also make an order anytime on their website.
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