SFRAW's Diet + Feeding Philosophy
SFRAW supports and encourages feeding our animal companions "real" food. We define "real" food as being local, seasonal, responsibly/humanely produced, unprocessed, unadulterated, non-fortified, non-enriched/enhanced, fresh, wholesome and entirely fit for human consumption(*).
We support the many different, very healthy ways to prepare fresh food diets for animals. Our group neither condones nor condemns a singular diet/feeding style. However, there are a few "wrong" ways to go about doing so and it is important for our members to be reasonably well-educated about the diet they plan to prepare for their pets.
It is our belief that the very best diet for an individual animal will meet these four criteria:
prepared with a variety of real, whole food ingredients (either raw or cooked)
promotes the best state of health for your individual animal
you are confident and comfortable feeding the food items required by a chosen diet
feeding regime is practical for your lifestyle and affordable for your budget
SFRAW strongly encourages everyone to do necessary research before preparing a home-made fresh foods diet for their pets. While it is not rocket-science or overly complicated to feed non-human animals healthy, home-prepared meals, there are critical nutritional considerations that must be understood before you start preparing meals for your pets. For most people, what and how you feed your animal family becomes an evolutionary process that continues throughout the lifetime of your animal, and even through generations.
If you are new to this way of feeding, we recommend the following:
Read at least ONE book on the subject to get an understanding of the basic mechanics and dietary requirements of feeding a home-prepared diet
Carefully follow a well-researched, time-proven diet plan for the first few years
Continue to expand your knowledge by reading more books, going to educational seminars and workshops, talking to qualified mentors and/or joining several diet related discussion lists
If you are not interested in reading or doing the necessary research to educate yourself about how and what to feed - please pay for a consultation with an animal nutritionist to put a diet together for you and be sure to adhere to their recommendations!
* Note: About a quarter of the products we sell are commercially prepared pet food products (GreenTripe.com, Hare-Today). While these are not fit for human consumption because they are manufactured, packaged, and sold as pet food products, they are created using ingredients that meet our real food requirements.