Frequently Asked Questions

Dog kibble is a highly processed food. Imagine eating fortified cereal everyday of your life – it might keep you alive, but it won’t nourish you like fresh food does. It’s also boring! Dogs thrive on fresh, wholesome ingredients, just like humans do. Some benefits of a home made diet include:

• You have control over exactly what your dog is eating, and don’t have to worry about pet food recalls and contamination.
• Kibbles are highly processed and heat treated, a process through which vitamins and minerals are often lost and replaced with synthetics. Feeding fresh provides wholesome ingredients with minimal processing required.
• You can incorporate variety into your dog’s diet and offer some different foods with their meals each day, which may make meal time more exciting.

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While Flourish for Raw Food Diets was designed to meet the nutritional requirements of a raw food diet, dogs who eat a cooked meat-based diet will also benefit from the nutritional boost Flourish provides. 

Dogs are omnivores, which means they can eat both meat and plants. Throughout our time making plant-based treats for dogs in our business Veggie Paws, we have met many healthy, happy dogs on plant-based diets. Some of these dogs are allergic to animal proteins. Others have owners who are vegan themselves. Whatever the reason, we want to help support people to feed their dogs with the best ingredients and provide all of the nutrients that they need to thrive.

There is an abundance of information available on the internet about dogs and vegan diets: some for, some against, and some in between. We encourage you to do your own research and consult with your veterinarian before making any changes to your dog’s diet.

Here are a couple of articles that we found interesting:

A scientific comparison of vegetarian and meat based diets in dogs: Read Article

Walkerville Vet in South Australia has reviewed commercially available vegan dog foods in Australia: Read Article

Tufts challenge the carnivore myth: Read Article

We worked with Jackie Gowland from Functional Canine to create Flourish. Using her expertise in dog nutrition, we were able to create two supplements that counteract common deficiencies in homemade dog food and bring your dog’s diet closer to the NRC daily recommended nutritional guidelines. 

We chose to use as many natural, wholefood ingredients as possible, because we believe that feeding fresh and natural is best.

If you are feeding a kibble or other commercially available food, it can be assumed that this food is already balanced and fortified with all of the nutrients that your dog needs. Therefore, you do not need to add Flourish to the meal. 

However, if you feed a combination of kibble and home-prepared food, Flourish may be added to the home-prepared portion of the meal. You should reduce the amount of Flourish used in this case.

Flourish consists of primarily natural ingredients such as seeds and nuts, and as such there is little danger of overdosing on nutrients compared to when using synthetic supplements. However, we do advise that you follow our serving recommendations, and reduce the amount of Flourish used if feeding in conjunction with commercial foods (which it can be assumed are already fortified with all of the nutrients your dog needs). 

While Flourish provides a careful balance of essential nutrients commonly missing from homemade meals, it is not a complete supplement on its own. 

Flourish is designed to be used in conjunction with a balanced diet. When used with our suggested recipe, Flourish aligns your dog’s diet closely to the daily nutritional NRC guidelines. However, as all dogs are individuals, your dog may have different nutritional needs based on their weight, age and activity levels. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that your dog is consuming a 100% complete meal for their needs. If you would like a complete and balanced nutrition plan using Flourish, please contact Functional Canine for a tailored consultation for your dog.

Flourish is available from Veggie Paws.

We’re only human and mistakes happen! Despite proof reading (a hundred and ten times!), we apologise for missing:

• Misspelling of the word nutrients.
• Vitamin D measurement is noted as IU. This should read μg.