Thriving Wild

This has been on my mind lately. Stick with me through this, it does relate to how we care for our pets!

I have been thinking about the myriad of wild creatures that live in the forest surrounding my house, deer, coyotes, foxes, bears, raccoons, squirrels, even bobcats and wild hogs. We live in a very rural mountainous area.  All the critters we have sighted have been robust and healthy. Keeping an eye on the wild ones keeps us in tune with how healthy our forests are and reminds us that Mother Nature still knows her stuff.

The mountain view from my porch

Recently I was given several almost whole deer. I have a friend that has a hunting group and they save all the innards & meat scraps and skeletons from their kills for me, to feed to my pack. So when my friend butchers, he pulls out the whole of the internal parts & saves them in a bag, the intestines still attached. This is the only part that I throw out as I don’t want to fool with rinsing the fecal matter out. We throw these in the woods for the critters. That got me thinking about the animals that are eating that  refuse (because they are gone the next day!). The wild critters around here are healthy & thriving. A healthy population of all sorts of wild animals are good for the environment, the whole circle of life thing. I don’t feed the intestines of large animals to my dogs because of the higher risk of parasites and bacteria, not to mention the Ick! factor…. but am I hurting the wild animals, giving them parasites I wondered. (note, we do not do this often enough  or in enough quantity to affect the natural balance, many hunters in this area dispose of more than I do in this way, even the bones and scraps, unless I convince them to give these to me. )

Carolina Dog puppies eating whole venison tripe

So I got to thinking about this article an out not routinely worming our pets, written by my friend and mentor ( see: http://www.thewholedog.org/artoverwoming.html ), and the symbiotic relationship of parasites in carnivores,  that just because the wild ones are healthy doesn’t mean they don’t have worms or fleas or whatever. BUT, because they are healthy these things stay in balance & don’t overload the animal. It is only when unbalance happens that the parasites multiply and cause illness. The wild animal could get injured, or the population be out of control causing food shortages or loss of denning sites, any number of things. Then the worms begin to multiply in the weakened animal and cause it to sicken & possibly die. This unbalance is actually nature correcting itself and restoring the balance, population control, the thinning of the weak. 

My CD Cooter, showing his wild side

Now how does this relate to our pets? We take it seriously that our pets are under our care and we have to make the choices for them, what to eat, how to stay clean and healthy, exercise opportunities and so on. We are bombarded with advice, from our veterinarian,  our friends, even television and social media. We may even ask for advice or do research on our own.  This kibble is best! Give them this pill to protect them from deadly parasites! We love our pets and want to do what is right for them. The big pet food and pharmaceutical industries know this and play to those sympathies, our fears and our lack of knowledge.  But it is all really quite simple. Stop listening to all those voices and look to nature. Of course we don’t want our pets bringing fleas into our homes and things of that nature, so we do have to make sure that our pets stay a little cleaner than their wild cousins. But we can do this first by making sure they are thriving and healthy via a Naural Rearing lifestyle. Will that ensure that our dogs never get a flea or a tick on them though? No it will not, because the fact is that we live in an unbalanced world, full of hesticides, herbicides, and other toxins. We are also asking our pets to live in our world, not their natural habitat. So we do need to make compensations for those facts. We can offset these detrimental effects by feeding our dogs a healthy, balanced Prey Model Raw diet, not constantly worming them, and avoiding all toxic exposure to them that we can. We can use body strengthening essential oils, herbs or herbal mixtures to help us deter and combat these pests in our homes, without exposing our dogs to a toxic soup once a month.

As an example of whole body balance/imbalance, consider this. I was recently reading a discussion on a Facebook group about microchipping. People were arguing back and forth about their feelings of necessity of chipping pets for identification and the dangers of microchipping.  (for more information see http://www.chipmenot.org/ ) This is one example of how we can proactively avoid weakening exposures to our pet. Microchips are inserted under the skin and emit an EMF frequency. Pro chipping advocates argue that the effects are negligible, or at least not immediate nor is the chances high that something like a cancer will develop, but in my opinion, that is one more thing we can avoid that does have an effect on our dog’s overall long term health.

Singly all the conventional treatments, such as kibble, routine worming, vaccines, flea preventatives, microchips, pesticides, artificial lighting, spay/neuter, etc may not show an adverse effect on one particular dog in a particular time frame, but of course any one or any combination of these CAN cause adverse effects at any time! We are seeing so much poor health and chronic conditions appearing in our conventionally reared pets that we need to reevaluate our conventional care system, and that is why you are here, reading my blog and others like it, to learn for yourself how to more naturally care for your pets! 

The more minute detrimental exposures our dogs are exposed to, the more hits they take to their overall natural balance and this makes them more susceptible to parasites and dis-ease. All these “little” things add up! Look at the wildlife, they can stay in balance without conventional interventions, given they have a good habitat and adequate food. They are not constantly bombarded with EMFs, toxic vaccine adjuvants, artifical food, and all the things our pets are. Yes we have a responsibility for the care decisions of our pets and we want them to stay in tip top shape but usually that truly means just protecting them from our man made environment and artificial interventions. Let your pets thrive, naturally!

If you would like more information about how to help your carnivore pet to thrive naturally, go to the top of this article and click on the Consultations page, there you will find information on my consultations and coaching,  a contact form and instructions. I hope to hear from you soon!

My pack: Cooter, Daisy & Ellie Mae 

About Susan Lewelling, CCNC, Consultant & Natural Rearing Breeder

I breed Naturally Reared UKC Carolina Dogs, I consult/coach natural rearing to carnivore pet owners, with a focus on Naturopathy and the Raw Diet. I live on a mini farm with my husband, dogs and goats and various fowl and in my spare time, I make all natural lotions and enjoy Barn Hunt trials with my dogs.