enjamin Davis is a professional pet nutritionist, behaviorist, and groomer. Benjamin received his education from Nash Academy of the Animal Arts, internationally known for training the best pet care professionals in the industry. For over a decade, Benjamin owned and operated a professional grooming shop,-a 24-hour pet daycare and a retail pet supply store in the mountain community of ldyllwild, California.
Educating his customers on the importance of diet to their pet's health and longevity is what drove Benjamin to found Monarch Raw Pet Food, after more than 10 years of research and personal and professional experience.
By reading this information, I hope you will learn a few things and be ~ able to make a more Informed and educated decision about what to feed your pets. I want your pets to be healthy, happy and vibrant so they live long happy lives. Monarch Raw Pet Food can help that happen. As a pet specialist, I have seen hundreds of pets with health problems and have listened to countless horror stories about visits to the veterinarian for antibiotics and steroids to combat health issues caused by food toxification from commercially processed pet food.
Monarch Raw Pet Food is made from USDA-approved human grade ingredients and is made in-house at our ldyllwild manufacturing facility. We never use leftovers from the slaughterhouse floor. We formulate Monarch Raw Pet Food to match, as closely as possible, what carnivores eat in the wild. At Monarch Raw Pet Food, we keep the price as low as possible so that everyone.can feed their dogs and cats the healthiest diet possible.
Thank you for letting us love your pets,
Benjamin Davis
In 1860, James Spratt, an electrician from Cincinnati, Ohio was selling lightning rods on London's docks. He watched as sailors and merchants, leaving the ships, would toss their leftover sea rations (known as 'hardtack'} to the dogs. Spratt surmised that, if the dogs are eating the hardtack, this must be what dogs need in their diet (never mind that dogs will eat almost anything humans eat-good for them or not!)
So the entrepreneur took the hardtack ingredients (wheat, vegetable protein and beetroot sugar), added beef blood to the ingredients and called it "Spratt's Patent Meat Fibrine Vegetable Dog Cakes." Before long, his dog biscuits had become the staple dog food for show dogs and, then, most dogs, from London to New York and beyond.
The problem with this is that in 1860 no one questioned whether Spratt's formula for pet food was good for dogs or cats. Yet, from the inception of Spratt's biscuits until the present day, almost every dry and wet pet food company has patterned their recipes after Spratt's original pet food formula. Many pet food companies in business today use different variations of this formula but the end results are all the same. They all end up with a little biscuit-type, dry (kibble} and wet pet food. These ingredients are extremely difficult for their digestive systems to process and are harmful and toxic to dogs and cats bodies.
Findings established in a study conducted at the University of California at Los Angeles by renowned biologist Robert Wayne reveal that dogs are in fact carnivores. By applying the modern forensic techniques of genetic
fingerprinting to wolves, dogs, coyotes and jackals, Dr. Wayne was able to establish that the dog's DNA has only a 1% difference from that of the Gray Wolf, whereas the coyote has a 6% difference. The one percent difference only defines size, shape, coat type and breed. Domestication has not changed the genetic makeup, the nutritional requirements or the digestive system of the dog. It has merely altered temperament and behavior.
Unlike herbivores and omnivores, carnivores (dogs and cats) can not “chew" their food. They are able to move their jaws up and down (a crushing motion) but can not move their lower jaw from side to side (a chewing motion) as herbivores and omnivores can. They also lack the enzymes in their saliva that breaks down food. Instead, these enzymes are located in the stomach where the food is completely broken down, this is why they gulp their food.
Dog and cat digestive systems are designed to break down meat and bone when the meat and bone is in its raw form. The entire process takes 10-12 hours. The raw meat should be completely absorbed into the body during that time, leaving about 5% to 7% waste. After consuming dry commercial pet food it needs to soften, while sitting in your pet's stomach, before your pet's digestive system can begin to process it. This process alone takes about 25 hours. That is at least twice the time that their bodies would normally spend digesting, metabolizing and expelling raw meat and raw bone. Dry pet food spends this time sitting in their stomachs, soaking up the water they drink and drawing away the much-needed body fluids from their stomach. During this time of soaking up water and body fluids, the dry pet food is expanding to more than twice its original size and three times its original weight. Only then does it become soft enough to go through the digestive process. That is like your dinner remaining in your body for the next three days before eliminating it. Uncomfortable? Dogs and cats on a dry commercial pet food diet experience that discomfort and pain every day!
Dogs and cats can feel this discomfort and pain and know they will feel better if they can eliminate the cause of it. Have you ever seen your dog or cat eat grass? Dogs and cats eat grass because they inherently know that if they eat enough grass it will help them vomit or pass what is in their stomach and intestines that is causing the pain or discomfort.
But, with a raw meat diet, elimination becomes much easier. When that remaining matter is expelled from the body, it comes out hard and compact like clay. Before exiting the small intestines, this hard matter presses against the anal glands expressing a lubricating liquid for a smooth exit. This process keeps the glands from needing to be 'expressed' by a human, or other invasive means, to avoid infection. The hard-compact (raw meat) excrement is odorless and easy to clean up. Within an hour or two, after sitting in the sun, it will be completely dried out. Eventually, it disintegrates into a powder and is absorbed into the ground. This substance is 100% natural fertilizer, beneficial to your garden.
$100 billion dollars. That's how much money pet owners spend on commercial pet food and products every year in the U.S.A., that is not including the other 194 countries on the planet. The major producers of pet food make a lot of money and a good deal of that money is spent on marketing to consumers. Why spend so much money on marketing if the quality of the food speaks for itself?
Consider the actual meat source incorporated into commercial pet food. The meat found in most commercial pet food is USDA Feed Grade (animal grade) meat and is not classified as generally recognized as safe (GRAS). The commercial pet food meat source usually consists of the leftover scraps collected off the floor of the slaughterhouse or meat processing plant. Protein amounts on pet food labels' "Guaranteed Analysis" can claim anywhere between 20- 40% protein. However: On the average, less than 1% of that protein comes from the animal parts and pieces that were scraped off the slaughterhouse floor. More than 95% of that protein is derived from all the other toxic and harmful ingredients used to make the commercial pet food.
Dog and cat muscle and bone structures grow in proportion to their bodies. Without natural calcium, vitamins, proteins and minerals derived from raw bone and bone marrow in their diet they develop Rickets. Rickets Is when their bones do not grow strong enough to properly support the weight of their bodies. Veterinarians have seen an epidemic number of side effects from Rickets in pets, such as hip dysphasia, joint and muscle problems, mild to severe arthritis, brittle and weak nails and brittle or rotten teeth, just to name a few.
Calcium is one of the most important ingredients in a carnivore's diet and is usually not even included in the ingredient list of most commercial pet foods. If you read the ingredients list on most commercial pet food packaging, you will see one or two of the following ingredients:
• Calcium pantothenate, a dietary supplement used to fortify cereals, grain-based and carbohydrate products;
• Calcium carbonate, a chemical compound found in rocks used as a supplement or as an antacid that is hazardous if used with excessive consumption;
• Calcium propionate, a salt used as a mold inhibitor and preservative in a wide variety of products;
• Calcium iodate, a compound of calcium used as dough conditioner;
• Calcium phosphate, a family of minerals used in baking as the acid in a leavening agent.
None of these calcium derivatives are from bone and bone marrow, the ideal source for calcium. Commercial pet food is and has been void of calcium since 1860. Don't let these 'calciums' fool you!
Carnivores thrive on a 100% raw meat diet, which supplies your dog and cat with all of the living proteins, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and probiotics they need to live healthy, long lives. Raw meat, however, is not the only required ingredient. This diet also includes raw bone and bone marrow, adding much needed calcium and other mineral and vitamin nutrients to their diet.
The bacteria found in raw meat and bone is essential to their nutrition because it helps the dog and cat process and digest food. However, once raw meat and bone are cooked, all those living organisms are destroyed, rendering that meat nutritionally worthless and rendering the bone dangerous to your pet. After the commercial pet food cooking process, any meat source that may have originally been in the commercial pet food becomes nothing more than filler. The common food born bacteria so toxic to humans (E coli, botulism and salmonella) does not affect carnivores' digestive systems. Their stomach acids are strong enough to kill these bacteria, and their digestive system works too quickly to be affected by the bacteria.
Dogs and cats cannot digest vegetable fiber in its whole, raw form. For example, if you feed your pet a piece of raw carrot, your pet will expel a piece of raw carrot. However, if ground to a pulp, as is found in the stomach lining of carnivore's prey, they can digest it. Carnivores will also forage for berries and avocados because they taste good and they are soft enough for their digestive system to process correctly. Nonetheless, there is no nutritional value in fruits and vegetables for carnivores.
Pet food companies use grains such as wheat, corn, soy, rice, oats ·and barley (carbohydrates) as binders and fillers. The problem? Carnivores can't process or break down grains and carbohydrates like omnivores can. When carnivores eliminate these things, it leaves a toxic residue in their digestive tract that their bodies cannot absorb. This residue, along with the other toxins in commercial pet food, creates a yeast infection that the body tries to expel, resulting in ear infections, warts, excessive shedding, cysts and other skin irritations.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was the last time you ate a cookie and it cleaned your teeth? Need I say more? The way they naturally clean their teeth is by chewing on bones or hard natural substances like antlers and hooves. When they are digging the bone marrow out of larger bones they are working all sides and edges of the bone which is cleaning their teeth as well as cleaning and strengthening their gums.
Historians have proven without a doubt that dog and cats were domesticated between four and five thousand years ago. For the sake of instruction let's settle on four thousand years. We have been feeding dogs and cats dry pet food for only 150 years. So, what did they eat for the other 3,850 years prior? They ate the prey they killed.
Veterinary nutritional training consists of an average of 40 hours of class time. Only two or three hours of this training is dedicated to dogs and cats. This nutritional training is sponsored and conducted by two very prominent commercial pet food companies and is designed around the "selling" of their products rather than the actual nutrition for dogs and cats.
The pet food companies do spend millions of dollars on research. They have also concluded that commercially processed pet food is the healthiest diet for dogs and cats. The way the pet food companies conduct this expensive testing is by taking control groups of dogs and cats and feeding them their new formula of pet food. They watch the percentage rates of who gets sick and who does not. When the positive percentage rates are high enough according to that pet food company's standards, the sick dogs and cats are removed ('omitted') from the control groups until they have one complete control group that does not get sick. The result is a new formula of pet food to place on the market.
When you get these recommendations it is usually because the person giving you the recommendation received the same recommendation from someone else and so on and so on. (Many times, these people will back up their recommendation with testimony such as, "My dogs and cats don't get sick on this brand of commercial pet food," or, "My dogs and cats love this brand of commercial pet food.") The problem with this scenario is that they do not see the damage that is being done inside the dogs and cats bodies and they do not know that what they have been told or taught is false.
The reason they have more energy is because what you are feeding your pets is soft enough for their bodies to process properly. All the energy saved from not having to process the dry commercial pet food is now being used for activity. Because the food is cooked, their bodies are still being denied the proper nutrition that they require. They are more active, and they seem healthier, but they are still suffering long-term effects of poor nutrition.
Transitioning your pet to a raw meat diet is much simpler than changing commercial pet food brands. Just replace your pet's food with a diet of raw meat and bone, and that is it. However, we do recommend you wait 24-36 hours after their last commercial pet food meal before beginning the raw meat diet; this will give their bodies time to eliminate the old commercial pet food still in their systems.
Dogs: Very seldom have we seen a dog turn their nose away from a raw meat diet. However, it does happen occasionally. If it does happen, try some tough love. Put the raw meat in your dog's bowl. If your dog will not eat it, remove the food until the next feeding time. ff your dog still will not eat it, continue this process of presenting it- then removing it until your dog starts to eat it- even a bite or two. It is a little bit of work but the health benefits are worth every bit of the tough love and time you put into switching your dog to a raw meat diet.
Cats: I have found that with cats it is easier to trick them if they will not eat the raw meat diet right away. Remove all dry pet food from their diet. Place the meat in the bowl and top it with their favorite brand of wet canned food. Over a time period, slowly remove the wet canned food till all that is remaining is the raw meat diet.
We do not recommend mixing the two. With the differences in digestion times required to break down raw meat and dry commercial pet food, your pet will poop much more frequently and experience diarrhea and gas, as well as uncomfortable and unnecessary behavior changes.
WE PROVIDE THE HIGHEST QUALITY PET FOOD AT LOWEST PRICE POSSIBLE.
Existing in or caused by nature; not made or caused by humankind.
The animal(s) used as ingredients were never given any growth hormones.
The animal(s) used as ingredients were never given any antibiotics.
Nothing is added to the ingredients to "enhance" the taste or "nutritional value" of the product.
There is nothing added to the product to increase its shelf life.
Neither the feed of the animal, nor the animal ingredients themselves were genetically modified.
It was 2004, and Monarch's founder Benjamin Davis was at the pet groomer and asked the groomer how she got into that business. The groomer explained she had gone to pet grooming school; a institution Benjamin didn't even know existed. His love for animals triggered an epiphany, at that very moment, he decided to quit his truck-driving job and go to school to become a pet groomer. A month later, Benjamin was enrolled at Nash Academy of the Animal Arts located in Lexington, KY, the top grooming school in the country.
Because the curriculum at Nash is broader than just grooming, Benjamin learned about dog and cat nutrition; specifically, that dogs and cats are 100% carnivore. One of his instructors had been feeding his pets a raw meat diet, which Benjamin realized made a lot of nutritional sense. So, while still in school, Benjamin sourced meat from a local chicken farmer, purchased a grinder and started making a raw meat diet for this own dog and cat.
After graduation, Benjamin opened his own grooming and boarding business where he cared for pets and educated his clients on pet nutrition and behavior. Then, a few years later, one of his grooming clients asked him if she could try some of the raw meat diet for her dog. Benjamin sold his client some of the meat he was making for his own pets, the client's pets loved it, and she became Benjamin's first regular customer buying 30 lbs. each month. That client told a friend, who told another, who told another and, well, you get the picture.
By 2014, the raw meat pet food business grew so large that Benjamin was forced to close the grooming and boarding business and transition into full-scale production of the raw meat pet food. In less than eight years, producing over 20,000 lbs. each month, Monarch Raw Pet Food had become a staple for dogs and cats throughout southern California. With a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility up and running, Monarch is positioned to become a national dog and cat food brand.
