The domestication of dogs began when humans still lived in a hunter-gather society thousands of years ago. The two groups most likely were competing for the same ‘meaty’ food sources, but who approached who remains a mystery. Being that dogs and humans are both pack animals who naturally form bonds and assume roles based on social order, the human-dog relationship evolved into a perfect match. But now who gets the best cut of meat for dinner?
Selection & Evolution of Purpose: Humans began breeding selectively so that dogs that possessed desirable traits (versus undesirable ones) were selected for and canines became fundamentally useful to human society. Early on a dogs’ role would have been to hunt cooperatively. Dogs, like their wolf ancestors, are without a doubt carnivores. However, a dog’s natural predatory instinct had to be ‘controlled’ to keep game intact for their human counterparts.
Over time these other roles emerged and were selected for beyond hunting. From sentinels (bark alarm), to herding and guarding other domestic animals, ENDURANCE and STRENGTH remain a core attribute to man’s best friend.
In order for a dog to perform these selected roles a high energy diet is needed. Quality protein from fresh meat sources is fundamental to a dog’s diet. This is why there is so much hype around raw food diets! The majority of a dog’s nutrition should consist of protein and a portion from green material and other fruits and vegetables. The latter may seem odd, but in fact when meat was scarce wild dogs had to scavenge for other food sources such as fermenting fruits, seeds, grasses and so on.
At Carna4 we support the raw movement but understand it is not for everyone. Carna4’s mission has been to ensure your pet gets the meat it deserves without jeopardizing quality for owners and families, who believe in feeding ‘real’ food to their dog, but for convenience sake, require something ready to serve.
Carna4 for Carnivores: Although fewer and fewer 
dogs are ‘working’ and doing what they were originally bred to do, they still remain carnivores that require whole foods. Your companion craves a fresh meat-focused diet to meet the protein levels her body demands for high energy and overall well-being. We answer this need with fresh meat formulas that are about one-half real meat, very gently processed to provide higher protein and amino acid quality than dehydrated or rendered meats.
We use a short-cycle, hot-air baking/drying process at moderate temperatures to eliminate any possible bacteria in our human-grade raw meat ingredients while preserving the natural probiotics, enzymes and other nutrients supplied by the sprouted seeds and vegetables that make up the rest of the recipe.
Eliminating rendered ingredients (meat meals and fat) and vegetable oils also means that we can avoid using the imported chemical preservatives contained in virtually all commercial pet foods, which certainly were not part of the ancestral canine diet! Any listed preservative must be man-made if it has been isolated into a single ingredient – and that includes so-called “natural preservatives”. We prefer to preserve our meat-based food with a combination of sufficient drying and addition of antioxidants contained in other ingredients, like sprouted seeds. That’s our secret to long shelf-life: preserve with sprouted seeds that contain huge amounts of natural antioxidants. Doesn’t that sound a lot healthier than mixed tocopherols?