Budwig Diet for Dogs
Hebe, my dear old Springer Spaniel is now 19 and a few months. Prior to going on the Budwig diet he had been on a mainly raw diet plus a little Flax Farm cold-pressed linseed (flaxseed) oil for about six years to help with stiff spine and joints crisis which it certainly improved. He was still charging around on long ten-mile walks up to the age of 16 and would come out working at 17. Then he started slowing down a bit and developed several growths, at least one of which I didn’t like the look of at all. The vet agreed that at his advanced age if they weren’t bothering him there was no point in even seeing him as with his heart murmur and age it would be wrong to operate. I didn’t feel drugs seemed a fair option at his age either because one never knows if they are experiencing unpleasant side effects that make them feel as awful as most drugs have made me feel. The vet agreed.
Dog’s version of Budwig Diet
So last year, to combat the lumps and hopefully slow down their progress I decided to put him on a doggy version of the Budwig Diet (www.Budwig-Diet.co.uk ) to try to slow down the development of the lumps. Hebe has now been on the diet for over a year. Within days of starting him on the diet it was like changing his batteries! Even other people were commenting. Now, just nine months off 20, he looks good, goes most places at a smart trot, loves retrieving, which he still does at a canter, and going for walks, especially to new and interesting places. His coat looks good. He has always been very hyperactive, to the point of it being exhausting to live with, getting under my feet following me from one room to another, including the loo and I am pleased to say he still is hyperactive and demanding. Aged 19 ago I took him to vet for a check-up. She was amazed that a dog with such a “massive heart murmur”(something he’d had since young) had good colour to his gums, strong slow steady heartbeat. When the blood tests came back more surprises, completely clean bill of health for kidney function, liver function and blood sugar levels.
Budwig Diet can be an effective therapeutic diet holistic remedy
The Budwig Diet created in the 1950s by Dr. Joanna Budwig is a holistic treatment. It is still popular today. It can help many conditions as it works on the whole body.
I have seen good results with human customers and clients on the Budwig Diet and had followed it myself for periods of time and can vouch for it tasting delicious and not having side effects. Johanna Budwig who was a brilliant scientist didn’t write a version for dogs Budwig Diet for dogs; anything written by anyone else can’t really match up. However, several of my customers have spoken of treating dogs with a version of the Budwig Diet so I decided that was the way to go for Hebe.
The full Budwig Diet for humans is completely vegetarian, incorporates things like green tea, juicing, salads and vegetables. Being that Hebe was so old and a dog I didn’t feel juicing was appropriate, though if he had been younger and expected to be on the diet for longer I probably would incorporate juices and maybe even green tea. I know dogs can do well on a completely vegetarian diet but whether it is ideal dogs long term I don’t know, certainly one needs to ensure they get vitamin B12, sufficient iron etc. One should stick as close as possible to the main principles of the human version of the Budwig Diet. Full vegetarian or adding in raw meat/fish is down to the choice of the owners and the dog.
Principles of the Budwig Diet
- Lots of omega-3 blended with dairy that is rich in sulphur-containing amino acids to make the oil more soluble and more easily taken up and utilised by the body
- One or two portions of Budwig diet per day
- Keeping blood sugar levels down and stable, not promoting high insulin levels, by using high fibre ground linseed
- Lots of antioxidants
- Enough minerals and vitamins for maintenance and healing
- Gut health and supporting gut flora
- Reducing stress
- Healthy exercise
FOCC Diet, Flax Oil with Cottage Cheese/Quark/Greek Yoghurt
The cornerstone of the Budwig Diet is cold-pressed linseed (flaxseed is its more American name) thoroughly creamed with quark (a type of cottage cheese made in Europe but varies from according to region); this is used to make a breakfast “muesli” ( I believe in German this roughly means mush). This has added to it fruit, rich in antioxidants and fibre; ground linseed, Nature’s richest source of lignans, which are mega antioxidant, and lots of soluble fibre that slows down the absorption of sugars from food, keeping blood sugar levels stable which in turns stops high insulin levels; honey, we don’t know Johanna Budwig’s thinking for adding hone, is there just for sweetening or its natural antimicrobial properties? The whole meal topped with chopped nuts, rich in minerals and oil soluble vitamins. Based on the Budwig diet for humans I have developed a version for dogs.
So at the advanced age of 18 Hebe, a tall springer weighed about 20kg, started on his new regime.
Breakfasts
Ingredients
15 ml Flax Farm Cold-pressed Linseed Oil
40g quark/cottage cheese/skimmed mild, fat-free Greek yoghurt/Skyr, they are interchangeable so long as very low fat/fat-free and about 10-12% protein.
1 x dessertspoon ground nuts/seeds/tahini
1 teaspoon raw cold-extracted honey
Half a small apple finely chopped or grated. As an alternative half a banana, pear, peach or similar.
Half apple size portion of veggies, particularly broccoli or cabbage and carrot. Either blitzed to a paste/puree or cooked and cooking liquid also added to food.
A dessertspoon berries
Method
Using a stick blender preferably, thoroughly blend linseed oil with quark or whichever alternative you are using until no oil shows and you have a homogenous cream. Add the honey.
Place finely chopped fruit, veggies, berries, honey and ground nuts/seeds in a bowl. Top with the linseed oil-cottage cheese cream and stir lightly.
Lunches
A small portion of Budwig muesli, similar to breakfast or small portion of supper. If the dog is less hungry at lunchtime feed a smaller portion. Only feed lunch if dog needs help maintaining weight.
Budwig diet for Dogs: Suppers
This is varied, I feed good quality meat and offal for maximum nutrition. Avoid fatty meat. Meat is not fed every day and fish is a healthy alternative to meat for at least some days.
- Two-three days a week: fish cooked, raw chicken/rabbit/game, green tripe, other offal and a portion of mixed cooked or pureed veggies plus a spoon of ground linseed
- One day a week: 3-4 eggs lightly scrambled and a portion of mixed veggies plus a spoon of ground linseed
- A small handful homemade dog biscuit
The only other additions are a little probiotic powder sometimes, or a slug of kefir and when I have it he always gets some of my raw sauerkraut which I either make myself ( I am a huge fan of raw sauerkraut) or it can increasingly be found in supermarkets and health shop – though bizarrely for something that is just cabbage it’s vastly expense!
My homemade healthy homemade dog biscuits
This is wheat-free and good for the digestion. It is high fibre for slow release energy. This is roughly made by eye, I don’t weigh it. I only feed a little of this occasionally when he has a Budwig muesli for supper and I think he is particularly hungry after a long walk.
Ingredients
3 parts mix of porridge oats, ground sunflower and/or pumpkin seeds, flaked brown rice, quinoa and/or buckwheat
1 part ground linseed
Nutritional yeast for lots of vitamin B and flavour.
Enough water to make a stiff dough
Roll out thinly about ¼ inch ½ centimetre. Place on baking sheet and bake in fan oven a 150C until it starts to dry out and before it goes brown reduce the temperature to about meringue temperature, just over a 100C and dry out. If properly dry, store in airproof container in fridge for three weeks. If you weren’t able to dry it completely and it is more the texture of pastry freeze it and get a portion out just before it’s needed. Feed as required.
Postscript
Hebe went on to 20. He was switched on and active to the end and very much still the mischievous Hebe. There was a gastric bug hitting the local dogs. The young ones pulled through after a few days but it knocked the stuffing out of Hebe to the point life wasn’t fun anymore and I made the sad decision. I’d owned him for eighteen and a half years, he’d been a real friend and completely irreplaceable.