When Kibble Fails: How My Pug Turned Me Into a Raw-Feeding Rebel

• Posted on 15 October 2025
• By Heidi Hammer
• Posted in Pet Nutrition, Raw Feeding
• 0

There’s rebellion, and then there’s what happens when you decide to feed your dog something that still looks like… well, food.

Mine started in 2021, when Puck — my black-as-espresso pug and professional kitchen shadow — went from “healthy” to heartbreak. He was eating one of those premium, vet-approved kibbles, the kind that wins awards and costs as much as a pair of shoes. But he was miserable. He was pulling fur out of his own backside, his skin raw with sores, his ears a yeast-soaked war zone. And the anal gland situation? Let’s just say it was not for the faint of heart.

So I did what I do best: ignored the marketing, trusted my gut, and went rogue.

Cautious Beginnings: Enter the Air-Dried Lamb & Tripe
I wasn’t ready to jump straight into frozen rabbit hearts and organ blends. So we eased in with ZIWI air-dried lamb and tripe — my version of a culinary test flight. Ziwi’s slow air-drying process keeps nutrients mostly intact while making storage easy. It’s 96 % meat, organs, and bone — no cereal fillers, no “pea protein mystery dust.” It was clean, convenient, and smelled like it could pick a fight with the UPS guy.

And Puck? He turned into a wild hyena the second it hit his bowl.

The Wild Hyena Emerges
The transformation was unreal. Within weeks:

• His skin healed, and the hot spots vanished.
• Hair regrew, shiny and smooth.
• His ears quieted down, no more constant shaking.
• Anal glands stopped staging monthly protests.
• Every dog in the house got leaner and stronger, their coats like polished velvet.
• The familiar aroma of “Frito feet” miraculously disappeared
• And the kicker: Puck, now six years old, has zero plaque or tartar on his teeth. None. Not even a whisper of yellow film. Raw chewing cleaned what “dental sticks” or the "crunch" of kibble never could.
• Oh — and they all poop a lot less. Raw food is highly digestible; there’s less waste to begin with. A University of Illinois study found raw-fed dogs produce up to two-thirds less fecal volume than kibble-fed dogs because their bodies actually use what they eat (University of Illinois 2017).

Scientific research backs the dental benefit too: chewing raw meaty textures reduces plaque and calculus compared with dry diets (Journal of Veterinary Dentistry 2020, BMC Vet Res 2020).

From Air-Dried to Frozen: The Moisture Revelation
In 2022, I got a job at a natural pet food store in town and eventually, we traded convenience for biology. I switched from air-dried to frozen raw, using blends like SmallBatch Pets , Raw Bistro Pet Fare and Solutions Pet Products — real, high-moisture foods that still contained what nutritionists call intracellular moisture.

Here’s why that matters:
Air-dried and freeze-dried foods remove almost all natural water, leaving only 2 – 5 % moisture. Frozen raw, by contrast, preserves the natural water trapped inside animal cells — the same hydration a dog would get from prey. That intracellular water isn’t just “wetness”; it carries dissolved minerals and electrolytes, supports kidney and urinary health, and aids digestion. Studies in animal physiology show that naturally moist diets improve hydration balance and reduce urinary concentration compared with dry diets (National Research Council, 2006 – Animal Nutrition Needs of Dogs and Cats). In short: moisture is not a condiment — it’s biology.

Once we made the switch, stool quality improved even more, coats got glossier, and meal times became a symphony of slurps and satisfied grunts. The pack starts barking at 6am sharp to get the meat wagon rolling!

The Senior Surprise: Ginger’s Second Act
Then there was Ginger — my old rescue pug, adopted at one, and forever the grumpy grande dame of the household. At sixteen, she was fading: weak, losing muscle, sleeping all day. I figured if we were going to try this, we’d do it on her terms.

I switched her to frozen raw, expecting small miracles. What I got was three more vibrant years. Her coat returned. Her eyes cleared. She trotted again — not marathon pace, but enough to make the squirrels panic. She lived until nineteen. Nineteen. A pug. And she left this world looking like a retired queen who’d just come home from the spa.

What the Science Says (and Doesn’t)
The veterinary world is split. A 2019 review noted that raw diets may improve coat, dental health, and stool quality, but there’s still limited clinical proof (PMC 6849757). Risks include nutrient imbalance and potential pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli (WSAVA Global Nutrition Toolkit 2021).

That’s why I feed smart:

Raw feeding isn’t chaos — it’s controlled rebellion.

The Takeaway
Switching to raw wasn’t about chasing a trend. It was about watching my dogs, trusting what their bodies told me, and daring to feed them something real. In essence, going back to basics.

Puck’s coat gleams, Ginger’s legacy still glows, and my kitchen smells faintly of thawing meat and satisfaction. Raw feeding might not be for everyone — but for this dog mom, it’s proof that sometimes the most radical thing you can do is trust the evidence of your own eyes.

Because rebellion? It smells like tripe. And it looks like a pug with perfect teeth.