What’s in the Bowl
Come dig in and find out about our food!
Imagine veggies from your own garden, raising chickens…
That's the way we approach our food. It’s about so much more than a simple nutrient breakdown (although that’s pretty awesome). We insist our animals and vegetables are raised humanely and with utmost care for the earth. We make sure our employees are treated with dignity and fairness. We obsessively focus on every detail, from transportation to packaging, to minimize our environmental impact. And we are proud to be the rare pet food packed not only with organic vegetables and grains, but also with certified organic animal proteins.
We’ve modeled our diet on how dogs and cats eat in the wild.
It’s based on the research of Juliette de Bairacli Levy, a pioneer in herbal and holistic animal medicine. She studied what plants and herbs pets ate in nature to feel better, traveled among the Berbers and Bedouins and their animals, and lived with the Romani people to see why their pups were so magnificently healthy. She deeply understood the bond between animals, people, and the Earth.
Bairacli Levy died in 2009, but Shine Pet Food continues to build on her work with our consultants, world-renowned animal nutritionist Richard Patton, Ph.D., and veterinarian Kim Freeman. They have designed specialty diets for dogs and cats with medical conditions and help us constantly upgrade our recipes to incorporate the latest research. Stay tuned for new plant-based and insect-protein options—more healthy choices for your pet and (by avoiding meat) another way for us to lighten our carbon pawprint.
Fresh
Our food is pure, fresh, and comes raw and gently cooked. We prepare it all by hand in our kitchen. It involves no processing. It has no preservatives. It also has no added hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, artificial coloring, or genetically-modified anything. We source only from farmers and ranchers who treat their animals ethically and the earth regeneratively. We will never use an ingredient that comes from a factory farm. Never.
Organic
Shine Pet Food has seven lines of organic-certified recipes. All of our chicken, turkey, beef, and duck recipes are completely certified organic, as is our facility. Why does that matter? “Certified organic” is not just a tree-hugging label or marketing term. It means accountability, because the ingredients are tracked from the farm or ranch until they go out our door. And it means transparency—you can be sure that the ingredients are what they say they are, and don’t contain hidden additives. If it’s organic, for example, it’s non-GMO, so all of our products are free of any plants or animals exposed to glyphosates. Big picture: Organic food is more nutritious for your pet and grown in a way that protects both the people who work the farm or ranch and the planet. So it affects every single step in the food chain.
Good Grains
The whole “grain-free” trend originally caught on out of frustration over the high carb content and low-quality ingredients in processed dog foods. People also felt it was a more natural diet. Since then, however, these recipes have been linked to a serious type of canine heart disease (DCM); the latest research suggests it may be related to the large amounts of ground, dried legumes that are often substituted for the grain.
Whatever the case, our dog food has always included grains because they’re incredibly nutritious. It’s true that canines don’t go around dining on barley and quinoa in the wild.
“But they do catch prey like mice and rabbits, and they readily consume the contents of the stomach that contains grains in a predigested state, supplying valuable micronutrients and calories."
To mirror that scenario, we sprout and soak our organic grains to break down the cell walls so the great nutrition is easily available.
Better than "Balanced"
Here’s the deal. Thanks to a regulatory quirk, we can’t officially call our diet “complete and balanced.” To use that phrase, pet food regulations mandate meeting certain levels of vitamins and minerals that often times are attained by adding synthetic sources.
“But most of the regulations are based on studies with dry kibble,”
says Dr. Richard Patton, who has consulted in the industry for 30 years.
“For example, the level of zinc they recommend is two to four times the amount known to be required by any other creature ever studied.”
It may make sense to add back nutrients when they’ve been processed out of pet food. But Shine is fresh. It contains all these vitamins and minerals naturally—a more effective way to deliver them to the body to begin with. If we added the copper and zinc requirements to Shine, we feel it would be too much. So we’ve chosen not to, which means we have to label our food as:
“intended for supplemental or intermittent feeding only.”
We hope that will change with new guidelines for fresh food. Bottom line?
“If you want a longer, healthier life for your pet,” says Dr. Patton, “our products are balanced, complete nutrition, even if we’re not allowed to say it that way.”
Variety
Our recipes can be optimized by rotating and supplementing with tripe, bones, and bone broth. But there is no exact science to doing it right. When you think about how dogs and cats thrive in the wild, one day they’ll feast on a big catch; the next, they won’t eat much at all. So we suggest going for a good balance over a week or even a month. You know your pet best. Experiment and watch their energy level, weight, and mood. They’ll let you know what’s working.
Our Recipes
Dog Food Recipes
Raw Dog Food
This is our most popular line, featuring seven different protein sources. All ingredients, including fish, red meat, and vegetables, are human-grade. Real, fresh, unprocessed food for your dog—just like Mother Nature always fed them in the wild.
Gently Cooked Dog Food
This line is almost identical to the raw one but it’s gently cooked and includes human-grade certified organic poultry, and wild boar, along with a wide variety of protein sources. The fish and red meat are also human-grade—as are the vegetables, sprouted grains, and other ingredients. Real food for your dog, with no starchy fillers, added hormones, or antibiotics. The Gently Cooked line is ideal for transitioning your dog from kibble to Shine Pet Food. And it’s great for pet parents, who want their pets to get all the nutrition of fresh food without going on a raw diet.
Digestive Support Recipe — Certified Organic
This recipe has been specially developed by our consulting veterinarian, Dr. Kim Freeman, to help dogs with chronic diarrhea and digestive issues. You might also try this recipe if your pet has symptoms of inflammatory bowel syndrome (including vomiting), colitis, food allergies, anal gland problems, and general appetite issues. The diet is extremely digestible—moderate in protein with moderate fat and good-quality complex carbohydrates. It also emphasizes ingredients that are prebiotics and have a mild liver-cleansing action. Depending on your pup’s specific health issues, you may want to talk to your veterinarian about adding grains, which can also reduce the fat content.
Cancer Support Recipe
Our consulting veterinarian, Dr. Kim Freeman, has developed this special diet for dogs diagnosed with cancer, especially hormonally-induced breast, lung, bone, prostate, testicular, and thyroid cancers. You can also use it as short-term support for dogs with blood sugar and weight issues. This is largely a keto-style diet. Wild boar is the main protein, which makes it appetizing, with organic, grass-fed beef fat added to boost healthy omega-3 fatty acids. The top ingredients have been chosen for their powerful properties in Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine. Mushrooms, for example, along with barley and the boar, tonify yin; they also increase qi (life force energy) and drain unhealthy “damp.” Ginger and horseradish reduce nausea, L-glutamine helps the gut recover from cancer treatments, and fish oil lowers inflammation and promotes healing of damaged tissues—not to mention a glowing coat!
Kidney Support Recipe — Certified Organic
Developed by veterinarian Dr. Kim Freeman, this highly digestible and tasty diet is moderate in protein and low in phosphorus. If your dog has severe kidney issues, please consult your veterinarian as our formula may have too much protein and require an added binder like Rx Vitamins Phos-Bind. The basic proteins are beef, chicken breast, and egg whites (there’s no ground bone or organ meat, to reduce phosphorus). We’ve increased the percentage of veggies with a mix that emphasizes a good balance of nutrients—particularly B vitamins and arginine, both of which directly support kidney function. We use barley as a grain for its effects in traditional Chinese medicine—for example, draining unhealthy “dampness” and supporting the yin side of the body that is often deficient in kidney disease.
Puppy Recipe — Certified Organic
This special recipe is expressly designed to help your new little friend grow! Great for all breeds, it’s packed with nutrition and builds strong bones with a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio of 1:1. It also includes an herbal digestive support tincture made with beef bone broth, angelica root, licorice root, and fennel seed—all organic. Available in raw or gently cooked lines. We’ve watched so many puppies develop into active, healthy, thriving dogs on this recipe. That’s worth everything!
Cat Food Recipes
Raw Cat Recipe
Cats are obligate carnivores and they love their food fresh! Our raw recipes feature pasture-raised chicken, beef, and turkey—all organic—and pasture-raised rabbit. We add small amounts of organic vegetables to mirror how cats eat in nature because when they catch live prey, it’s mostly herbivore and the stomach contents are included in the meal. Our raw food varieties come in Pints and Nuggets. The Pints are one-pound tubs you just open and scoop. The nuggets are no-mess, super-convenient; just thaw as many as you need for a fresh bowl.
Transitional Cat Recipe
We know how particular cats can be when we ask them to try something new—like veggies, which are in our regular fresh food. So if your furry one is finicky, try starting out with our transitional diet. It’s pure meat with a little kelp and sea salt to provide minerals. (The beef recipe also has a little supplemental calcium.) You can gradually switch your cat from its old food to our transitional diet (find out more here). Once they’re eating that alone, you can slowly introduce them to our regular raw food. Some cats even stay on the transitional diet and thrive. It’s available in pints and nuggets. The pints are one-pound tubs you just open and scoop. The nuggets are no-mess, super- convenient; just thaw as many as you need for a fresh bowl.
Treats
Munchies [Dogs]
Baked weekly in our oven, these gluten-free mini-cookies are for both dogs and their humans. Our in-house favorite is the Carrot Banana with a cup of tea.
- Organic Carrot Banana - Certified Organic
- Organic Chicken - Certified Organic
- Organic Sweet Potato - Certified Organic
- Cheese
Jerky
Wildly popular and perfect for everyday treating for cats and dogs
- Grass-fed and grass-finished bison heart and liver
- Grass-fed and grass-finished lamb heart and liver
Dehydrated Lung [Dogs and Cats]
Soft, light, and easy to chew for cats and dogs, great for training.
- Grass-fed and grass-finished lamb lung
- Grass-fed and grass-finished bison lung
Jack’s Snacks [Dogs and Cats]
Use them as high-value training treats or casual snacking—dogs and cats go crazy for these things.
- Lamb lung/liver
- Bison lung/liver
