MADISON HEIGHTS (AP) -- When Jill Tack gives her dog a bone, it's not a rawhide chew or cookie-like treat from a box. It's a buffalo knuckle.
For breakfast and dinner, her three greyhounds and one husky get Cornish game hens and duck necks.
Tack's pets only eat raw food, the same kind that are the specialty items at her new store, The Pet Beastro, located inside the Animal Welfare Society building.
The Pet Beastro has an extensive in-stock selection of raw pet food for cats and dogs.
Inside a 122-cubic-foot freezer, Tack carries six brands of raw, frozen food. Boxes of duck and chicken necks are piled next to mackerel, sardines, whole beef hearts and ground quail, rabbit and kangaroo.
Tack and a growing number of pet owners contend raw food is what nature intended for cats and dogs and gives them healthier teeth, skin and fur while preventing allergies and managing weight -- all without preservatives, carbohydrates and chemicals.
Poultry is the base of most raw food meals. Tack said raw bones aren't dangerous and have benefits.
"It's a natural floss for their teeth and it helps with digestion," Tack said. "They'd eat the bone if they caught a rabbit in the wild."
Tack said she turned to raw dog food in 1998 after her 101/2-year-old Yorkie, Max, was diagnosed with cancer and given three months to live. She said her family couldn't afford any kind of medical treatment but wanted to do something to improve his quality of life.
"We switched to a raw diet and he lived another 31/2 years," she said. "I think we starved the cancer by not feeding it sugars and starches."
The number of raw food proponents grew this year following a recall of contaminated manufactured food imported from China. Recently, a Michigan State University study found more than 300 cats and dogs may have died as a result of the tainted food.
"A lot of people called me after that," said Tack.
Veterinarian James Coleman at Madison Veterinary Hospital said it makes sense to give pets a balanced diet.
"I'm not a big fan of the raw food diets," he said. "I have a couple people who tell me they only feed their dogs raw chicken. That satisfies some dietary requirements but not all. Pets need carb sources, certain fatty acids, calcium, vitamins and minerals."
Coleman also said he is concerned about bacteria being consumed.
"Cats and dogs aren't wild animals. Their GI tracts are a little different," he said.
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