Product Review: True Carnivores
Markus longingly looking at his beef trachea from True Carnivores
Like so many of you, my wife and I are meticulous shoppers. Whether it be online or in-person, we tend to put a lot of research into the things we purchase so that we know we're putting our hard-earned money on the proper products. There are so many options for even basic items like leashes and collars that it's easy to get lost in what we're buying.
We will be writing reviews as we purchase and use these items ourselves. As you do your research for products you're planning to buy, our goal is to add another layer to that research.
When we were first looking into transitioning Markus over to raw food, we needed the right push. We read about all the great things about going on a raw diet, but we were hesitant to start and frankly, we didn't even know where or how to start. On a random day, we were walking with Markus along Kerrisdale in Vancouver and we came across a store called True Carnivores. We stopped inside and everything changed for us.
I remember going in and True Carnivores had an employee who wasn't just an advocate for going raw, but he was answering all of our questions and concerns about going raw. In hindsight, I wish we had gotten his name. Every question we had (and we had a lot), he was patient and was very in-depth with his answers. He taught us a good way of transitioning Markus over to raw. What's great was that since we hadn’t decided if we wanted to do it yet, he wasn't pushy about going raw. He simply laid out his experience with his dogs being on a raw diet, the benefits of going raw and gave us a pamphlet to mull things over.
The duck foot’s out of the bag and Markus knows he’s about to get a treat from True Carnivores
Beyond the raw diet, they also stressed the importance of picking foods the right packaged foods for Markus. These are the types of treats that aren't prepared with preservatives and what to look for. Most of the products that they have in-store follow a certain standard of quality that they've set for themselves and you get the feeling that the products are purposefully curated when you walk in.
Of the things they stressed, the one that stuck with me the most was the importance of single-ingredient foods. Single-ingredient foods are ones that are made without preservatives and any of those ingredients that sound more like they should belong in a lab. The instruction was simple: if you’re picking up a bag of treats like tendons, the only ingredient you should see on the back of the bag are tendons!
Their store is stock with high quality foods - lots of single-ingredient treats that are great for dogs who love their meat treats. They have dehydrated treats like fish, tendon chews, organs or frozen foods like raw meat, raw bones, bone marrow, bone broth and lots more. They have a really good assortment of exotic foods and parts of animals that you won’t normally find at pet stores. One of Markus favourite treats from the store are the dried sardines. Each pack is stuff with a lot and the fish come smaller, making them the perfect treat for training. They also come at a very reasonable cost and since they're healthy treats, we don't mind getting those for Markus.
We brought Markus into the store and he was sniffing everything he could reach on his level. At one point and having sniffed through all the buckets of treats on the floor, he pulled out a lamb ear from the bucket to our surprise. We had a feeling this was going to happen, so we decided that if he was going to actually choose his treat, we’d get it for him this one time. Since we ended up buying the lamb’s ear for him, I guess that's why they leave the buckets on the floor!
One thing we thought was really helpful was that they do delivery for their raw food. If your dog's in need of a refill, but you don't have the chance to swing by and pick up the food, they'll actually swing by your place and leave the frozen raw dog food at your door. They leave everything in an insulated bag so that by the time you arrive home, the food's already there and you don't miss a beat. Then whenever you get the chance, you can drop the bag off to them.
In case you’re wondering, we’ve since switched Markus to a raw diet and we thank True Carnivores for their expertise. It is still one of our favourite places to go and stock up on meat treats locally. What we love is the fact that they have a small-shop feel, but everyone who works there are incredibly friendly with dogs with helpful with advice. They even threw in some extra sample treats for Markus!
If you're considering switching over to raw, but you're not sure how to get started or what to look for, I'd recommend making a stop to True Carnivores and having a chat with the crew there. We appreciated the fact they weren't pushy with their raw-ness and they politely answered our questions and then let us make a decision n our own.
With the combination of great quality foods and spectacular customer service, True Carnivores has become a popular spot for local dog owners. Whenever we're in the area, we always make sure to take an extra detour to pick up some treats for Markus. If Markus is with us, we sometimes even let him pick his own!
We’re so grateful for your support of The Markus Project. We mostly choose our locations through searching and word of mouth. If you know of a park, trail or location you think we should check out, please share it with us. We’d love to know!
