What is the single most important ingredient in Australian Formula?
That really isn’t a fair question. It is a bit like saying ‘what is the most important part of a Ferrari – the engine or the gearbox?’ It has to be a perfect balance – you can’t simply shovel in ‘lots of good things’ and expect them just to blend. Nutrition works to a different set of rules.
If you were to ask, “what single ingredient gives ‘Aussie’ the edge?” the answer would be creatine. Without it, our food would take one large step in the direction of being similar to the rest.
No other manufacturer can copy our unique creatine infusion process. This is partly because of the technology involved and partly because we registered a worldwide patent on the process that prohibits any other manufacturer from copying us.
The reason that creatine is so important is simple – greyhound racing is not an endurance event. Human and canine research into creatine has shown the fantastic benefit of creatine in the explosive release of power.
Correctly feeding creatine in the long term is rather like charging the greyhounds muscle cells with instantly available energy. It increases power, prolongs the duration of explosive power and delays the onset of cramp.
It is our opinion that some greyhounds benefit much more than others from its use but all appear to benefit to some extent. Australian Formula is a very cost effective way of feeding good quality creatine.
Remember this about creatine; it only works correctly if you feed it long term – over weeks and months. Feeding it a few days before a race has been shown scientifically to be ineffective.
I noticed an immediate improvement in my dogs when they switched to ‘Aussie’. How can it possibly work so fast?
The two word answer to this would be ‘quality ingredients’. While normal dog foods may declare similar levels of vital nutrients to those in Australian Formula, the big difference is often in availability and biological values.
As an example: while some foods may boast ‘27% protein’ the poor quality of the protein sources mean that there is often nowhere near 27% available to the dog.
A lot of the protein and fat in the diet just goes straight through his system and is present in the his stools.
(We tested a lot of stools in the research stage of the product – not the first thing you might mention as a chat-up line!)
When switching to Australian Formula, the dogs system is immediately exposed to increased availability of key nutrients. This can occur virtually overnight and will often result in the dog suddenly appearing ‘full of itself’ and full of energy.
This is a good sign and along with the reduction in stool volume that you will notice it gives you a very clear sign that the food really is different from most others on the market.
I have had great results with Australian but I have a friend who just can’t get on with it. He is quite a well-known trainer. Why is this?
We can accept that our food does not agree with an individual dog (although that is very rare). If a whole kennel of dogs are not doing well on it then there is something else going on.
We believe that by two ‘likely suspects’
1) The trainers who are most likely to benefit the most by feeding Australian Formula are those who work their dogs physically hard. Massive weight gain is just one indicator of a dog given insufficient exercise and/or a casual feeding regime.
This is not a feed for ‘couch potato’ dogs and idle trainers.
2) However, even idle trainers are unlikely to see a decline in performance unless there are other factors at stake.
The most likely is a chronic over-supplementation of vitamins and minerals leading to other physiological problems.
Can you prove that the joint conditioners in Australian Formula will really extend my dogs racing life?
No of course we can’t. But then many familiar substances commonly on sale with pharmacists with apparent benefits for human use are still undergoing tests to ascertain how they work.
Of course other products have already gained substantial scientific credibility – products such as glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate.
Dogs and humans are not eating the diets that we evolved to eat over thousands of years and many substances that we are missing in our diets are of huge importance to our health and vital to take as supplements.
Joint conditioning is an area of nutrition that still does not receive the interest it deserves from greyhound trainers.
In this area horse trainers are a long way ahead of us and they see the subject as a vital one. Go into any good equine shop and look at the choice of supplements available if you need convincing.
Joint conditioning supplements are complex and there are many alternatives on the market. With Australian Formula you are guaranteed a good package that you give your dog every time you feed Australian Formula
I want to try using Australian Formula but I just cannot see myself giving up feeding meat. I really need convincing.
While some very successful top trainers have told us that they are getting great results by using meat with Australian, we are sticking to our advice not to use it simply because it is unnecessary.
The problem with adding meat to a scientific diet is that it alters the balanced nature of the diet. A balance that is a critical reason the feed works as well as it does.
It would be very hard to design a diet to be mixed with meat as meat varies so much in quality, especially in the fat content.
Fat is vital to the athletic performance of greyhounds and meat is often fat deficient. Good lean meat is very deficient in fat. It may have plenty of good protein but dogs don’t really use protein as a fuel source when racing. They use fat best and then carbohydrates.
So by feeding good meat you are reducing the fat content of the overall diet down to the level of an ordinary greyhound food. That is fine, but someone will beat you with an identical dog feeding Australian Formula correctly.
What if you feed fatty meat? Well that is better but how fatty? It is impossible for any manufacturer to design a ration around this type of variability. The answer is to just come up with a middle of the road feed and tell people they can add what they like to it. We are very sorry but Australian Formula will not do that.
When you also take into account the expense, the time wasted, the money wasted and the danger of bacterial contamination, not to mention the horror stories associated with drug contamination in knacker meat, the case for not feeding meat is compelling
Enquiries FROM BRITAIN & IRELAND: Steve Clarke Tel (00 353) 86 0507039 Ireland (086) 0507039
