Our Mission Statement: The MADRA Approach

Start with the animal

My mission is to help owners understand the animal in front of them, so feeding decisions begin with its identity, biology and function.

At MADRA, the starting point is:

Identity → Biology → Anatomy → Physiology → Behaviour → Function → Feeding → Nutrition

That order matters. Before asking what should go into a meal, I ask what kind of animal we are feeding, how its body works and what feeding needs to allow it to do.

Food is the delivery system. Biology is the instruction manual.

Why feeding has become so confusing

Most people arrive here looking for a food recommendation, a supplement or the next diet to try.

They want to do the right thing. Yet the more advice they find, the harder feeding can become. One person recommends kibble. Another recommends raw. Someone else insists on a calculator, a premix or a growing list of supplements.

Different ingredients. Often the same starting question:

How do I make the meal balanced?

My approach begins one step earlier:

What does this animal need feeding to provide, beyond the nutrients it swallows?

That question changes what we look at, what we notice and how we make decisions.

The animal before the bowl

Much of modern feeding advice centres on food composition: protein, fat, minerals, vitamins, ratios and calculated requirements.

Those measurements have a role. They can help identify deficiencies and assess what a diet supplies. But meeting calculated nutrient requirements does not, by itself, tell us whether feeding supports the animal’s wider biological functions.

A nutrient profile cannot describe the resistance of tissue between the teeth. It cannot tell us how the animal uses its jaw, how long it spends processing food or whether feeding provides an opportunity to perform behaviours that matter to it.

The bowl can be analysed precisely while important questions about the animal remain unanswered.

This is the gap MADRA asks owners to consider.

Feeding is a process

A dog is a facultative carnivore. Understanding that identity gives us a starting point for examining its anatomy, physiology and feeding behaviour.

From there, we consider the mouth, teeth, jaw, digestive system and the physical work involved in eating.

Feeding includes more than swallowing. It can involve gripping, pulling, tearing, crushing, pausing and returning. The structure of food influences which of those actions are possible.

A minced meal and a piece of intact animal tissue may contain similar ingredients, but they provide different feeding experiences. Composition alone does not capture that difference.

This is why I consider both what food contains and what the animal does with it.

What does the feeding system take away?

Every feeding system provides something. It may offer convenience, consistency, accessibility or control.

We also need to ask what it removes.

Does it remove the work of processing food? Does it reduce feeding to a brief act of swallowing? Does it leave the mouth with little opportunity to perform the mechanical work we associate with canid feeding?

These questions matter when considering welfare as a whole.

Chewing, food processing and feeding behaviour deserve attention alongside nutrient intake. Calling them enrichment should not make them an afterthought.

I see the high prevalence of dental disease as a reason to examine how modern feeding uses the mouth. It raises an important question: are we supplying food while overlooking the oral function involved in eating it?

Dental disease, digestive problems and behavioural difficulties can have several causes. My approach asks whether the feeding process itself is being overlooked when those problems are assessed.

Changing ingredients may leave the framework unchanged

Moving from kibble to raw food can change the ingredients without changing the way an owner has been taught to think.

The focus may still be on constructing a perfect meal: measuring organs, adjusting ratios, adding powders and checking every variation against a calculator.

Owners can find themselves just as anxious as before, only with a different shopping list.

My concern is with what happens when calculation becomes the organising principle of feeding and the animal’s function becomes secondary.

A raw meal deserves the same questions as any other meal. What does it provide? What does it allow the animal to do? What might it leave out?

The label alone cannot answer those questions.

Nutritional adequacy and biological function

Nutrients matter. Deficiencies matter. So do the amount eaten, the foods offered and the needs of the individual animal.

But nutritional adequacy is one part of the assessment. It does not describe the whole feeding process or guarantee health.

Likewise, providing opportunities for natural feeding behaviour does not automatically establish that a diet meets every nutritional need.

Both questions deserve attention.

MADRA begins with the animal’s biology, then considers how feeding can support it. Nutritional assessment belongs within that understanding, rather than standing in for it.

I also want owners to distinguish an overall feeding pattern from the expectation that every meal must be identical or individually perfected. Looking across time allows us to consider variation, quantity, structure and the animal’s response together.

The aim is to develop understanding, so decisions have a clear basis.

What a MADRA consultation explores

A MADRA consultation begins with the animal and its current circumstances.

We explore its identity, feeding history, the foods offered, how those foods are presented and what happens during feeding.

We consider the physical work available, the behaviours expressed and the practical conditions the owner can provide.

The guiding question is:

Which biological functions does the current feeding system support, and which might it be overlooking?

From there, feeding decisions become more informed. Owners can understand why a recommendation is being made and assess advice against something more substantial than a product label or a confident opinion.

The individual animal matters throughout. Its age, health, abilities and circumstances influence what is appropriate.

Understanding before another product

MADRA exists because feeding advice often begins too far along the chain.

Owners are asked to choose products, compare nutrient panels and follow instructions before they have been helped to understand the animal itself.

I want to change that starting point.

My purpose is to help owners recognise feeding as part of the animal’s wider welfare: a process involving anatomy, physiology, behaviour and function, with nutrition delivered through it.

When those connections become clearer, feeding decisions have a stronger foundation.

Start with the animal. Understand its biology. Let that guide the feeding.