Dubai Dogs Get Home Cooked Dinners Thanks To Expat Dog Owner

A

-based expat dog-lover is now supplying freshly home-cooked, nutritious meals to local dog owners.

Egyptian expat Nael Basily’s pet dog provided the inspiration for his master’s development of healthy dog food recipes when he fell sick with cancer late last year. The local vet attributed the illness to an unhealthy diet and lifestyle, prompting Nael to research into commercially available, processed dog food. Before he came to Dubai, he’d cooked food every day for his Golden Retriever, Twixy, but hadn’t had time since he arrived in the emirate.

Even although he’d been feeding her premium brands of processed dog food, it didn’t help her once she became ill, so he decided to cook for her again. She’s now loving her dinners and looking and feeling much healthier. Seeing her improvement, he launched his ‘Just Chew’ venture after renting a small kitchen in Jumeirah Lakes Towers’ Al Mas Tower and starting to cook much larger quantities of his own-brand, fresh dog food.

He now has 40 dog owners on his books, and has organised his time in order not to let down his doggy clients. There’s a set menu for every day of the week, with the actual cooking taking place on Sundays and Wednesdays. Delivery is on the same days, as it’s important the dogs’ dinners are fresh and nutritious. He packs the meals in food boxes already marked with days of the week, and has had to hire a delivery boy as he’s now too busy to deliver himself.

Nael’s menu includes ‘Chunky Chic’, a mix of brown rice, carrots, steamed potatoes and a boneless chicken leg, topped with a splash of olive oil and powdered eggshell. Jerkey Turkey has sweet potatoes, brown rice and zucchini, and his salmon dish has steamed vegetables as well as salmon bites. As well as being delicious, his doggy dinners are also affordable, especially when compared with premium dried food packs which cost over twice as much. It’s a brilliant idea, born out of love for his own dog, and could well develop into a very successful not-so-small business.