If you're up late researching, worrying, wondering what you're missing: you're already doing an amazing job. Sometimes the biggest shift comes from the simplest place: seeing the bowl in a new light. It starts in the bowl.
French Bulldog nutrition, made simple
Raphy and Audrey. The two reasons this book exists. ♥
Tick anything that sounds familiar. 🐾
Even better. Great food is the biggest lever you have, and starting before problems appear is the smartest move there is.
Start with the free calculator1 sign that very often starts in the bowl. Common in this breed, yes. Normal, no. Want a first step today? Sign up and I'll email you a free balanced recipe for your Frenchie.
♥ Send me the free balanced recipeWhatever you ticked up there, chances are you've already had a go at fixing it. That's what good owners do. You research. And that's where it gets hard.
There is something else. Nobody ever showed you where the symptoms actually come from.
Every piece of advice assumes there's a villain in the bowl. Find it, remove it, done. So you hunt. Chicken out. Grain out. Beef out.
And the same thing keeps happening. Two good weeks. Then it slips. Then a new food seems to be the problem.
A dog doesn't develop three new allergies in six months.
An inflamed gut doesn't wait for a villain. It starts treating ordinary food like one. Chicken wasn't the problem. Beef wasn't the problem. The gut underneath them was, and while it stays irritated, it will keep finding new suspects.
2 · What's actually going on down thereBetween your dog's gut and their bloodstream is a wall one cell thick. It decides what gets through, and it teaches the immune system what's safe. Think of it as a gate.
Food gets broken down properly. The good bits go through. The immune system learns to relax.
Whole proteins slip through too early. The immune system meets them in the bloodstream, where food doesn't belong, and marks them as a threat.
It does that with whatever your dog happens to be eating that month.
This isn't my theory. The link between the gut and the skin is now well documented in dogs, and I've listed every study I'm leaning on. Read them yourself →
3 · And a Frenchie starts with the odds against themNone of that is your fault, and none of it is something you can change.
4 · What you can changeWhat meets that gut, every single day.
Cutting the trouble protein isn't wrong. It's half the job, and it's the half everyone gets shown. It brings real relief. It just doesn't calm the gut that reacted in the first place, so the relief keeps slipping.
You're not only hunting an ingredient. You're settling a gut underneath.
And a gut doesn't heal in two weeks, which is exactly why nothing held.
That's the whole shift. You can stop chasing the next protein and start calming what's underneath, and the list usually stops growing on its own.
One honest note. Not every itchy Frenchie has a food problem. Pollen, grass and dust mites look almost identical, and they're more common than food allergies. The book shows you how to tell them apart first.
So what actually calms a gut? Not a rarer protein or a cleverer label. Something much older than that. 👇
Long before kibble existed, dogs ate what their ancestors ate. Fresh meat, organs, raw bones, and the greens found in their prey. Real food their bodies spent thousands of years learning to use.
Most kibble is a long way from that. Ultra-processed, heavy in starch, and barely 70 years old. For a sensitive little carnivore like the Frenchie, that's a lot to ask of a gut.
Not all of it, though. There is genuinely good food on the shelf: low in starch, honest about what's inside, built on real ingredients. It's just very hard to tell apart from the front of a pack, which is exactly what the book teaches you to do. Cook if you want to. You never have to.
The good news? The way back isn't a rarer protein or a fancier label. It's an old answer. Feed the gut what it was built for, and it starts to repair itself. Calmer skin. A quieter tummy. A coat that grows back. And this isn't wishful thinking. Study after study shows fresh, species-appropriate food changes the gut measurably within weeks. Read the studies →
Going back to nature doesn't mean serving whole prey in your kitchen. It means translating that natural blueprint into simple, balanced meals: the right amounts of muscle meat, organs, calcium, and plants, adjusted for what Frenchies specifically need. That's exactly what the book gives you:
Backed by studies, not trends. The ancestral blueprint, explained simply, with the reasoning behind every ratio.
Made for sensitive tummies, allergies, and all their lovable quirks. Clear ratios and portions, so you never have to guess.
How to switch without upsetting an already irritated gut. And how gut healing works even when your Frenchie reacts to several proteins.
Raphy is allergic to chicken, and even kangaroo. It showed the usual way: itchy skin, licked paws, and a lot of lost hair.
What helped was simple, and it came in two parts. We removed the proteins causing trouble, which gave him relief. Then we fed a naturally balanced, whole-food diet, and that's what made it last. Real food carries more vitamins and minerals than processed food, and in a form the body can actually absorb. Fed in the correct ratios, it gives the body everything it needs to heal itself. Raphy's gut settled, and one by one the symptoms left.
I studied pet nutrition in Germany, so I knew where to look. Most owners were never shown. That's why I wrote this book.
"My beloved Frenchie, Cosmo, had been struggling with ongoing stomach issues… Frenchies are such a unique breed, and I really believe they need more specialised care than the generic advice that's often out there."
Keenan B., Amazon review 🐾"Fun, funny, sweet and practical… Definitely a must read."
Oska E., Amazon review"You can tell a lot of passion and research has been invested… a must have for any Frenchie owners."
Verified Purchase, Amazon
Audrey and Raphy are a big part of my life, and everything I learned for them is in here for you. Whether your dog has allergies or not, whether you want to cook for them or stick with commercial food: this book gives you the base-layer understanding, backed by nature, of what your French Bulldog truly needs. So you're never guessing again.
Three ways to use it: cook for them, choose better food off the shelf, or simply fix the portions of what you already feed. Same understanding underneath all three.
13 short chapters. Here's what you'll actually be able to do:
Plus a full FAQ chapter: supplements, fussy eaters, loose stools, weight changes, and when to call the vet.
Other Amazon stores: US Australia UK Germany Canada
Available now as eBook and paperback. From AUD $11.99 on Kindle. Prices vary by marketplace, format, and currency.
eBook is Healthy Frenchies, paperback is Healthy French Bulldog. Same book, different covers.
Start with one or two changes at your next shop, not five, and watch the poos, the gas and the paws.
Then three things settle, in this order.
1Digestion first. The quickest win, because it's closest to the source. Less gas. Firmer poos. The room stops clearing. Why the gas happens →
2Then the itching. Fewer proteins crossing where they shouldn't means less for the immune system to fight.
3Then everything else. Coat, ears, tear stains, energy. These take longest, because they follow an immune system that's finally allowed to calm down.
Every dog runs on its own clock, so treat this as the typical order, not a schedule. Many owners notice the first real difference within two to four weeks, and that's usually the gut. Skin is slower, which is why I give it eight to twelve weeks. Two weeks tells you the food suits them. Twelve tells you whether it's working. And if nothing shifts at all, that's your cue to loop in your vet.
No rush. You don't have to overhaul everything this weekend. Slow changes work better for this breed, and easing in gradually doesn't restart anything. It's all one transition. What does start the clock again is scrapping it and beginning a different diet from scratch.
Not sure if you're feeding the right amount? This works out your Frenchie's calorie needs, then converts them into grams of the food you actually feed. Raw, cooked, kibble and wet are worlds apart in calories, so the grams should never be the same.
Usually on the back of the pack. Leave it blank and I’ll use a sensible average.
♥ A guideline. Always adjust to your dog’s body condition.
Grams tell you the size of the bowl, not what belongs in it. That's the rest of the book: the ratios, the ingredients, the recipes, and how to work out what your dog is reacting to.
Hi, I'm Alessa. Audrey and Raphy are a huge part of my life, and they're the reason I went down a very deep rabbit hole on nutrition. I studied pet nutrition in Germany, then spent years refining real-food feeding. First for Audrey and Raphy, then for other clients.
Here's the part that keeps me at this. Frenchies don't get long with us. They're one of the shortest-lived breeds there is, and they're brilliant at hiding when something hurts. They just keep wiggling and snorting like everything is fine.
We can't change their faces or their genetics. But we can change what goes in the bowl, every day, for their whole life. That's the biggest lever any of us has. It's why I wrote this.
I couldn't find one clear, trustworthy guide for this breed. So I made it.
Read it, try a change, and give it a little time. The book is sold through Amazon and Apple Books, so if it turns out not to be for you, returns follow their standard policies.
But if you're still struggling, I'd love to hear from you first. Email me at alessa@healthyfrenchies.com. I read every one and answer personally. Not a chatbot, not a support queue. Me.
And if your Frenchie turns out to be a trickier case, that's exactly what the personalised plans are for. You won't be left on your own with it.
Some Frenchies come with allergies, gut issues, weight problems or medical conditions that need more than a book. That's where a personalised plan comes in.
You fill in a questionnaire about your Frenchie. I build the plan and send it straight to your inbox.
No calls, no pressure. Answer whenever suits you.
Tell me about your Frenchie →Honestly? Start with the book. It solves most cases on its own. Come to me when it doesn’t.
Plans are AUD $189, invoiced only after I've reviewed your answers. No upfront payment.
The book teaches you the why. A plan covers the tricky cases. The Recipe Builder does the daily arithmetic.
Tell it about your Frenchie. Pick what's actually in your fridge. Get the whole bowl in grams: right protein, organ and bone ratios, calorie and fat checks, and a shopping list you can take to the butcher. One bowl or a 5 kg batch, in three taps.
AUD $49 a year. Less than a dollar a week.
Be first to know the moment it launches. No spam, just the launch email. See how it works →
Everything I know ends up on the blog, free and written for this breed. Nothing is behind a wall.
Read the blog →Eleven published studies, all free to read. I'd rather show you my working than ask you to take my word for it.
Read the research →On real food, a healthy adult French Bulldog typically eats around 2 to 3% of their ideal body weight per day. For a 12 kg Frenchie that's roughly 240 to 360 grams, usually split into two meals. On kibble the number is far smaller, because it's much more calorie-dense gram for gram, which is why the calculator asks what you feed before it gives you an amount. Always adjust based on body condition and energy levels. The free calculator above gives you a starting point in seconds.
Frenchies do well on real, species-appropriate food built from quality muscle meat, organs, bone and vegetables in the right ratios. The ratios matter more than any single ingredient, which is why the book walks through them step by step.
Sometimes, yes, but not always. Environmental triggers like pollen, grass and dust mites are actually more common than food allergies, and they can look almost identical. That's exactly why the book walks through telling them apart instead of assuming it's the bowl. Severe or persistent cases should always be checked by your vet.
Yes, when the meals are properly balanced. The key is getting the protein, organ, bone and vegetable ratios right and avoiding unsafe ingredients. The book explains the ratios and the why behind them, drawing on published research and studies.
Gradually. Most Frenchies do best with a step-by-step transition over one to two weeks, slowly increasing the share of real food while watching digestion. The book includes a full transition guide so you know exactly what to do each day.
Yes. For tricky cases like allergies, gut issues or weight problems, I build a complete personalised plan from a detailed questionnaire, delivered by email with two weeks of follow-up. Plans are AUD $189, with no calls to schedule.
No. Plenty of readers never cook a meal and still see big improvements just from getting the portions right and cutting the starch. Cook if you want to. The recipes are there if you do.
Yes, same book, two covers. The eBook goes out as Healthy Frenchies and the paperback as Healthy French Bulldog. Identical content, and they sit on the same Amazon listing, so pick whichever format you prefer.
Yes, though don't change anything without talking to your vet first. Understanding why a prescription food is built the way it is makes the whole plan easier to follow, and easier to ask good questions about.
The book has a full chapter on it. How to tell a food reaction from pollen. Why changing foods at random backfires. How an elimination diet works, and why the real thing is best designed with your vet. If your dog has already been through several failed attempts, a personalised plan is the better fit.
Puppies, properly. They get their own feeding amounts by age rather than a scaled-down adult portion. Seniors get less space, so if you have an older Frenchie with specific needs, a personalised plan will serve you better.
Completely. No email, no signup, no catch. It's a gift. Try it here.
You don't need to become a nutritionist. You need one clear guide, written for this breed, that tells you what to put in the bowl and why.
One honest nudge: the real test takes eight to twelve weeks, and every time you start over with a different diet, that clock starts again. Whenever you begin is when it starts. The sooner it does, the sooner it's behind you both.
📦 Get the Healthy Frenchies book →
eBook and paperback · From AUD $11.99 · Available on Amazon and Apple Books
You're already doing an amazing job. This is just here to help.
With love, Alessa xx ♥