Is raw meat good for your dog ? opinions welcome

[leethomas1988]

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Many people claim that raw meat is the best to feed your dog without a doubt. But some people believe the can turn nasty ???. In my opinion dogs need raw meat for genuine protein and without processed dog food they would have no choice but to hunt i.e raw meat. What do you think ????.

And also are the rumours about bakers dry dog food actually bad for your dog. If so what you recommend ?

 

[Dizzyjenni]

Great thread idea!

In my opinion, a raw diet is fab, but it is harder work to buy it and store it.

The biggest plus is that the raw wont have all the additives and cereal, so the health benefits are good.

One of my cats was fed a raw diet in the hope of helping him become healthier in general (as he had cancer and was going growing chemo). I remember my entire freezer being full of the raw food tubs lol!!!!

 

[lurcherman]

ive seen lurchers that was on raw and wow they do look great beasts there muscle and well being is a sight to see. i havnt gone down that line thow. i heard the idea of them being nasty on raw but never come across it as yet. there could be many factors into them being nasty.

 

[petitsfilous]

Raw all the way!!

Regarding Bakers; it is pretty much the worst shop bought food you can feed your dog. Full of additives and E numbers. Ever wonder why those big bags are sticky? It's the sugar seeping through! Feeding a dog Bakers everyday is like feeding your child McDonalds everyday.

 

[TTT]

Iv'e never heard about raw red dogs being nasty.

 

[petitsfilous]

Iv'e never heard about raw red dogs being nasty.

Me neither. Although this reminds me of a customer I had in store last year stating that the stag bars were disgraceful and she couldn't believe we were selling them because it teaches dogs to hunt deer!! LOL

 

[eingana]

Raw feeding all the way.

It's an old wives' tale about the taste of blood making them vicious, and if you had ever had my dog throw herself down at your feet and roll over to give you her belly you'd see that. She's entirely raw fed because of food intolerances.

 

[Oreo]

I think this thread is a fab idea thank you.

I know the topic of raw feeding in itself is a complex subject as you have those who feed bones, those that don't, those that feed fruit and veg, and those that don't. It is a minefield for a novice like me!

I have considered raw feeding for a long time and I am still doing a lot of research before I move Oreo across to Raw.

There are many pro's to Raw feeding, it's as close to a natural diet a dog can get, it has all the contents needed for a balanced diet, the options for flavours are pretty endless, and there are no processed additives.

I can't see many con's in truth other than little ones like the convenience of feeding kibble, however I do think that once you get to grips with raw it is probably just as easy as kibble.

I can't see why a dog cannot have a bit of both, so to speak as long as it is a high quality kibble.

I shall be looking deeper into this subject over the coming weeks I am sure.

 

[eingana]

Raw takes a lot more planning than feeding kibble, both to make sure that the food is available and in also making sure that it's all defrosted at the right time and that you have extra freezer space and a suitable place for defrosting available.

We get Molly's food from two different places. Her minced meat comes from a local raw feeding shop, which we're really lucky to have within a mile of the house. Her chicken carcasses come from a local wholesale butchers, which involves processing them into individual bags and into the freezer etc, so if you're a bit squeamish with meat then it's REALLY not a good idea to get your dog onto that diet.

What I would say is that the concept of feeding a bit of both is not really a concept that will work. The gut takes a lot longer to process kibble than it does raw meat, so if you alternate raw and kibble you have one always holding the other up in the bowel, which can lead to upsets and really bad windiness, plus it takes time for your dog's gut to get used to processing one rather than the other, so if you change to raw you are advised to change totally and bear with it through the first week when they may get stomach upsets, so changing backwards and forwards could upset their digestion when both are tolerated perfectly well when fed as a sole diet.

If you're going to do a 'bit of both' approach then I'd make kibble Oreo's main food and give raw beef rib or half a chicken carcass as an occasional treat, rather than feeding one feed of kibble and one of raw (does that make sense?).

 

[Oreo]

Makes perfect sence, thank you.

I didn't realise that it caused more issues by doing both.

So people who feed for example kibble and wet food together actually could be causing more issues for the dog?

 

[lurcherman]

cadac feeding complete and then adding the oddbit of wet food is supposed to offset the complete but yet again look at my two in my avatar, ive done it for nearly 11 years aint done them any harm, everythink in moderation, but yet again all dogs are different..

 

[eingana]

Wet food is still cooked and processed, so mixing kibble and wet food isn't so much of an issue (although strictly speaking it does upset the balance of nutrients because if you feed wet food and solid it should be wet food plus mixer, rather than wet food plus complete kibble) as it's the processing of the meat and the inclusion of grains or carbohydrates is the thing that changes how the gut deals with it.

As lurcherman says, all dogs are different and various people say that we should include vegetables in with Molly's raw food, but if we do then she refuses to eat it at all, so we give her an apple rather than chop veg up and put it in her dinner.

 

[lurcherman]

mine will eat stuff they dont like but ive got to hide it lol mine had chopped apples yesterday and scoffed the lot, normally its a clean up job with them spitting it out but not yesterday, they also have raw and cooked veggies in moderation of course.

gave them some chopped toms the other day and the brindle scoffed the lot while the black one spat every bit out lol

 

[eingana]

Molly doesn't spit bits out- she refuses to eat any of her dinner if there's a sprig of broccoli or a piece of potato in her bowl. It's really not worth it.

 

[Oreo]

Sorry for hijacking a thread (again) but in regards to the above is there such thing as a grain and gluten free mixer?

I know that butchers wet food is gluten & grain free but the dry isn't.

 

[TTT]

One thing you will notice is that there is a lot less output with raw food!

 

[chelynnah]

Makes perfect sence, thank you.

I didn't realise that it caused more issues by doing both.

So people who feed for example kibble and wet food together actually could be causing more issues for the dog?

______

I will take the opposite side of the 'feeding both won't work and one holds the other up in the gut'. I have yet to see an actual scientific study to prove this. Yes, raw digests faster, but the kibble doesn't stop the raw being digested or vice versa. All the food we eat digests at different rates. Have you ever been sick and thrown up stuff you ate the day before but not the stuff you ate an hour ago? I'm sure most of us have at some point.

I did a lot of research before moving over onto a 'half and half' diet. So I'm a heretic in both camps and proud of it. I have been feeding a half RMB (raw meaty bone) and half high quality complete for coming up to 9-10 years now and my dogs are the picture of health. My vets aren't keen on the idea, but they don't object as they've seen the health of my dogs.

We feed a raw meal either am or pm and a kibble meal (with a spoonful of raw mince for flavour) for the opposite meal. We have 5 whippets, raised 2 litters of pups on a combination of both, and all are happy and healthy.

We have a dog freezer (actually we have 2 dog freezers - a large upright and a small one that we moved out of our kitchen when we had it remodelled and went for a fridge/freezer in one for the house. We have a great local place where we can get minced raw meat and bone, buy chicken wings by the case, get lamb ribs etc... We also order a lot from Natural Instinct where they do a complete raw which takes all the guesswork out of it for you.

Part of our reluctance to go the whole way is that some people who look after our dogs aren't keen on the whole raw thing, when we travel, although we have an electric cooler it's not always convenient to travel with raw, and I want the dogs to be willing to eat whatever we feed them. We rotate a couple of different brands of complete food, but one of the ones we use and I highly recommend was created by a raw feeder who was trying to make a complete as close to natural as she could for those who wanted to but couldn't bring themselves to change. Look up Healthy Paws. The dogs love it. We do a few others, the criteria mostly being no corn, wheat or gluten.

So based on almost 10 years of feeding a half and half diet it is not harming my dogs, they are healthy and happy and have no gut issues at all.

My recommendation to anyone is that you have to do what is right for you and your dog in your own circumstances. if it's not something you can commit 100% to due to money or space (though over time you can start to find that raw can be cheaper), then some is better than none.

And as the post above mine says - a LOT less output on a raw or partly raw diet. I cannot imagine going back to a full kibble diet - particularly one full of corn as corn/maize is just a filler, not processed at all and basically garbage in/garbage out. Show me a horrid giant mushy poo and I'll show you a dog with corn very high on the list of the kibble it eats.

Here's my half and half fed crew Aged at the time 15 months through to 12 years (the fawn and white is the 12yo)