Some thoughs on

Raw Diets

Below is the article I wrote nearly two years ago. Much of it still applies, however over the last year and a half I have switched my dogs from home cooking to a raw diet. I did not immediately notice all the changes I have heard other people experienced in their dogs.

I believe that this is mostly due to the fact that my dogs were already getting a diet far superior to commercial kibble, and consequently they didn't have all that much more to improve. I have noticed some differences in coats. Over the last eight months my girls color has deepened several shades. Shedding in my girl is almost non existent. My boy does shed more, however he has a much thicker and longer coat, and I would expect him to shed more. He doesn't shed exccessively though. They are lean and full of energy.

One of the nicest side effects to the raw diet is how much less they are leaving in the yard. Poops are small, firm and very easy to clean up.

I am very pleased with the results, and strongly feel that this is the best thing to do for my dogs.

My original thoughs on feeding a raw diet:

I don’t think a discussion on nutrition would be complete without mentioning a raw diet. What follows is what I have discovered through my research thus far into raw diets for dogs. I haven’t completely made up my mind yet on the subject, but am very very intrigued. I should also mention, for those who have never heard of feeding raw diets, that discussions on raw diets tend to be like discussions on religion. There are a great deal of people who are quite fanatical about it, and refuse to actually have a “discussion” on it, but rather preach and insist that their way is the ONLY way. My feelings on this is that each dog is an individual, and the same approach that works for one dog may not work for another. But you should be prepared to encounter this type of thing when you start doing your own research into raw diets. 

There are several theories on how to feed raw. One camp feeds a “barf” style diet. But wait. Before you get grossed out. Barf is an acronym for Bones And Raw Food, or better yet Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods. The other main camp maintains that dogs should eat a prey model diet. 

The logic behind both of these ideas is that as dogs have evolved from wolves, and share the same dentition, and digestive system, that to be at their best as far as health is concerned they should be eating the same types of things that wolves eat. Namely raw meat and bones primarily or exclusively, depending on which system you are following.  

The Barf model splits the nutrition into divisions like this. A barf based diet consists of a large part of edible raw meaty bones, and that should comprise of a certain percent of the diet. I have seen several numbers on that percentage, but the majority seem to fall within 20-50%. Edible bone would be bone that the dog can consume and digest. The remainder of the diet would consist of boneless meat, organs, fruits and vegetables, as well as some recreational bones (those that cannot be consumed). All raw of course.  

Prey model is feeding your dog a raw diet consisting of whole animals or as close to that as you can. For example, giving your dog a whole chicken, and taking away what he doesn’t consume at that meal sticking it the fridge and offering it again for the next meal. The idea is that nature knows best, and when humans start mucking with the percentages of nutrients/ bones to meat/ etc that you get into trouble. Most of those who come down on the side of prey model feeding feed large pieces (as large as possible) to their dogs, and do not feed vegetables of any kind, believing that nature has provided a carnivore with every thing he needs in prey. There are varying degrees that this is carried out. Some people get a chicken like you would from a grocery store and cut it into quarters, feeding each quarter for a meal (depending on the size of the dog of course) until the chicken is gone and adding the appropriate organs to the diet. Some feel that that is still too far removed from the natural state and will feed a whole chicken with the feathers, head and feet still on, allowing the dog to eat or discard what it will. I have seen some discussion on letting dogs kill their own food, but I cant say for sure that anyone does that. I certainly wouldn’t. I think it would be cruel to the chicken at the very least, and it is probably illegal. I also don’t want my dogs learning how to kill anything. I have cats, and one in particular would be quite reminiscent of a rabbit, so I just won’t go there.  

Regardless of which model you follow, variety is stressed. You can’t simply feed only one meat source, like chicken. It needs to be as varied as possible because each meat source has different amino acids, and different nutrition and to be complete for your dog, you need to feed variety. There are a lot of meats that are available. Chicken, turkey, pork, lamb are the easily accessible ones, but there are other meats that can be used as well, such as rabbit, goat, emu, kangaroo, buffalo, and venison. There are even some businesses out there that sell snake food that you can buy from. You can order rats and mice from these, and they apparently come in nice neat little packages. You can also apparently order them skinned or whole. I have been told that these are popular among owners of small dogs. Hmmm……cant imagine my Mom visiting and finding a tray of rats in the freezer.  

What are the benefits of feeding a dog a raw diet? The biggest one I have heard is health. I have spoken to a lot of people who are feeding their dogs a raw diet, and they all say that improved health is the main benefit. Most of their dogs reportedly don’t get sick as often as their kibble fed counterparts. They also no longer need a yearly teeth cleaning, and their breath is sweet, and they no longer have the strong doggy odor that most kibble fed dogs have. They have fewer allergies and more energy. Their coats are silky soft, and they don’t shed nearly as much as a kibble fed dog. There is also a substantial difference in stools, with a raw fed dog producing much smaller, less odorous stools than those eating kibble. I haven’t been able to compare any of this with dogs on home cooked diets, so I cant tell you if there is any difference there.  

But aren’t bones dangerous, especially chicken bones? Everyone knows you aren’t supposed to feed chicken bones to dogs! 

These are dangers, but the people I have spoken to who have been raw feeding for years have told me that the danger is minimal. Yes a dog can choke on a bone, but they point out that they can choke on kibble. This is true, as one of my dogs has choked a couple of times on kibble when I was feeding kibble. It also sounds like the chance of bloat is less on a raw diet than on a diet of kibble. As one person has said to me, you feed what you are comfortable with. I know there are people out there who feed turkey, bone and all, to their dogs. I have let my dogs have turkey thighs, bone in once. I didn’t like the large jagged pieces that resulted and so I don’t feed turkey bones. I wont take that risk. I have heard from some people who favor prey model that its ok because if the meat/bone proportion is correct then the meat will protect the dog because the bone is wrapped in it. That theory doesn’t hold much water for me, at least for my dogs, because my dogs stripped the meat off of the bone and then ate the bone, so it didn’t have all that nice meat surrounding it.  

What it comes down to really is feeding what you are comfortable with. If a raw diet intrigues you, then read everything you can about it. Read about the different methods. Be willing to question what you are told, and use common sense. Don’t take any one persons word for it. Then come up with an approach that works for you. Keep in mind also that feeding raw isn’t a magic bullet. Although it may help if your dog has allergies, and there are people I have talked to who have dogs with irritable bowel syndrome and they report that it has helped their dogs immensely, a raw diet isn’t going to cure everything. One more important caveat is this. NEVER feed cooked bones. They can and will splinter and cause harm, because they are dried out and brittle due to the cooking process. This is most likely where the notion about feeding bones is dangerous came from.