I can tell you right now that my dogs are on a combination raw/home-cooked diet and are doing better then they have ever done!
The Raw Food Question… is it safe?
How should you feed it? Do I recommend giving it?
My short answer: Raw Food is healthy for your pet.
Salmonella and E. Coli are not a well documented health concern for your pet. Pets have short intestinal tracts which digest food quickly, before bacteria have time to multiply.
Pets also have very acidic stomachs, which kill many bacteria.
When preparing raw food, wash your hands and counters well. Always use common sense when preparing, feeding and storing raw food. Pre-packaged frozen raw food is an easy way to start. There are quite a few good brands on the market today – simply feed 1 lb of food for every 50 lbs of dog.
For thousands of millennia, our canine and feline companions have subsisted on diets of raw meats and human dinner scraps. Around 60 years ago, pet foods began growing in popularity, supplanting the more natural diets of our dogs and cats. The past 10 years, however, have seen a rise in the raw food diets.
BARF Diet
One popular raw diet is the BARF model, an acronym for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food (or Bones And Raw Food). The BARF diet which includes non-meats and numerous supplements was designed for pets and wild animals by Dr Ian Billinghurst. Billinghurst claimed that commercial kibble does not allow domestic animals to thrive, as their ancestors did on a wild, raw diet.
The Whole Prey Diet
This diet simulates the proportions of an actual prey animal in a pet’s diet. This includes organ meat heads, fur (and feathers and scales), skin, muscle, and bone, without supplements.Others feed a diet largely composed of as wide a variety of meats and butchers’ scraps as possible, and table scraps as supplements. Feeding these diets is relatively simple.
Health Benefits
Most pet owners notice improvements in one or more qualities of their companions.
These include:
- shinier coat
- eliminated “dog” odor
- better body muscle to fat ratios
- cleaner teeth and breath
- decreased itching
- normalized energy levels
- improved urinary tract health
- better resistance to infections
- increased mobility with a decrease in arthritis pain
- decreased allergy symptoms
- little to no hairballs in cats
- lower stool volume
Most pet owners report lower Veterinary fees and much lower costs feeding their pets.
You can find a whole lot more about feeding your dog or cat a raw diet here. This is a great resource! And if you like a forum format where you can ask questions, check out the Inner Circle. I use it and would love to see you on the inside!