I have fed my lot on both raw and complete.I fed raw for ages...coats improved,appetites improved and they seemed much calmer.Not a single days illness,no runny tummies and everyone loved their food.
When I moved I lost my freezer space and so went onto complete The boys eat with much less gusto,we have runny tummys occasionally and they are always hungry.
I am now in the process of trying to go back to raw.
As for not knowing where the raw food comes from...do we know where complete ingredients come from?...it exactly the same issue.
Dogs will pick up any old rubbish to eat given half a chance...I'm sure there stomachs are up to dealing with raw meat.
I also wonder about some of the anti-raw propaganda...could it be being put out by pet food companies???

why...pages ago I helped the original poster with giving her some sort of idea as to what I put in their food diary...

I mentioned chicken carcuss, heart, liver or kidney, pilchards etc (and that's just one days example) not the same as just feeding mince beef day in day out or similar is it??

What I said was that I didn't feed veg.

Some dogs may thrive perfectly well without grain in their diet but I think one aspect of diet that barfing doesn't seem to accommodate is the vast diversity in the domestic dog species that has resulted from the various lines of decent from domestication < 15k years ago.

Something I have noticed in my own dogs, and read many times on forums is that coat quality suffers if the cereal content reduces too far. I do belive that breeds/landraces that have developed on cereal rich diets have adapted to this change. Dogs that didn't thrive, simply didn't survive to pass on their genes.

It could well be that some dogs, eg the Arctic breeds, because of their ancestral environment, may well thrive better without cereal but there are many that have descended on a diet that was appropriate to their heritage eg the Collie breeds on a diet consisting mainly of oats.

JMO

Sure. I have no problem with the addition of grains to a dogs diet if that's what people feel is best. But comments like dogs arn't getting a balanced nutricious diet without them or veg are wrong which is what i'm trying to point out.

No doubt about it though - even dogs that may do well with a little grain added don't need the 90% which some 'dog foods' consist of. A little of anything can't be bad but when it out weighs the balance to that extent I see no real good in it.

But what does this all have to do with bacteria?? lol grains or no grains veg or none...??

I think it's a little more than just what the owner feels is best. I would go so far a to say they're vital for some dogs.



Oh agree completely Mys I'm no fan of complete foods. I do use them but regularly change my brand and feed mainly raw or home cooked meat, cereal & veg.

Ahh right, got it. So I was mistaken, you don't feed your veg or grains at all and your way of thinking is this is balanced because you vary the raw food sources?

The main thing here is I don't want people to get confused with conflicting information...The original topic was based on a concern about bacteria in raw fed dogs.

The simple answer is...dogs come into contact with bacteria of all sorts every day raw fed or not. Dogs eating **** was mentioned before...so you cook your dogs food so they don't get bacteria from it and the dog eats **** / drinks from a manky puddle (mine drink from them everysingle walk) ...what is that?

Based on a 'prey model' type of diet. Sure...but i'm sure you can tell me it's wrong.

I honestly don't know how I have two big powerful fit and healthy dogs here

Re: grains:

I can't say that I have heard grains as being vital but I know you are very knowledgeable and trust there are some breeds that might rely on them being part of the diet. But is that not a limited amount of breeds and not in general. Has it been shown what happens when they arn't included in the diet? Then are people that cater for these breeds not aware of that and make the necessary adjustments?

I'm just really speaking in general terms here. Because of course there will be special circumstances for individual dogs that people need to make adaptions for.