Why NOT to feed RAW (or why you should)

This is something I found VERY interesting about.....................

WHY NOT TO FEED RAW


http://www.secondchanceranch.org/tra...eat/index.html


What do you think????

My breeder feed a mixture of raw meat, fruits and vegetables as well as Royal Canin so that should be ok shouldn't it? I feel as though the more I research the more confused I get so I tend to just rely on my breeder and go with what she does because her dogs and beautiful and in tip top shape.

I have read this before, and she is throwing her emotions at you, and doesn't actually state facts.

Bacteria are present in ANY dogs faeces, regardless of what they are fed.
Wolves are undernourished (some of the time) as they live wild and food is not readily available.... that is the stress of living out in the wild.

The ultimate proof is dogs who are on a raw diet, and the differences the owner sees.
I don't know for sure, no one does, but we can experience for ourselves and see with our own eyes our dogs health.
But at the end of the day, every owner has to be comfortable about feeding, and knowing why they are doing it.
Articles like that shouldn't scare you, if you are prepared to do the research into what she is actually saying, which sorry, is not right.

it didnt scare me, it confounded what i already knew about raw meat.
humans dont eat raw meat because of the bacteria so why should our dogs!
its not scare tactics its another opinion, which everyone should read before making an informed decision.

I'm not going to pretend to be any expert on raw feeding. I'm too lazy, and have nowhere to put a big enough freezer to get into it anyway, so I go with the best quality, and most recommended, dried food I can getmy hands on. I have a lot of time for people who do feed raw, however, and I think there's a lot of sense in it.

That website makes some rather odd comments. Like when they say "Most people *assume* that because wild dogs don't have the opportunity to cook their food, that nature has set up the perfect diet for them." They seem to have got it a bit back to front. Nobody thinks that nature saw what wolves wanted to eat and laid on dinner, but wolves did evolve, over millions of years, to digest and thrive on the foods available to them.

The author insinuates that all wolves in the wild are malnourished, but seems to base this on the wolves taken into the sanctuary. Well they're hardly going to be representative of global wolf populations. Perhaps they're taken from areas which have become largely industrialised or populated with humans, so limiting the wolves' natural diets. Perhaps they only take in wolves which are already injured, or ostracised by their packs, and so can't hunt effectively.

Anyway, the entire premise of the critique is based on anecdotal evidence. I'd like to see some genuine scientific data before slating the raw-food lot.

Agree here

Also Zuki has been on both diets and I did see a vast improvment in her with the raw, she was underweight and under the weather, now she's a healthy size and running around like a loon, I must confess, I thought the reason she was slowing down and being less playful was because she was growing up, not her food, but now I have changed back to Raw, she is as she should be a stroppy teenager

I will add more when I get time but two things that stand out to me so far:

the bacteria issue: Dogs drink out of the muddiest foulest puddles, lick their own and other dogs butts the pavement etc etc. They withstand far higher levels of bacteria than humans ever could...It is the way nature designed wolves and wild dogs to cope and I don't think their is any evidence available to show that the dogs we have today have internally evolved in anyway that is different to their ancestors. (correct me if I am wrong) The only reason I can think of that a domestic dog of today would have a higher vulnerability to bacteria than their wild cousins would be because we are over cautious with them (in the sanitary sense) resulting in a lower immunity to bacteria and such like.

Digestibility It is a bit laughable to question the digestibility of a raw diet. These is no other diet I can think of with better digestability and in comparison to kibble containing an abundance of wheat and corn and other 'fillers' that dogs do not digest why even talk about digestibility?...Anyone that feeds raw knows the difference in the amount that comes out the other end compared to even the most highly regarded kibble. To use this as an argument against is pointless.

Danger of bones Yes there is a danger just as their is danger of a dog choking on it's kibble or pet store friendly type chew etc etc.

Bones harming the insides is the biggest concern for me personally and I have given it thought that wolves have hide and fur of prey that get wrapped around the bones as they pass through, offering more protection as a result of thinking about this I actually keep fowl bones down to a minimum, my dogs get half a chicken once a week...I also decided against feeding whole rabbit as I just didn't like those bones (although many others get along just fine) I like to include bones like those in breast of lamb which I consider far less splintery...Saying that, out of any bones, I have never ever seen any appear undigested when the food 'reappears'. There is also a more technical reason why bones shouldn't be as much of a problem as some like to state but I can't for the life of me remember but it was discussed at length on the 'britbarf' site and made alot of sense.

My own opinion...I do think there are too many people feeding quite wrong versions of a balanced raw diet which does worry me that people arn't doing enough research. But done properly the benefits surely out weigh the risks.

I always like to learn by my own experience and can honestly say my experience with feeding raw has been good and until I have a bad experiance I'm certainly not ready to change my mind that is is far better than a kibble diet. No vet could ever persuade me to walk out with a bag of 'hills' or something and ditch my dogs diet of human grade breast of lamb, oxtail, whole chicken, tripe, eggs, ox heart, pig heart, liver, kidney; beef, whole fresh fish (or tinned sardines, salmon etc) amongst other good stuff. My dogs are fit and healthy and what I pay to put in is getting utilized very well where as with kibble 95% of it is waste.

It isn't a 'miracle cure' but in my opinion it is one version of a diet far better and more suited to dogs than processed commercial food.



Also to add, although it works for some and I'm sure it's fine I don't understand how part feeding kibble and adding some raw meat and veg to the side is balanced, certainly not with a complete kibble and even with using mixer how do you know what you are adding isn't unbalancing what one or the other already has? Personally if I didn't want to feed a raw diet I would go the home cooked route, add some rice or oatmeal to the cooked meat and suppliments but it would still be natural food in balanced proportions...I think personally, with kibble or natural food it should be one or the other, I have no scientific reports to refer to, to show why, it's just the way I feel...

Dogs were not designed to eat kibble of that there is no mistake, kibble has only been commercially available for the last 50 or 60 yrs.

I have read much both for and against the BARF diet .

I would not choose to feed BARF myself for a number of reasons ,I prefer to feed a mixture of raw/cooked food .

If someone asks my opinion on what to feed I will give it otherwise it is up to individuals to research the food they feed and make their own choices.

Also to add...the BARF diet may well be considered a 'fad' there is no doubt with the internet word spreads more rapidly and people can obtain information to go certain routes when they may otherwise wouldn't have...

But remember BARF is one version of a raw diet that people seem to have cottoned on to and people have been feeding raw long before the term BARF was ever heard of or even thought of by Billinghurst himself. You just didn't get to hear of people feeding raw like you do now a days with the internet...The fact that more people are feeding raw now doesn't mean it is a fad just means information is more readily available to people who might not have otherwise tried it as an option.

it is an individuals choice and i've seen the for and against arguments.
i've also seen numerous dogs suffer from bone splinters, which is something that does put me off.

i think if i was to move to a more natural diet then i think a cooked diet would be better than barf, for me anyway.