Good article

Interesting links... I gave up reading the second one, it is extremely long, and after reading about comparing the lifespan of a captive wolf and a wild wolf ( something that can't really be compared properly) I gave up. I then just jumped down to the comments... Some of those were very good.

I go by how my dog looks and acts, he has never looked better and he is free from his allergy related problems. That is all I need as a reason for why raw is a great way to feed.

People will always debate this issue, and I will always go by what dogs are naturally designed to eat... I can also post links... like this one http://rawfed.com/myths/

Also a good link, thank you for posting it

I do love that site lol. I think it was really written by a sceptic to take the micky out of raw feeding, it's just so self contradictory with a liberal smattering of the farcical. It’s rather like a daily mail headline designed to attract the unthinking, so many seem to have lost the ability to critically analyse information. If ever someone wants to see the silly side of raw feeding I point them to it.
It’s a shame you didn’t read the links I posted after all there are references if you wanted to gain an understanding of the broader field, I find that gaining information and keeping an open mind is valuable.
I usually write about working dogs but even for a pet there are problems with raw feeding, I’ll post something.
Regards S

I wrote this 2009 for working dog forums so it’s a little dated but ok. If I were to re write today I would mention fibre, short chain fatty acids gut flora etc.

To BARF or not to BARF?

BARF or RAW, we’ll call it RAW for ease, is a fashionable way to feed dogs but is there any reason why it may be better than any other type of feeding? I often post in the negative, not because I intrinsically disagree with feeding dog’s raw food, it is part of my own dog’s diet, but rather that I disagree with the idea that it should be fed exclusively. It seems to me that many of the claims made to promote this exclusivity are based on little above hearsay, pseudo science and a Disneyfied idea of “nature”. Google RAW diet and you’ll find a plethora of sites promoting holistic this and homeopathic that but little in the way of science or professional backing. Then there is the evangelical belief of the followers that breach no dissent and attack the non-believer at every opportunity with avowed belief in the RAW cure for all of the supposed man made canine ills.

So lets start with “nature”, the idea is that what’s natural is best. Well what is natural: disease, injury, starvation etc, and un-natural: medicine, physiotherapy, science etc. So its natural for a dog to die of parvo and un-natural to inoculate against it, or its natural for a working sight hound to have dewclaws and unnatural for them to be removed to reduce injury. I’ve used these two examples, though I’m sure you can think of many more, as they demonstrate the two areas I wish to discuss. The first is a situation that is natural in the sense that it is not altered by man and the second is a problem that is caused by our altering the dog from the wolf due to breeding for certain traits, in this case speed. Both examples can be described as natural but it would be hard to argue that nature is best in these circumstances. So rather than natural shall we call it inherited abilities and forget the idea that what is natural is intrinsically preferable.

Dogs have a plethora of inherited abilities varying from recent adaptations such as the increased herding instinct in a collie or the physical attributes that produce the speed of a greyhound to the far older basic biochemistry that comes from a shared ancestry with all life on the planet. These abilities have allowed man and the dog to coexist when at times it would seem that we have trouble coexisting with our own species. So to the crux RAW feeding is best because it is natural, why? Both dogs and humans can and do digest cooked food extremely well and often more easily than raw. Neither species has had time too evolve to eating a cooked diet in the few thousand years that we have been eating it beyond some very minor adaptations. What we have inherited is a natural ability to utilize a great variety of food sources that includes this un-natural cooked food. So if by cooking we reduce bacterial contamination, increase palatability and, to a degree, ease of digestion then to refuse its use on not natural grounds is a little like refusing the Parvo inoculation as its not natural. So if we put to one side the Disneyfied idea of it’s not natural is there other reasons why cooked is bad? Some oft used reason for RAW is that cooking destroys nutrients, causes cancers and tooth decay. But what does it really do to the food and its nutrients.

Nutrients, in simple terms, can be described as macro (big) protein, fats and sugars and micro (small) vitamins and minerals. Meat supplies micro and macro nutrients, the macro are protein,fat and a small amount of sugars. Even lean meat from farm animals contains a fair amount of fat; in beef around 40% of its calories will come from fat. This fat will be used as energy either direct as fat or converted to sugar. The protein will be broken down and used for repair/growth or it can be converted for use as energy. Proteins are built from amino acids and these come in different types, some are classed as essential and the rest non essential. The difference is in there ability to be rebuilt into new proteins i.e. essentials can be built into any protein whereas non essential cannot. If you only eat none essentials you will lack some of the building blocks needed so a diet must include all the 10 essential amino acids to be adequate. One way of ensuring this is to eat animal protein as this contains all of them, against some vegetable proteins being short. There are many vegans that get all their and their dogs essential amino acids from beans and pulses etc but it takes more effort than I would want to use when all I need is a bit of meat. Both Raw and cooked meats are well digested by dogs and will supply a good amount of the nutrients they contain, there are draw backs such as contamination, this can be from bacteria, such as salmonella, or chemicals such as antibiotics/hormones, used to treat the animal source prior to death. The risks of chemical contamination, I hope, don’t need to be highlighted but the bacterial risk is a less well known area so I will add an appendix at the end to discuss this further.

Carbohydrates are complex sugers and it is often claimed that dogs are not able to digest this food source but in truth that is nonsense and as I have posted on this before I will keep it short. Wolfs digest carbs very well if they are presented in a viable form, an example I’ve used in the past is an Artic wolf eating and lemmings throughout the summer. The stomach contents of the prey animals are part digested seeds etc and make up a fair proportion of a lemmings weight, these would be wasted calories if not utilised by the wolf. So our dogs have an inherited ability to deal with carbs and when presented in a viable form give good digestion rates. Through these sources the dog can gain not only the sugars but also valuable fats, protein and micro nutrients. These three food sources are common to both raw and cooked foods but as has been mentioned need to be presented to the digestive system in a usable form i.e. a lump of wood is made of carbohydrate but there are very few animals with the digestive system capable of breaking down and utilising these calories. Cooking in part has been offered as an aid to this problem and is a little easier to arrange than lemming digestion.
The last of the three food types are fats these are found in varying degrees in meat from small amounts in a wild rabbit to large amounts in a farm reared pig. Fats are used for a number of processes but for this essay we will stick with their use as an energy source. Fat has 9 calories per gram against 4 for carbs or protein so it is a dense form of fuel that forms a major part of supplying low speed, stamina type energy needs. The fats found in meat are not the only source of this nutrient there is another available source that is relatively cheap and available in the form of vegetable oils. Vegetable oils are not often met by wolves but they are well digested by dogs and, in the main, they have a bonus of being high in linolic acid which is very important to growth and general health, when lacking in puppies it leads to retarded growth, failure to thrive and skin problems (Hilda). So vegetable oils are both a cheap and also good quality form of fat that dogs can very easily assimilate in exactly the same way as they would an animal fat, again perhaps not natural but definatly useful.

So how does how does cooked versus raw stand up? It has already been mentioned that a common accusation is that cooking destroys nutrients and the equally common answer is that cooking helps with digestion. Well as with most augments they are both right. It all depends on how and what things are cooked, there is evidence that cooking increases absorption of many micro nutrient, especially in vegetable matter, but also that it might slightly slow digestion of meat if excessive heat is used (Oste 1991). What needs to be considered is if this will affect the diet to any real degree or are the percentages just academic rather than real. If an animal is short of nutrients then there may be an argument for choosing to cook some things and not others but for the average dog in the UK or Ireland there is no reason why they should have any shortfall. So if you have a portion of meat then either cooked or raw it will supply a good quantity of its macro and micro nutrients to the dog’s digestive system. Personally I feed meat raw, as mentioned above butchers waste and rabbits etc, not because raw is intrinsically better but just the cooking is unnecessary in most situations. If a supply of cooked meat became available I would have no hesitation in feeding it as an alternative or alongside the raw and as I use a percentage of complete food it could be said I already do.

I use a variety of commercial complete foods and I have gotten good results; I must say that they have never been used as the only food but in truth for the average pet dog I find no reason why they shouldn’t be. They are more than adequate in the three food groups and necessary micro nutrients. There is an ongoing discussion about price and quality but Krogdahl et al suggests that there is more likely a variance in quality through brand rather than price and a study they undertook showed all the brands tested exceeded minimum requirements. Carpenter looked are the digestibility of low grade, mechanically recovered meat such as might be used in pet feeds, or sausages for human consumption, and found that other than the expected variance through increased cartilage type material there was little relevant difference in digestibility from other meat sources. Dogs getting home prepared meals should also have adequate and balanced macro and micro nutrients if the owner has a realistic knowledge of feeding and if not then I would have no hesitation in recommending using such a preparatory dog food. The claims of them poising dogs and causing long term health problems seem hard to believe when over the period of there use dogs lifespans and general health has improved. This is likely in part due to better health care but if dog food was as dangerous as some would claim they would surely have a noticeable negative impact on general health and well being. There is growing evidence that burning food may have some negative health benefits but the rendering process of most pet food does not reach those sorts of temperatures. Some other negatives that are sited are dental problems but these are down to eating a soft diet rather than the ingredients so a dog fed on raw pet mince is as likely to get plaque build up as will an animal on any wet soft diet, feeding dried food will limit this to an extent. To further avoid this problem there needs to be opportunity to chew a harder object to reduce the amount of soft feed sticking to teeth and to break off plaque. Bones are very good for the latter and I feed raw bones once or twice a week but it must be born in mind that there are risks in feeding bones, even raw, and the owner needs to decide for themselves if it is worth it. There are alternatives in the form of chews etc available in most pet shops that in theory should do a similar job but not having tried them I would not like to judge.

Lastly there is the dietary effects on performance, feeding a raw only diet will give little in the way of adjustability, it may well suit the lifestyle of a wolf but not so the modern dog. Modern domestic dogs perform a great variety of jobs from the extremes of a long distance sled dog racing over hundreds of kilometres to that of a greyhound sprinting over 500mertres and their dietary needs will vary accordingly (Wakshlag et al). One problem is in the amount of protein, and this goes with high protein completes as well as RAW. Various authors including Kronk and Hill et al state that greyhounds run fastest on medium protein diets and Hill suggests, 25% protein, 30% fat and 45% carbs, whereas long distance huskies will need high fat, higher protein and only minimal carbohydrate, such as 35% protein, 45% fat and only 20% carbs. These authors suggest that increasing dietary protein to the greyhounds slowed racing. Hill suggest that carbs are useful as a recovery aid to restock glucose stores more efficiently and faster than is possible through protein and fat alone in sprint type dogs and Wakshlag goes further in suggesting that sprint type sledge dogs would also benefit from the addition of carb replenishment to aid faster recovery. The carbs that are being advocated are not available in a raw only diet, although as stated are probably part of a wolfs diet, and to exclude them would be rather like excluding an energy/electrolyte drink to Paula Radcliff because it’s not ‘natural’ although it will decrease race times and aid in her recovery process.

So in conclusion the RAW type diets sell books and in the world of those keen on all things ‘natural’ in a ‘Disney’ type way may well suit their sensibilities but in the real world then it is hard to see any real purpose or reason to such a restrictive regime. It is supported with an almost evangelical following that seems to breach no dissent but has no real science to back it beyond the all things natural brigade. I specialise in sight hound types and have for the past 40 years and these type of dogs especially have moved beyond their wolf ancestors in both physical structure and use so why oh why should they eat a wolfs diet, it doesn’t apply to their current energy requirements?
References on request if you can’t google..
If I can still find them

Appendix A
Recent studies have highlighted the high incidence of gastric ulceration and gastritis in working dogs,studies of this group of dogs suggest that most working dogs may have at least some risk of developing exercise-associated gastro-intestinal disease (Davis). This will lead to increased permeability of the lower gastroenterial tract, this born in the light of recent gastroenterological thought, relating increase permeability with increased incidence of acute gastritis, you can imagine that a high bacterial load can only increase likelihood and extent of this problem. Some dogs may carry a high bacterial load naturally but there is an increased incidence with animals that are suffering with diarrhoea (Stanley). These bacteria are likely from the diet and include serious pathogens such as salmonella, likely from uncooked chicken. Clostridial spp and Campylobacter spp are also commonly found. Stanley states Campylobacter can survive for days in surface water and as long as 4 weeks in feces. The duration of excretion in infected dogs and cats can be as long as 4 months and infected animals should be quarantined away from children during this period. So careful storing and prep is a must for anyone with children if feeding raw pet quality meats to their dogs. An alternative would be human quality such as wild rabbits that have been properly frozen straight away and then defrosted in the fridge, basically as you would for your own consumption. The other obvious choice is cooking which will of course reduce the incidence of bacterial contamination and for the majority of owners this has already been done for them in the preparation of dried or tinned feeds. Personally I feed a percentage of raw butchers waste which has not been stored in ideal conditions and reading into this subject has made me think, I will defiantly watch a little more closely for any gastric symptoms when children will be visiting.

Regards s

All interesting stuff.
I used to be anti raw...big style.
I then went to a seminar and decided to try it.
We haven't looked back.

Totally agree with everything of the above. The only thing you haven't mentioned (unless Ive missed it) is the growth rate difference between the both. I cant say for sight hounds but owning large breeds and having raised 8 puppies on BARF diet (out of different litters) and seeing their siblings...the marked difference in size is unreal.
The ones raised on BARF are AWLAYS smaller than their litter mates being raised in other households on commercial or a mixture of this and raw. They reach the same height and weight they were meant to but much slower so they do catch up wiith their litter mates. This is my primary reason for feeding it along with the other benefits but I do believe commercial dog food has a lot to do with hip/elbow dysplasia, panosteitis etc etc. As I said in another post...hip dysplasia has been directly linked to pelvic muscle mass and unless the 2 grow together in unison...problems occur.

This is a Rott I raised on Raw and his litter brother was more than double his size at this age (5mths) and couldnt fit in a XL dog crate...he is about knee height at this age and his muscles as you can see are well developed and all in all he doesn't look like a floppy gangly puppy which is what I have found great feeding BARF...all pups have great energy, muscle, fitness and dont have the gangly stage as in the "my bones are growing too fast" stage lol!

Sandymere It has always bemused me in these pro/anti arguements that those pro raw feeding will often argue dogs are not wolves in terms of behaviour, they are clearly not wolves in terms of morphology ( some more clearly than others) but yet they are to be considered wolves in terms of digestive physiology?

Given that many physical, biochemical and behavioural effects result not from a single gene but from multiple genes,the interaction of multiple genes and the interaction with the environment, it would seem to be highly unlikely that one could manipulate genes through selective breeding that would not affect digestive function, a fact further supported be genetically-linked digestive problems in some breeds, such as absorption syndrome in GSDs .

Hence I do not agree that the diet of a wild wolf is the ideal or best idea for every pet dog, although of course, due to genetic variation within the domestic dog population, there will be some that a well balanced RAW diet will suit very well.

Studies of feral village dogs e.g Coppinger, relate that their primary food sources are rubbish dump scavenging, waste human food which may be cooked or raw, faeces from various sources, etc, not wild-caught fresh prey.

Of course nor must it be forgotten when considering the full picture that domestic dogs are rarely subject to the natural selection pressures experienced by wild wolves, whereby those individuals who could not cope with such a diet would not receive veterinary attention and so, if disadvantaged enough through infection, injury, impaction, malnutrition etc, would have died, or at least failed to mate, and thus permanently left the potential gene pool.

Excellent post.

Thank you, although I am sure someone will be along shortly to disagree with it