Can dogs eat minced beef?

Can dogs eat minced beef?
I’ve heard conflicting views on it; some say its fine to give to your dog, and other say not as they cannot digest beef.

I’m thinking of changing my dog’s food to Orijen, Minced beef, cod liver oil, and in the relevant proportions of course, Dried garlic granules (just a pinch)

To be honest, that doesn't sound like a particularly well balanced diet. In answer to your question, yes, dogs can eat minced beef, but it needs to be frozen first, it can carry a harmful bacteria, can't remember the name but I'm sure someone will be along soon to elaborate.

Why do you want to feed such an odd diet?

How is it an odd diet?

Cod liver oil for skin, eyes and joints/bones
Garlic for blood and immune system
Beef for muscle and repair and iron
Dog kibble for fibre.

Cod liver oil is very high in vitamin A, so general fish oil is better, imo.
Garlic is beneficial, but so are many other substances, but depending on what you want to add into the diet, then you alter the ingredients.
Chicken and turkey are actually the best raw boney meals nutriationally, beef, lamb and red meats arent' as good overall, imo, and if you are feeding minced meat, then you don't get the benefit from chewing bones.
Dog's don't need any fillers, mine have been raw fed all their lives, I haven't noticed any negative effects from lack of fillers, the positives have been the probably poop less, but I'll let ya know

Mine get fed minced beef (plus cooked veg, pasta or whatever's about) - they cannot tolerate chicken raw - and they love it and are thriving

a a aside, cod liver oil can be really harsh on their tummies, you are better off giving a salmon oil.

I cant see a problem wuith abit of beef to mix in

Orijen is a fantastic food

I have fed it from the fridge, must it be frozen first ?

I feed minced beef about once a week, straight from the supermarket not frozen and have never had a problem. When I run out of food it makes a cheap stop gap for a days meal.

To make a completely raw diet balanced you need to feed a variety of meat/bone/offal from as many varied sources as possible. This is because no single meat source contains all of the nutrients (contained in the amino acids that make up the protein) that the dog needs to prosper. The base of my dogs diet is chicken, either leg portions or whole birds and mixed tripe mince. I then supplement this with bits of whatever else I can get, beef mince, lamb mince, the odd bag of trimmings, rib bones etc. He also gets whole fish a few times a week but is not keen on raw offal so I tend to cook liver and cut it up into training treats.

In the diet you describe I don't think the minced beef will do any harm in itself because the dog will be getting a variety of nutrients from the dry food, however, feeding a combination of dry and raw food can cause its own problems.

Dogs can tolerate a great deal of raw foods that would give humans anything from an upset tum to full blown food poisoning, this is because they have a relatively short digestive system that is designed to work fast, by getting the food in and out quickly they minimise the risk of any nasty bacteria in the food having time to multiply and cause problems. Dry food however takes a lot longer for them to digest and so stays in the gut for longer, therefore any raw food you give with it will be held up in the system and if it contains anything harmful, you are going to get a problem.

Origen is a respected food and should give your dog everything it needs nutritionally without the need to add anything else to it. If you are feeding it just to add fibre to the diet then you are going to waste an awful lot of money, dogs do not need fibre in their diet and you will find that whatever fibre you put in will most definitely come back out again!

Dogs can eat beef, in fact there is no meat that they cannot eat to my knowledge (although a lot of old wives tales surround pork).

Orijen is a superb commercial product and I have no idea why you would want to add beef to this meal as it will then unbalance the formula to no added effect.

In addition adding CLO to this product is really irrelevant if you look at the ingredients.

CLO is, in any case, not a terribly good idea for dogs as it is high in Vitamins A and D which are fat soluble which menas the body stores it and you can give dogs too much which can have very serious health effects.

If you are giving CLO for joints then FBO is much better (with Vitamin E) as it is much higher in Omega 3 than CLO and does not have its potential drawbacks.

I think Orijen contains garlic but I cannot recall the label.

Many people freeze beef first as it kills a bacteria that can cause problems for dogs and other animals, but I have never bothered.

If you want to add fibre to a dog's food the question is a) why and b) why orijen when it is the most expensive food there is and contains little or no fibre?

If you are keen on providing your dog with something he needs very little of, why not give him a raw carrot.

Better still, why not read up about canine nutrition............

Raw carrot is a case in point, many people recommend this as a healthy alternative to commercial dental chews to clean dogs teeth, however, as dogs are carnivores they cannot digest the carrot and (speaking from personal experience here) it does come back out again pretty much just as it went in.

Does it clean your dogs teeth, yes but not as well as a meaty bone. Does it provide you dog with fibre, yes but the fibre is not needed so just goes straight through. Does it provide any nutritional benefit for your dog, without a doubt, no it doesn't.