How important are veggie?

I've been feeding raw food for probaly about 6 months now( the dogs love it:smt002 ) mostly chicken wings/carcasses, lamb laps, beef heart/liver the ocassional fish/eggs.
I've found that it has helped with weight issues in the dogs but after hearing of a dog I knew being PTS because of his raw food diet(with no veg) I've started to worry abit more. he was put on the diet in adulthood, just like one of my dogs
Any advice or tips? Is veg a must or was that dogs story out of the ordinary?

IMO dogs don't need veg at all. They don't have the ability to digest any of the goodness us omnivores get from them. There is nothing in veg that your dog can't get from meat, bone and organs.

Certainly, they will do no harm, or can act as a filler for hungry dogs on a diet, but that's about it.

What was the story you heard, do you have a weblink to it? I'd be interested in seeing it.

So would I.

Actually if you are feeding RAW only, vegetables are important in the mixture. I also add things like rice, pasta, cheese, yogurt.

Obviously there are some that you need to stay away from, like corn, onions, beets.....etc. I feed things like potatoes, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower etc. And if you don't want your dog to have a stinky butt, steer clear of cabbage! LOL

What nutrients are in the veg that a canine can digest and aren't already available in the meat, bones and organs they are already getting?

Why would veg make up an "important" part of a carnivore diet?

Certainly, so long as they don't take the place of the essential meat, bones and organs, they will do no harm.....

Hi

so the actual cause of death was no vegetables in his diet

I've said it many times but people can and do get the diet wrong, how I feed my dogs maybe totally different to someone else and it is to easy to put all raw feeding down as the same diet and think because a person has had a bad example it relates to all raw fed dogs, when it doesn't. If the death was at all induced by his raw diet (what was the evidence of that or was it just opinion?) how on earth do they know it was down to lack of vegetables?

Try searching for Britbarf (a specialist yahoo group - they are a wealth of knowledge and will be able to give you thorough explanations)

In some people's opinion - there are just as many knowledgeable people who think different.

Please don't shoot me!! But I think dogs need some veg matter when on BARF/RAW is cos in the wild when they eat deer/rabbits etc... they would eat entire animal especially guts etc.. and this would contain valuable veg/grass matter... I read a bit of this from a BARF website and they said to puree some veg into a paste! **Right I am leaving now before they shoot me!! **

Why you anyone 'shoot' you? Don't be silly!

Dogs can be fine with veg included and are just as fine without so it's down to personal choice there is definitly no hard and fast rule concerning veg. Just as some dogs would eat the entire animal - many will shake out the guts and inerds and leave it - I've seen my own do it and like I have mentioned counless (boring lol) times that the official wolf studies carried out show that wolves do this alot and some will say rarely eat stomach contents at all. What is necessary is the right balance or raw meat - bones and offal.

I take the middle ground and make sure I include nice helpings of green tripe

There are some things a dog can't do without in it's diet - things that are essential and there are other things that can be added as an adition too but are not essential.