Raw Feeding Controversy

I decided to feed my dog raw about a year ago, but have recently decided to stop due to growing doubts about its suitability.

I have been honest with myself and realised that a lot of the appeal in the image it creates in your mind of something 'natural', it is not based on sound scientific evidence, most arguements are those created after someone had already decided they liked the idea, and they are trying to prove themselves right.

I joined a raw feeding mailing group on yahoo, and received streams of emails each day, 75% of which are along the lines of 'my dog has diarrhoea,' 'my dog is being sick,' 'my dogs is constipated,' and some sounded frankly quite serious such as the appearance of blood. The other 25% are mostly about what is right or wrong to feed. There are loads of people feeding very limited ingredients, eg tripe 99% of the time, which is not right, yet you cannot stop this kind of misinterpretation whe you leave people to do things themselves.

I personally do not believe you have to have a 100% scientifically balanced diet to be healthy, however it is not necessarily 'optimum' health-that is a myth- something that can only be achieved through a perfect balance of all nutrients, and that is what the scientists behind foods such as Hill's are striving for.

Dog's lives are lengthened by science diets when they fall ill and according to my teacher (who is a vet) dog's rarely if ever get ill if fed on a Hills maintenance diet. She has experienced the truth of that statement through her work- however if I was attempting to stick up for how raw feeding helps a dog live a longer healthier life- what would I say? 'Well other people tell me it works...' I really don't know do I?

Maybe for the majority of dogs 'very good health' is more than enough... Is 'optimum health' necessary- are scientists and vets becoming too obsessed with trying to make everything perfectly healthy?

The whole 'vets don't know what they're talking about,' is commonplace, but really, they probably know more than you or I, for having read a few books, and gained a very possibly flawed opinion. How can you deny all the widespread digestive problems people are having with raw feeding? Some statements people use are also very sweeping- eg, 'all vets are trained by people who manufacture science diets, so they are deliberately made biased towads them in an attempt to make money.' How do you, personally know that? You read it on the internet?...

I am still against the large amount of carbohydrate put in dog foods, that, along with cheap ingredients may well have an affect on lots of dogs causing allergies/skin conditions etc. I do not think carbohydrate is necessary in such amounts nutritionally, however it is not really there for a nutritional purpose- Iams have said that it is necessary to form kibbles. It also acts as bulk and fibre. If omitting carbs you would have no choice but to supply a loose food, containing bits of veg, meat, and bone and stuff- which could cause problems as dogs may not want to eat certain parts of it, especially the non-meat components. The fibre and bulk help create healthy poos too, therefore you don't end up with a constipated dog if you feed too many bones, or diarrhoea if you feed too little. The content of dog food has been worked out so it passes through the dog in a reliable, healthy way.
My teacher suggested that raw bones could be dangerous because they could cause obstruction, and that wild dogs/wolves may die of this all the time. Personally I don't know about that, I would say its more likely wild dogs and wolves are more hardy. They will have evolved to stomachs of steel to take large hunks of bones that they gulp down, whereas our dogs have 'evolved' or been selectively bred to be weaker. Even if obstructions isn't common, as mentioned its hard to judge what is the right amount of bone to give which won't cause other digestive problems.

My dog a few weeks ago started hacking up shards of bone in the middle of the night, crunching them and reswallowing them. I am not happy with this- it is not healthy.


Maybe some dogs have their tartar reduced or prevented from chewing raw stuff, but this could be helped by brushing if you feed kibble. I have not noticed any major differences in my dog's teeth, and her breath smells quite gross actually, probably due to all the festering bacteria which is growing in her mouth from raw meat. Her saliva seems slimy with it too.

Maybe dogs do have a good defense against salmonella and other things you may find on raw meat, however I don't think that they are completely protected against it, and maybe some of the diarrhoea and sickness is caused by that too- unless you have veterinary level knowledge of how a dog's body works, and have studied this you can't really say...


I will finish by saying I am not 100% against raw feeding at all, however my main issue isthat the digestive problems seem widespread, and fairly serious. You can't advocate a diet responsibly that causes such illnesses, so it needs to be studied and addressed. There are some real, noticeable benefits from feedig raw, eg I orginally noticed that my dogs coat seemed shiny, and she seemed a bit calmer- maybe due to not having carbs or processed food- THAT aspect of the diet may be benefical however it is the raw form it is in and how you balance the bones which is a major issue.

I appreciate your thoughts on this matter
But, as an ex scientist I really feel that too much is put on to 'scientificly balanced' we do not understand enough to make a compleate balanced food for humans so in my mind there is no way on earth that we can do that for a dog

Everyone has to feed based on what they believe is best
there are risks any way you feed

I have made my choice based on my recearch based on obsevation and the nutritional contents of the food based on the RDA we BELIEVE dogs need

But I would love for someone to fund a real study

Good post. I think we just do what what we believe is sound for our dogs.
For me, i tried raw but we had the upset stomach so decided to go back to kibble.
=)

can I ask in what respect you mean 'my teacher' are you studying dog nutrition

I study Animal Science. My teacher is a vet- Amanda (Helen) Rock, she has written a book. We will be studying nutrition.

ah thanks... with re: the thread.. I often think people set out to feed the BEST.. but fail to look at what the dog does best on.. if that makes any sense.. if your dog seems happy and healthy.. great.. if your dog has problems not so great.. its not really rocket science for me..

Can I just emphasise what I said in the last paragraph- I really do think there are benefits to feeding fresh, raw food, however think the pitfalls of the current method of feeding are too serious to ignore. I think there are widespread short comings to bought dog foods as well,eg encouraging hyperactivity, allergies, skin/coat problems.... however, could this mainly be restricted to the cheaper, lower quality ones? So many foods are hypoallergenic now, and if you have problems with certain foods you try another. The bad teeth from eating kibble issue, as said can be helped by brushing and is a minor thing compared to being consistently sick or having terrible diarrhoea. Science diets are made for different scenarios too- including dogs which suffer with plaque.

I have fed raw for 12 years - happy healthy dogs and no food related traumas (other than the rotten chicken wing hidden under the car seat for God knows how long)

i have been feeding raw for a little over a year now and am so pleased with the results, it seems to have given Jasper a new lease of life and the other 2 are doing well on it.
i havent had any diahorria or constipation problems.
You need to do a lot of research to get he right balance of foods and by the sounds of it a lot of peopleon that forum you mentioned were not feeding the proper balance.

Not all dogs are suited to it though. the bichon i have been looking after for the last 5 months was over weight and had skin problems so i tried her on raw and it didnt suit her, so i now have her on Natures diet and JWB kibble and she is doing well on that.

each dog is different and whats good for one may not be good for another. but i am not liking a lot of the supermaket foods out there as they have loads of unnessesary ingredients and additives which can cause all sorts of problems including behavioural ones.

my experiance has been exactly the opposite.. most of the dogs that come through my training club that have problems with hyperactivity/allergys and so on are always fed the top brands...

personaly my own dogs are fed a mix... they get cooked chicken /mince and other meats/ kibble.. the cheapest of the cheap. tinned dog food.. eggs fish and so on. I have no problems with them.