Opinions on feeding your dog a raw diet

[IronNoggin]

... With all the crazy fad diets for humans I imagine people have done the same with dogs

aYup!

It is a dog..they will eat most anything.

I feed raw,cooked,frozen,veggies,pasta,kibble.ect,ect

Balance is the key. Only thing I don't feed on horshur's list is frozen (when I can avoid it). Saw a buddy's lead sled dog in the Arctic get a freezer burned gut. Not very common up there, and a bit of a bitch for both dog & owner for a good spell.

Been raising / living with dogs all my life.
Many generations now of Wolf Hybrids (30+ years) so of late the comparison my be a little apples and oranges...
That said, my buddies will indeed eat damn near anything, and thrive...

I feed a mid grade kibble, scraps from every evening meal (largely game) all the bones from the year's harvest (including domestics) and a shot of the trim I take off while butchering every couple of days. Ain't had many complaints, and have had damn few health issues as a consequence...

Cheers,
Nog

[Ubertuber]

Like other guys, I feed my dogs a varied diet of kibbles, raw meat, and most edible kitchen scraps. I wouldn't stick with one diet. All the dogs that I fed this way had iron guts. They never puked or had the shits. Dogs with strict diets always seemed to have issues.
When butchering game I put trim and edibles into little snack sized zip lock bags and freeze them. One bag is a meal. They get all the antlers, bones as well.

[Foxton Gundogs]

I've raised to many pups to count on GOOD kibble, no need not to trust it if you feed quality food. If you go with a raw or cooked meat diet include veggies, there is a reason wolves and yotes eat the stomach content of their prey. Have fun enjoy the puppy time it passes all to fast.

[35rem]

I am considering a raw diet for my new pup as it would cut out the filler with kibble and give me a better knowledge of what my dog is actually eating

If you are considering raw because you want to have better knowledge of what you are feeding your dog see if you (or the supplier) can answer these simple questions regarding the food you are considering:

Per portion fed:

How many calories?
How much protein, carbs and fat?
How much fat is saturated versus unsaturated?
Calcium/phosphorus content and their ratio?
Vitamin A and D content?
Copper, Zinc and other trace elements?

If you or the supplier cannot answer these basic questions you have no idea of what you are feeding your dog. Does not mean it will not work, but you are taking your chances.
I have personally seen puppies coming in with spontaneous fractures of their bones due to imbalanced home made/raw diets. Fast growing puppies are especially sensitive in their dietary needs and, contrary to popular believe, should be fed a diet that is moderate in protein and calcium to prevent bone diseases. I agree with Foxton that a good quality kibble takes the guesswork out of dog nutrition. Can it be done with a raw diet? Yes, as long as you can answer the questions above.

FYI: A recent German study looked at owner prepared raw food diets for dogs and analyzed them for nutritional imbalances. 60% of the diets had significant imbalances; 40% had either minor issues or were balanced:


Intake of minerals, trace elements and vitamins in bone and raw food rations in adult dogs.
Br J Nutr. October 2011;106 Suppl 1(0):S53-6.
Natalie Dillitzer 1, Nicola Becker, Ellen Kienzle


Article Abstract

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the vitamin and mineral content of bone and raw food rations fed to adult dogs in Germany. Pet owners completed a standardised feeding questionnaire. The composition of 95 rations was calculated from mean data for foodstuffs using nutrition balancing software. Typical ration ingredients were meats, fish, offal, dairy products, eggs, oil, nuts, cod liver oil and natural and commercial supplements. The supply of nutrients was compared with the recommended allowance (RA). Of the rations that were used, 10 % supplied < 25 % of the RA of Ca. In these rations, Ca:P was below 0.6:1, and vitamin D was below RA. About half of the rations supplied less iodine than the minimum requirement. Many of the rations had low Zn and Cu supply, and 25 % of the rations supplied only 70 % of RA for vitamin A or less. A total of 60 % of the rations had one or more of the above-mentioned imbalance. The remaining 40 % of rations either had minor problems like Ca excess from bones or they were balanced.

[knothead]

I have raised approximately 15 dogs over the last 40 years and have fed my dogs nothing but kibble for all of those years and the same brand(Nutro) for the last 20 years, no table scraps but the occasional bone or meat scraps.
I'm not saying raw diet is wrong I'm saying I don't think it's necessary. My vet bills over the years have been very small, nothing other than what you expect for regular maintenance and once when my dog was hit by a car.
My last four dogs all of mixed breed and all 100 pounds or bigger all lived past fourteen years and never any nutrition, stomach, allergy or joint problems.

[untilthelastbeat]

I have a mastiff/Presa Canario and he had really bad digestive problems with kibble so he got switched to raw. We get 1 lb tubes of beef/chicken/veg/chicken bone and he loves it. He feels awesome and it's great for his skin and coat aswel. Also their crap is small and hard and just dries up into powder on raw diet. Super convenient

[charlie_horse]

I started feeding mine raw because I liked the idea of it and it's ended up being cheaper than kibble. But he eats anything with no issues in his gut. Likes to fart in the truck though.

I'd like to hear more about feeding bear raw and Trich though that makes me kind of nervous.

[russm86]

I started feeding mine raw because I liked the idea of it and it's ended up being cheaper than kibble. But he eats anything with no issues in his gut. Likes to fart in the truck though.

I'd like to hear more about feeding bear raw and Trich though that makes me kind of nervous.

Anyone I know feeding bear to dogs cooks it first. I think many people now a days that say their dogs are on "raw" diets use the term loosely and still cook some of the stuff and just use the term raw to distinguish from kibble. Our one hound has allergies to something in the kibble that we have not yet found so we will be trying the "raw" food diet next as it makes it easier to limit what's in it and thus easier to narrow down what he is actually allergic to. The gf has done extensive research on the raw diets and talked to a number of vets and breeders etc and there is a lot of good info out there as to getting proper balance of the different minerals and which foods to give them to get those minerals.

[Rob Chipman]

I've been feeding raw to my dogs for years. Works great. Some of it gets ground up, and when I do that I add about 10%-15% veggies. Ground up also gets salmon heads and tails whenever I've got them.

When I can they get wild meat, although I haven't feed them raw bear.

Lots of bones, from anything, as long as they're raw.

As I see it there are multiple advantages. First, the coat is always great. Never oily, never smelly. Second, the teeth seem to stay cleaner. Third, the dog crap is smaller and harder. That leads to four: anal glands are never impacted. Five: you get a lot of control over what the dog is getting.

Fifth is probably most important to me. I don't like eating a ton off processed food myself (personal choice, not based on any extensive scientific research or informed opinion). A bag of dog food standing in the corner at room temperature probably never goes bad, and there's something all kinds of wrong with that. Considering my dogs always treat me as well or better than any human I figure they deserve some consideration. If I'm not giving them game meat (which would just get cut into chunks while we're processing it) I grind a combo of whatever I can get cheap from Supreme Meats, close to Boundary and First if you happen to be in the LML. A big pork butt, a bunch of beef shank, some pig heart, a bunch of drumsticks - they all go through the grinder and into big freezer bags, pressed flat and then frozen. Like I say, chuck in roughly 10-15% veg. Don't over-think it.

I won't try to say kibble is unhealthy or will cause cancer or that corn filler is blah blah blah, but I will say that if you see the dog food I make (especially when I'm starting with moose) you'll know the dog is going to be healthy as can possibly be.

As for the vet recommending that you be careful all I can say is that if you process your own game, eat it and survive, you'll be more than capable of keeping the dog in tip top shape.

I'd never go back to non-raw. Give the dog any bone it can handle, as well, as long as they're raw.


For pups I've had awesome success starting them on chicken wings, then moving them to drumsticks.

BTW, if you go to Supreme you can also get them all sorts of bone stuff, from pig neck bones to chicken feet.

I never mix in kibble, and I don't cook any of it. Been doing raw since '93 when a new dog developed hot spots from high end gourmet dry kibble.

[Chopper]

Fed my Rottie raw food from day one with a quality kibble for breakfast. She's now 10 and starting to slow down (finally LOL) but she has had ZERO issues with digestion. I fed here all matter of creatures that have been cut and wrapped, with the lion share being bears. Only ever needed to treat her for worms once too.

Im on board with this program

i will add ... if you do feed dogs meat, it should be raw. Large amounts of cooked meat can actually kill your dog. A dogs gut is not rigged to digest cooked meat