Re: Opinions on feeding your dog a raw diet
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.
Rob Chipman
"The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders" - Ed Abbey
"Grown men do not need leaders" - also Ed Abbey