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Permalink Reply by Emily Trupiano on August 16, 2011 at 12:34am

I fed my last dog Natures Variety Raw, he had pancreatic insufficiency disease so he had a hard time digesting his food. He did do better on raw. Do be careful with bones. My last dog also died after eating a rabbit in the backyard. Everyone assured me that he would be okay since the tiny rabbit bones shouldn't be hard to digest. Well, it he couldn't. So I don't mess around with any type of bone with my current dog--too risky. 

 

I also decided not to go back to raw with my current dog, but only because he is a much more licky dog--constantly sneaking kisses on my face. I would probably still feed him the raw medallions once in a while as a treat though.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on August 16, 2011 at 8:26pm

Interesting list and research regarding RAW.

http://www.secondchanceranch.org/rawresearch.htm

 

I've gone back and forth on the issue quite a bit. Being in the veterinary profession (as a technician) everything tells me "no,  no, no", but then I read online all the great and wonderful benefits. After reading through this webpage (and many others) and looking at all the sources he lists I have decided against feeding raw of any kind and instead supplementing high quality kibble with a home cooked diet. The best quote from this whole webage is:

There is not one veterinary university in America that agrees with the barf diet. Could they ALL be wrong? Remember, they are the institutions that have found all the cures for cancer, HIV, Thyroid disorders for animals. It's not a conspiracy funded by pet food companies. These veterinary universities are the only reason we can even diagnose disease - raw meat is a very simply proven, microbiology 101 issue. It has bacteria and parasites. It's makes both domestic and wild dogs sick. Even Billinghurst has occasionally admitted that raw meat does have bacteria and parasites and that it can make a wolf or domestic dog ill.

 

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Permalink Reply by Emily Trupiano on August 16, 2011 at 9:17pm

How does it make wild dogs sick though? Or wolves? Isnt that what they eat in the wild? ..Not that i feed raw,but i guess there are risks with both. I mean even kibble isnt foul proof,they are recalling food all the time. I work at a vet,and althoufh i respect my vet's advice, i take their advice on nutrition with a grain of salt.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on August 16, 2011 at 10:49pm

Mostly through bacteria and parasites. Although there are several coyote, fox, and wolf studies that show that raw (frequently chicken) bones cause lacerations in the throat, palate, and stomach on a frequent basis in wild dogs, coyotes, and wolves that prey on farmer's animals. I guess the whole argument is yes, it is what they eat in the wild, but you would be hard pressed to find a wild dog, coyote, or wolf that is not suffering from malnutrition, dental disease, and a heavy parasite load. Also in many populations (with the exception of many coyote populations) you find the oldest animals being only 5 or 6 AT MOST. 

As far as nutrition goes, veterinarians take AT LEAST 1 1/2 years of nutrition courses during their time at school. I'm not sure where people get the idea that vets have never had a nutrition class. They have 1 year as undergraduates and at least 1 semester of a veterinary nutrition course in vet school with the option of several more, not to mention pathology classes that discuss diseases caused by nutritional imbalances, physiology, biochemistry, etc which all deal with nutrition in one way or another. This is more education than they have in dentistry for example, but we let them drill, pull, and clean our furry friends teeth all the time without question.

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Murphy on August 25, 2011 at 4:55pm

LOL, I completely agree. If you look at the main ingredients in food sold by vets you will almost always find corn within the top three (most of the time it's the first). Corn is a carb that turns into sugar once in the body, and we all know sugar is not good for any of us. :) No matter how tasty it might be. Another thing to considered (from what I understand) about these little guy's GI tracts is that dogs are more likely to get samonilla from dry kibble then eating RAW chicken.  Kinda funny.

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Permalink Reply by Samantha, Daxter and Seeka! on August 16, 2011 at 11:04pm

I feed both of my dogs a raw diet, as close to a "prey model" as possible. They rarely get any fruits or veggies, and NEVER get any grains! only animal muscle meat, bones, and organs, and they are both doing AMAZING on it!! Daxter (my corgi) has terrible allergies and i actually switched to raw as a last resort, and I truly wish i had switched him sooner. his health is infinitely better than it was last year (feel free to check out my blog posts from last year....it was a nightmare!) and i KNOW the food it the main contributor to that. i buy all my dog's food at the butcher shop, and since everything they eat is considered "scrap pieces" by the butcher, i can get 2 weeks of "fit for human consumption" raw food for around $10!!!!! buying from a butcher makes it much cheaper than buying food (both pre-packaged raw diets and kibble) from the pet stores.

 

check out this website: http://www.rawlearning.com/  this website has answered a lot of my questions and makes switching to raw a bit easier (at least it did in my case!) Be sure to pay special attention to her FAQ page (she answers many questions about bones, bacteria, ect.)

GOOD LUCK! YOU'RE MAKING A WONDERFUL DECISION!!!! You WON'T regret it!!!!

 

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Permalink Reply by justine moeller on September 1, 2011 at 11:47pm

We feed raw, with great support and encouragment from our vet. Vets are often educated in schools which recieve funding from pet food companies (ex: Hills) and therefore do not recieve an education outside of what these companies want to provide. Understable when there is big bucks to be made. 

 

Our dogs do wonderfully on it. The benefits we have noticed is more energy, consistant stool which is nice as we struggled with both our dogs and loose stools for a while no matter what quality kibble we fed, amazing teeth, great fur and overall a more content dog than we had on kibble.

 

We feed ground chicken and bone from a local butcher who also feds his own dogs a raw diet. We sometimes switch up the main protein but they do very well on chicken. We mix in their organs. I also do a vegetable mix which varies from week to week. The vegetables is a debated subject in the raw community but our enjoy it and it fills them up. :) Topped off by an omega supplement and some oil (olive, flax, etc) They also chew cow necks and the ocasional knuckle now and again which keep their teeth pearly white. 

 

Good luck if you decide to make the switch. You may recieve some negative replies from people but speak to the people who do the diet and the results they get. Based on the replies here, those who feed raw have wonderful results. :) 

 

 

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