RAW Diet Pros and Cons
People often choose a RAW diet for their dogs for the same reasons that others choose homecooking for their dogs: they distrust commercial dog foods; they believe that they can do a better job of meeting their dog’s nutritional needs than a pet food company can; they like having control of the ingredients in their dog’s diet. And, with the RAW diet, they often believe that RAW is a more natural diet for a dog than processed foods.
Advocates of the RAW diet claim many benefits for this approach. They say that feeding RAW produces the following changes:
- Shinier coat, healthier skin
- Fresher breath/cleaner teeth
- Improved digestion
- Improvement or elimination of allergy symptoms
- Decreased shedding
- Increased stamina
- Firmer, smaller stools
- General increase in overall health
Those are just a few of the benefits that RAW advocates claim. Many people who feed RAW are quite zealous and claim to see improvements in all aspects of their dog’s life.
At the heart of the RAW diet is the raw, meaty bone (RMB). This is just what it sounds like: a raw bone with a lot of meat on it. It could be a chicken wing, a turkey neck, a Cornish game hen, and so on. And these are given to your dog raw. Before you protest that you shouldn’t feed your dog bones, it’s really quite all right to feed a dog UNCOOKED bones. Uncooked bones like these are soft and chewable. They don’t splinter and they’re great for your dog’s teeth.
However! You should not feed your dog cooked bones. Cooking the bones makes them brittle and that’s when they can splinter and puncture your dog’s gastrointestinal tract. But it’s fine to give your dog meat with uncooked bones.
As with a cooked diet, it’s necessary to rotate the kind of raw, meaty bones that you give your dog. All bones are not created equal. Different bones will be higher in different kinds of vitamins and mineral. One kind of bone may be high in iron while another may be a treasure trove of vitamin A. So, if you are feeding your dog raw, meaty bones make sure that you provide plenty of variety.
Other good sources of raw, meaty bones include, beef, oxtail, pork, rabbit, fish, quail, kangaroo and buffalo. There really aren’t any caveats on the kind of meat you can give your dog. Dogs are carnivores and the RAW diet encourages people to feed their dogs a carnivore-appropriate diet.
Your dog will also need organ meat, such as liver or kidney. Organ meats should make up about 10 percent of your dog’s daily diet. Organ meats are a very important source of the vitamins and nutrients that your dog needs.
There is still much debate and contention about feeding a RAW diet. Most vets disapprove of these diets. Advocates claim that this is because vets are generally uninformed about the diets and that vets get kickbacks for selling certain brands of dog food through their practices. It is true that vets spend a relatively small amount of time studying canine nutrition in vet school. However, it must be said that they do see a lot of dogs in their practices so they probably have some idea about what healthy dogs eat.
Does a RAW diet really produce all of the benefits claimed by RAW advocates? It’s entirely possible that in many cases dogs do experience these benefits. If your dog has been experiencing skin or coat problems or suffers from allergies, then changing his diet to RAW may remove the offending ingredients. As long as the RAW diet provides all of the necessary vitamins and nutrients, there is no reason why the dog wouldn’t benefit from the change.
RAW critics often raise concerns about bacteria with the RAW diet. Feeding your dog a RAW diet will necessarily involve working with e. coli and salmonella since you are working with raw meats (usually in your kitchens). Is this bacteria harmful to your dog? Probably not. The canine digestive system is much different from the human digestive system. Dogs evolved to eat raw kills and to scavenge food. They don’t usually have a problem eating things that contain some rather nasty bacteria as long as they have a good immune system. Besides, e. coli and salmonella are usually already present in most kitchens.
On the other hand, since you will be handling raw meats, it will be necessary for you to take extra precautions. Wash your hands frequently. Clean up thoroughly in areas where you have been preparing your dog’s food. Thoroughly clean your dog’s dishes and water bowls.
Most people are a little apprehensive when they consider switching their dog to a RAW diet. There is no one right way to feed your dog. You may wish to ease into the RAW diet. There are pre-packaged RAW diets available (although they are much more expensive than buying your own RAW foods). There are pre-mixes of vitamins and nutrients that you can add to organ meat and bones for your dog. This ensures that your dog is getting the proper nutrition. You can always try to your dog on a RAW diet for a few weeks and see how things go. Afterall, it’s only food.
