To or Not Too Feed Raw Diet?

[Nutmeg247]

That photobucket album was worth another raw thread by itself, thanks for linking that.

One day I really hope all the raw versus kibble banter will stop, and people can unite against the real enemy, corn being fed to dogs. J/k, j/k.

[Neil]

Those that think that raw is more natural, that it is what they eat in the wild and say corn is bad; need to look at a few game cameras at corn deer feeders - coyotes love corn. I have seen them raid a corn field.

Now I don't buy they make a conscious decision to eat what is good for them, no, they are optimistic, eating whatever they find wherever they find it. And often it is corn for ferral dogs and wild coyotes.

[RickB]

If you choose to feed raw, more power to you. Please be aware though, commercially available raw blends often are lacking in fat. The two things a canine athlete needs is protein and fat. The fat is the primary fuel and the protein is (primarily) a reconstruction after the fact.

To get the same fat content in some raw blends, you would have to feed quite a bit more. This is because raw has a lot of moisture. But if the dog is not a voracious eater, he may run out of stomach volume before sufficient fat gets in.

All this to say, if you choose to feed raw, and your dog is a hard charger, you might want to add some lard to his feed. Sled dog folks do something similar because there is not a feed available (raw or kibble) that has enough fat in it to keep up with the energy demands of a sled dog.

Sources available as links in this article that I wrote: http://www.chicagonow.com/training-the- ... -bad-idea/

Rick

[ezzy333]

What you need to do is get your dog onto a whole food diet. The stuff that the pet food manufacturers pass off as food is so full of toxins and chemicals that it is causing your dog to have these problems. Besides, the pet food factories process the kibble so much that there is no nutrition left in it anyway. Dogs are just wolves...they need to eat whole animal. That is what a wolf does in the wild and wolves do not have the problems that our dogs are seeing. My little Pomerpoo, Ginger, had runny stools all the time. After I switched her to a whole food diet, this cleared right up.

This is a quote from an article that has an awful lot of untruths in it. Seems that most people who write or post about dog food have never been in a feed mill and have no understanding of what or how a dog food is manufactured. For instance, what about the manufacturing process produces all of the toxins and chemicals this article talks about? If there is no nutrition left in a food after manufacturing how do 99% of the performing dogs in this world continue to be healthy and perform way beyond what a dog does when we are just walking with it for a few hours? Why do wolves and every other animal live longer, healthier lives when fed a good dry kibble type of diet? And the whole food diet, what is that?

So many marketing ploys that some people pick up on and think it is some new science that they feel compelled to teach all of us the error of our ways. Raw or kibble will provide the nutrients that a dog needs, it is just much harder and costlier to do it with a raw diet but it can work if done properly. Pick your poison and let the rest of us do the same.

Ezzy

[Nutmeg247]

Those that think that raw is more natural, that it is what they eat in the wild and say corn is bad; need to look at a few game cameras at corn deer feeders - coyotes love corn. I have seen them raid a corn field.

Now I don't buy they make a conscious decision to eat what is good for them, no, they are optimistic, eating whatever they find wherever they find it. And often it is corn for ferral dogs and wild coyotes.

Corn, apples -- it's interesting to see what all they WILL eat.

[claybuster_aa]

The biggest problem I can see with raw feeding is not the concept but rather the application. Unfortunately, probably 90% of raw feeders get it wrong and are feeding unbalanced diets and inappropriate ingredients. Many companies have jumped on the raw bandwagon selling premixed raw diets. Marketing has promoted these as healthier diets boasting a carnivore theme and when you look at the ingredients contained you see diets loaded with plant matter and raw vegetables. These companies have completely distorted the concept of raw feeding through either ignorance, deceit and deception.

I feel that what I am feeding now is leaps and bounds better than a raw diet for I know my mix is properly balanced and it's has in there everything the dog needs. In addition to that, it comes from the people that first developed commercial raw feeds for sale in the US in the 1970s. The granular feeds were developed as a convenience option for those who found raw feeding not as practical for whatever reason.