Raw Dog Food
A Fad or a Wise Choice?
Why is raw dog food becoming mainstream?
It’s the best all natural, quality, and biologically appropriate diet to feed our canines. And probably easier than you think.
What’s Good About Raw Dog Food?
Okay, we know it’s an all natural dog food. And it’s human grade food which hasn’t been altered by cooking.
Let’s face it, cooking kills enzymes needed for digestion and assimilation. It also kills nutrients. You can try to add them back but you just can't get it quite right.
Then if you do add them back, are they man-made? There we go getting unnatural again.
If feeding raw scares you, (I’ve had people tell me they are afraid of their dog’s choking, vomiting and all sorts of silly things) think about this. Go look at those canine teeth! Really. Do it right now. I'll wait.
Are they shaped like ours? Are they spaced like ours? Heck no!
Canine teeth are made to tear and crush. Dogs don’t even have jaws that chew like ours. We are made to grind our food with all those molars which dogs don’t have. Plus, we have a lower jaw that moves. Dogs don’t! Next time you eat something, try chewing using only an up and down motion. You’d swallow bigger chunks too.
Of course that would give us indigestion since we don’t have the high acidic digestive system of a dog, which is what enables them to withstand far more bacteria than we can, as well.
What is the BARF Diet for Dogs?
This all or mostly raw diet for dogs includes meat, raw bones (beware of beef bones ), raw vegetables, and raw fruits. Some people add eggs, grains and plain yogurt (for the probiotics). Grains need to be cooked and fruits and vegetables, for the most part should be grated, finely chopped or whirred around in a food processor. Why?
As a carnivore, a dog would eat the entire body of its prey, including the partially digested vegetables and grains. Dogs’ bodies don’t produce the enzymes needed to digest and assimilate these foods, but the partially digested food is full of enzymes already so your dog gets nutrition from the veggies as well as the meat and bones.
Cooking the grains and chopping (or making mush in the food processor) makes the vegetables and fruits as close to partially digested as we can do for them since the chopping and grating release the enzymes within those foods.
Also dogs are unable to break down cellulose (fiber), so if we don’t do this, they may come out the other end looking pretty much the same as they went in. And even though cooking will break down the cellulose to a certain extent, it is no longer raw dog food and minus valuable nutrients. Personally I didn’t give Raw Food much thought until the summer of 2009 when all five of my dogs were suffering from a terrible flea infestation. That’s when I had a revelation, or, as I call it, a slap my forehead moment. See Dog Food Manufacturers and the Big Lie.
My dogs' health was deteriorating badly so I had to make a change. First I started with a transitioning diet like shown in Dog Food Recipes.
I weaned them off dog kibble by feeding both raw and kibble and added various dog supplements which improved their health dramatically.
And now that I've listed lots of pages for your consideration, I'd like to say that many dogs do just fine switching to raw without a slow changeover. I was just such a big baby about it (and scared) because I didn't know anyone who was doing it.
What is good about the above listed pages is that they give you lots of information so even if you don't switch to raw dog food, you can improve your canine's diet overall.
And finally, as with us, it is much healthier to serve meat that was raised free range, organic, grass fed and even non inoculated. See The Search for Meat link below.
And understand that feeding a raw diet absolutely must include either the bones whole or ground, or in a supplemental form of calcium for dogs.
Now, if after reading this, you are really interested in learning more about feeding raw dog food, there is a good eBook I bought that I think gives a lot of detail and answers some questions even I had after changing to a raw diet for dogs. It's called Going Rawr! and you can buy it for yourself.
And if you have any questions, just drop me a line through my contact me page.
What About Raw Meaty Bones
Read this note about Raw Dog Food
Canine Raw Diet - The Search for Meat
See Dog Food and Nutrition
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