Raw Dog Food
A Fad or a Wise Choice?
I believe Raw Dog Food is becoming main stream. It can be a wise choice if you follow certain guidelines. In the beginning I suggest canine probiotics, especially if your dog has any history of antibiotic use since this medicine kills the good bacteria along with the bad, causing an internal imbalance of intestinal flora.
WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT RAW DOG FOOD?There isn’t a more natural dog diet than raw. Not only is it the way nature intended dogs to eat (just look at those teeth); it supplies more nutrition since it hasn’t been altered by cooking. Let’s face it, cooking kills enzymes. It can kill vitamins and other nutrients that just have to be added back after it’s cooked. And when you add them back, are they man-made? There we go getting unnatural again.
WHAT IS RAW DOG FOOD? Raw feeding 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 is as close to partially digested as we can do for them since the chopping and grating release the enzymes within those foods. If we don’t do this, they may come out the other end looking pretty much the same as they went in. 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. Whatever you choose to feed your dogs, please read The Healthiest Dog Food Primer.If you'd like to learn a simple process to change to a healthy dog diet, begin at Step One Healthy Dog Diet Guideline. Once you and your dog are used to that, move on to Step Two The Road to Nutritious Dog Food. After witnessing the effects of dog nutrition, you will probably want to move on to Step Three Making Your Own Dog Food - Raw and Home Cooked.And always remember the importance of good clean water for dogs.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.
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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