Should I Feed my Dog a Raw Food Diet?
Hello lovely people, I hope you are all well and having a great week. Sorry I didn't post yesterday it was rather a busy day and I just didn't get around to it. This weeks blog is going to be very different to last weeks, I hope that last weeks blog helped some of you and allowed you to see that you aren't alone. Right so as you can tell from the title I was thinking about feeding dogs a raw food diet this week. Now I know a few people who do feed their dogs on this diet and I was just intrigued as to why they do it so I decided to read up a little bit on it.
So the basics of a raw diet and the thought behind it is that dogs thousands of years ago descended from wolves, so wolves are carnivores and would only eat raw foods obviously. However throughout the years dogs have been domesticated and have been eating scraps of food and leftovers so it is now thought that they can eat an even more varied diet, so more omnivorous.
There are a few types of raw food diet;
The first is the "prey" diet this one considers dogs to be wild like a wolf and eat the bones organs and all of an animals so not an omnivore basically. Prey animals are made up of bones, organs, muscle meat, skin, hide/hair/feathers, fat and other connective tissue. In the average prey animal, the ratio of these parts is 5-10% organs, 10-15% edible bones and 80-85% muscle meat. Ok so when I says prey animal it means like a pheasant or a rabbit animals like that which in the wild are killed and eaten by other animals such as foxes. However throwing a whole pheasant down for your dog isn't probably the best idea. So compromises are made to make this "prey" diet as close to that as possible.
The next one is called BARF which stands for the Bones and Raw Food diet it was developed by the Australian veterinarian Ian Billinghurst, he suggests similar that dogs should be fed how they were before they were domesticated however based more on todays daily requirements and need so feeding them a diet consisting of raw meet, vegetables, bones and other supplements. So this diet takes into account the shift from carnivore to omnivore now.
There are some pros and cons to this type of diet that need to be taken into account when deciding whether or not this is the right thing for your dog;
PROS;
So thinking about these pros and cons what would I decide. I think that preparing raw meat even if it is for your dog still has to be done properly because there is still a high risk of bacteria growing on it and making your dog ill if it isn't prepared or kept correctly. I have to admit at the moment we feed our family dog dry kibble with half a meat sachet in each meal, this is a very easy and convenient meal plan for my family because we all work full time or are at school all day. So feeding your dog kibble is convenient and as long as the kibble has the nutritional balance and supplements in it that your dog needs then I would say that its a good diet. However if you feel that your dog is lacking in one of the areas that are known to improve on a raw diet then why not try it. I would always check with your vet first when looking to change your dogs diet because things sometimes have to be changed over time not suddenly. A few other reasons as to why you should check with your vet first is because if your dog is in the late stages of liver or kidney failure then the raw diet wont normally be recommended because of the high level of protein, and also if your dog has cancer then the immune system will be weakened and so introducing food with possible high levels of bacteria may not be recommended, but as I say check with your vet first and see what they say.
For me personally I don't think I will change my dogs diet just because she is so old and there is no call for us to change the current diet she is on.
Thank you guys so much for reading I hope you found it informative and useful. A little update from me, tomorrow I leave to go SKIING aaahhhhhhh I can't put into words how excited I am, I'm going with my best friend which should be amazing. However because I do want it to be a chill week I'm not going to do a full blog next week it will just be an update so that you guys well the 2 people who will read it will know I'm alive. Again thank you for reading have an amazing weekend and remember to smile.
So the basics of a raw diet and the thought behind it is that dogs thousands of years ago descended from wolves, so wolves are carnivores and would only eat raw foods obviously. However throughout the years dogs have been domesticated and have been eating scraps of food and leftovers so it is now thought that they can eat an even more varied diet, so more omnivorous.
There are a few types of raw food diet;
The first is the "prey" diet this one considers dogs to be wild like a wolf and eat the bones organs and all of an animals so not an omnivore basically. Prey animals are made up of bones, organs, muscle meat, skin, hide/hair/feathers, fat and other connective tissue. In the average prey animal, the ratio of these parts is 5-10% organs, 10-15% edible bones and 80-85% muscle meat. Ok so when I says prey animal it means like a pheasant or a rabbit animals like that which in the wild are killed and eaten by other animals such as foxes. However throwing a whole pheasant down for your dog isn't probably the best idea. So compromises are made to make this "prey" diet as close to that as possible.
The next one is called BARF which stands for the Bones and Raw Food diet it was developed by the Australian veterinarian Ian Billinghurst, he suggests similar that dogs should be fed how they were before they were domesticated however based more on todays daily requirements and need so feeding them a diet consisting of raw meet, vegetables, bones and other supplements. So this diet takes into account the shift from carnivore to omnivore now.
There are some pros and cons to this type of diet that need to be taken into account when deciding whether or not this is the right thing for your dog;
PROS;
- Shinier coat
- Healthier skin
- Cleaner teeth
- Higher energy levels
- Improved digestion
- Smaller, Firmer stalls
- Better weight managements
- Raw meat can contain harmful bacteria like E.coli
- May be deficient nutritionally
- Airway obstruction from bones
- Bowel obstructions and intestinal perforations
- Inflammation of gastrointestinal tract
- Severe diarrhoea
- Time consuming
- More expensive
So thinking about these pros and cons what would I decide. I think that preparing raw meat even if it is for your dog still has to be done properly because there is still a high risk of bacteria growing on it and making your dog ill if it isn't prepared or kept correctly. I have to admit at the moment we feed our family dog dry kibble with half a meat sachet in each meal, this is a very easy and convenient meal plan for my family because we all work full time or are at school all day. So feeding your dog kibble is convenient and as long as the kibble has the nutritional balance and supplements in it that your dog needs then I would say that its a good diet. However if you feel that your dog is lacking in one of the areas that are known to improve on a raw diet then why not try it. I would always check with your vet first when looking to change your dogs diet because things sometimes have to be changed over time not suddenly. A few other reasons as to why you should check with your vet first is because if your dog is in the late stages of liver or kidney failure then the raw diet wont normally be recommended because of the high level of protein, and also if your dog has cancer then the immune system will be weakened and so introducing food with possible high levels of bacteria may not be recommended, but as I say check with your vet first and see what they say.
For me personally I don't think I will change my dogs diet just because she is so old and there is no call for us to change the current diet she is on.
Thank you guys so much for reading I hope you found it informative and useful. A little update from me, tomorrow I leave to go SKIING aaahhhhhhh I can't put into words how excited I am, I'm going with my best friend which should be amazing. However because I do want it to be a chill week I'm not going to do a full blog next week it will just be an update so that you guys well the 2 people who will read it will know I'm alive. Again thank you for reading have an amazing weekend and remember to smile.
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