scrubbedexpat091

Curious if anyone feeds their dog a raw diet. I've been researching it a bit and it seems like a good thing, but not fully sure if it is or not. Don't want to make the little gal sick.

She currently eats Acana dry food, with some sardines mixed in. (she loves sardines and the fish oil is good for the coat and skin, and she will eat her food with sardines mixed in.)

Vancouver seems to be filled with raw diet places, so must be fairly popular there.

colchar

I remember reading something recently that said it wasn't a good idea. Cannot remember where I read it. I will try to find it and post it here.

acer rose

We feed our pooch a commercial raw food as well as Arcana. I'm not a fan of the BARF approach but we had problems getting her to eat anything when we first got her and she needed to gain weight (she was a skin and bone rescue mutt*). There are certainly concerns about the potential for illness when feeding raw, which I suspect are mitigated by going the commercial raw route. However, commercial raw (e.g. Ziwipeak, NRG The Raw One) is expensive.

For what it's worth, our vet's advice to us was that for our dogs, with no health issues of note, anything that meets the AAFCO standard for all life stages is fine in terms of providing appropriate nutrition.

*So far we have a happy ending. In spite of being a "border collie cross" she seems to have found sufficient lab to channel from her heritage to eat with enthusiasm now. And she definitely wants the opportunity to try a raw squirrel or two...

Aviator

If they catch their own, they don't sit around the barbie cooking it. Ours catch and eat rodents, they seem fine by it, although we find dead moles around, they don't eat those. One of them catches a mouse, tosses it up in the air, opens wide and down it goes! Supplements their 'civilised' diet.

Beaverstate

Tried to once, she took it out of her bowl and rolled in it like it was a dead fish.

OzSheila

Trend to return to a raw food diet may have something to do with the likes of this:
Dangerous dog food? Lawsuit claims Beneful sickened, killed pets - CBS News
or:
How pet food is killing your dog - and why you should be feeding it parsnips and yoghurt | Daily Mail Online

I try and give our 10 year old Boxer a raw food diet as much as is possible:
bones, meat, yogurt, sunflower seeds, sardines, wholewheat pasta, veges, brown rice etc. Occasionally she will have tinned food and/or a grain-free dry food.

scrubbedexpat091

Yeah it's the issues like that which led me to look into it. I am not sure it's within our price range to do at the moment, but I may in the future try it and see how she does. The cost of meats and whole foods has gotten super pricey and it would be too costly to do from scratch, and not sure if there is any benefit to commercially prepared raw diets vs commercially prepared dry kibble, commercial raw is pricey as well.

bats

A friend feeds their dog cooked meat and veggies. Not sure why they cook it up rather than raw.

My cat got ill once frame being fed raw bits of meat even though she regularly murders and eats chipmunks, birds etc.

MillieF

My cats have both raw and cooked pigs liver and chicken and turkey breast, both raw and cooked. The dog doesn't like raw liver, but we cook it for him. He has it mixed with a bit of kibble. The dog always has leftover veggies, he doesn't like potatoes or peas, but is very fond of kale, carrots and pasta too. He has tinned food too sometimes.

Unfortunately, like Aviator, my Cairn Terrier will dispatch and swallow whole any small rodent that's in radius.

SchnookoLoly

I don't have a dog, but a friend of mine is a dog groomer and has a fleet of pugs. She swears by home-cooked diets for her dogs. She doesn't like the preservatives and processed foods that go into store-bought dog foods, even the "deluxe" ones, so she just cooks stuff for them at home. I can ask her for more details if you want more details!

Shard

A fleet of Pugs! Is that the collective noun - love it! Would love to have a fleet myself.

(P.S. Thx for cheddar tips)

SchnookoLoly

Haha she's a huge pug lover, and is also on the rescue list for pugs. I think at one point she had 6 of them. I think right now she's just got 3... but she very much loves her pugs!

Mmmm cheddar.

Shard

Gotta get some pugs...

cxx

I did some research into raw a few years ago and at the time it seemed like a large freezer was a requirement. Maybe a good reliable local butcher might work instead....
Not sure how products like Ziwipeak etc. have changed the need for a freezer.

The4BellsLondon

We did back in the UK, when I coukd get cheap chicken necks etc from the butcher. But here necks, feet etc are a delicacy so it's way more expensive . Mine aren't fussy so it's whatever Is on offer and is usually No name from PC!