The facts about common raw feeding hot topics

Raw feeders or would be raw feeders spending any time surfing the internet on the subject will quickly find that there is no single “raw diet”.  Instead, there is raw feeding in many different forms with many different “experts” claiming their way is the healthiest.  Researching this diet is highly important and the more you know the better prepared you are to properly feed your dog.  With some topics however it seems that research only leads to more questions.

One Diet to Feed Them All?

One thing that is so wonderful about raw feeding is the ability to tweak the diet to your individual pet’s needs.  If your dog doesn’t tolerate a particular food well, you can easily avoid that food while still feeding a natural diet.

All animals have a  species appropriate diet that they are “designed” to eat.  In some animals this diet is a short list of plants or animals and in others the list is much longer.  Animals such as dogs which are scavengers, have the broadest, most flexible diets since they are designed to eat not only what they hunt but everyone else’s leftovers.  Hunters such as cats and ferrets usually imprint on their diet at an early age and don’t recognize strange foods as being edible. Their natural diet is limited to what animals they are able to hunt and eat fresh. The dietary needs of dogs versus that of cats (or ferrets) is different but both still allow for a broad range of foods with the dog having the most flexible diet. The flexibility in the diet, especially in dogs, is the reason behind the many different methods of raw feeding. That said, some practices being pushed especially in on-line articles and email lists could potentially be harmful to your pet’s long term health.

Hold the Grains?

Do dogs or cats need grain in their diet? Some diets do call for them, but there is a lack of evidence that dogs or cats have a dietary need for grain. Many people do not feel comfortable leaving out the carbs because they are in most commercial dry foods. However, these ingredients are included in commercial foods due to cost and processing requirements not due to the animal’s dietary needs. While a dog’s natural diet would consist of a much larger variety of foods then a cats, both species natural diet contains almost no grain. According to The Waltham Book of Companion Animal Nutrition “There is no known minimum dietary requirement for carbohydrate...” in dogs or cats.

Hold the Veggies Too?

So do dogs and cats need veggies? According to some recent articles and email lists the answer is no. However, according to most raw diet experts the answer is yes.  Kymythy Schultz (author of Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats), Dr. Ian Billinghurst (author of The BARF Diet and forerunner in the raw feeding movement) and Dr. Tom Lonsdale (author of Raw Meaty Bones) all call for varying amounts of veggie in their suggested diets. The reason behind feeding veggies is that both dogs and cats generally will eat the whole animal of whatever they catch.  In eating a whole prey animal the predator is ingesting not only meat, bone and organ meat but some vegetable matter in various stages of digestion. Dogs may also eat ripe or over ripe plant matter. Veggies provide minerals and vitamins not found in meat alone.  So unlike grain, it appears that veggies do make up an important part of a raw diet.  For dogs and cats to properly digest veggies the cell wall must be broken down. Whole veggies or veggie chunks will usually pass through the digestive tract unchanged. For this reason, veggies should be ground to be utilized.

No Bones About It

Depending on where you are looking for raw feeding information, you may have already encountered some feeders who do not feel dogs and cats need to eat bones.  At least they disagree with the well known experts and authors on how much bone should be fed. Most often these raw feeders are giving their dogs large chunks of meat with little to no bone as the bulk of their diet.

Bones are a very important component of the raw diet.  Bones provide the most important source for minerals, especially calcium.  In additional to calcium, raw meaty bones provide nutritious marrow, amino acids, essential fatty acids, fiber, enzymes and antioxidants.  Bones also offer a wide range of minerals and vitamins in a usable form for your pet.  It is advisable to stick with what the experts say and use raw meaty bones such as chicken backs or necks as the base of your pet’s diet.

Mixing It Up

Another controversy which is likely to come up in your research or on email lists is that of mixing the raw food diet with kibble.  Like the other issues mentioned in this article, you will find people who are firmly for or firmly against mixing raw and kibble.  While there are many owners who have been using this method of feeding for years without a problem, it is usually not recommended.   Many raw feeding experts caution against mixing the two foods for fear that the difference in digestion rate will cause stomach upsets or worse.  At the very least, your pet will not be getting the full benefit of the raw diet if you are mixing raw foods and kibble.  If you find feeding kibble at times to be unavoidable, feed it as a separate meal from the raw food to prevent any digestive upsets.