Feeding a dog raw?

[NewYoiker]

Does anyone do it? I'm struggling to get our puppy to eat- she will eat the raw complete stuff I bought in an act of desperation but apart from that she'll only eat pedigree wet puppy 🙄 it has 4% meat!

Does anyone have ideas? Anyone feed butternut box?

I am sceptical that raw diets constitute a major public health risk

As I assume you are a vet i’d Be interested to indeed stand the evidence you have that supports that position? It seems to be contrary to the majority of veterinary and public health literature.

Thanks mad i’m Aware of that but a lot of commercial pet food is not produced in the UK and if you look at the vet record study I linked to earlier, a lot of the commercial preps contain parasites and other non-visible infections that wouldn’t be passed as fit in a meat hygiene inspection

It's safest to practice good hygiene, however a dog is fed.
Just because a dog is fed commercial food doesn't mean it's OK to let it lick your children's faces. Poo still needs to be carefully disposed of and hands washed after handling dog.
Even the best behaved kibble fed dog can manage to eat something disgusting on a walk.

One of those articles is based on evidence in Canada and the other talks about food that is unfit for human consumption. Anything sold in the UK has to adhere to FSA, DEFRA and EU regulations.
Any dog food made or sold in the UK must be made from animals which are suitable for human consumption. Canada and the US have totally different rules around food production (including allowing sick and diseased animals to be used in dog food) and I would not choose to feed raw if I lived there. However the UK market is tightly controlled and regulated.

Any dog food made or sold in the UK must be made from animals which are suitable for human consumption. Canada and the US have totally different rules around food production (including allowing sick and diseased animals to be used in dog food) and I would not choose to feed raw if I lived there. However the UK market is tightly controlled and regulated.

Regardless this doesn't Eliminate the primary bacterial pathogens or preclude dogs becoming shedders of salmonella, E. Coli etc. UK produces meat is not sterile! The public health risks are the same regardless. It’s the reason that we cook meat and the reason that UK public health bodies have spoken out against raw feeding.

Public Health England have NOT spoken out against raw feeding. The 2017 report into the e-coli outbreak spoke of the need to increase awareness of risks and promote good hygiene practices around raw feeding. This is in no way the same as speaking out against raw feeding.

OP, I'm sorry for detailing your thread.

@madvixen

Maybe this is open to interpretation but i’d Suggest it’s not a glowing endorsement.

I've just switched Ddog to raw. He's Uber stubborn and turned his nose up at it for 4 bloody days. Now he wolfs it down. I use Nutriment or Benyfit.

Nutritionally it's 100% better than 'high street' dog foods that are full of sugar and fillers.

You need to be firm. A dog won't starve itself to death. Ditch the wet food, it's full of crap.

Ditch the stuff you’re feeding, it’s very low quality. If anyone is concerned about salmonella, then use the frozen prepared stuff. There are plenty of people feeding raw these days, me included. I’d never feed some of the commercial kibbles. I can name three that use carcinogenes as preservatives, permitted in the U.K., but banned in other countries. Nothing in the supermarket is of good enough quality, IMO.

Link here for those who are considering raw. Suppliers, anecdotes, how to get started. www.petforums.co.uk/forums/dog-health-and-nutrition.3/

Thanks! The rescue we got her from gave us the wet, I hate it. I will be doing a bit more research into what she should be eating. Maybe try a different wet food like Millie's Wolfheart as that's the food our other dog is on (albeit dry)

If anyone is concerned about salmonella, then use the frozen prepared stuff

Umm.. the risks of the frozen meat are just the same. See the Bet record link or the Liverpool uni link I posted earlier. It’s cooking that kills salmonella and other bacteria. So the risks and strict hygiene precautions needed are the same, and the chances of your dog becoming a carrier are the same

I've just read the Public Health England article. There wasn't anything in it that would make me stop raw feeding my dogs.
And I never share a toothbrush with them

quote from PHE ...another case had close contact with a dog,
including brushing its teeth with their own toothbrush...

another case had close contact with a dog, including brushing its teeth with their own toothbrush...

The madness! I have to say that I’ve never had a problem in a decade of raw feeding, but I’m quite liberal with the antiseptic spray and the steam cleaner.

Reading this with interest. @Veterinari is the main objection the feeding of raw chicken? So if other meats were fed raw would the risks be smaller?

The risks vary according to the meat type and processing. Basically the meat used to make raw food may be ‘fit for human consumption’ but it often includes parts that we wouldn’t consider ‘meat’ eg digestive tracts, etc these parts also carry a higher bacterial load due to faecal contamination, and without cooking that higher bacterial load is more likely to cause disease

another case had close contact with a dog,
including brushing its teeth with their own toothbrush...

Yes madness. But the other 3 cases did not. And one of those only had fairly tentative contact with a dog. It’s immunosuppressed people who are most at risk of the environmental shedding. Same argument as for vaccinating children. I guess it depends how you weigh up your need to feed raw with your potential impact on your family/friends/community.

I’m not really clear on why you can’t just cook the meat then feed it as part of a balanced diet. Why does it have to be raw?

Thanks Veterinari. So arguably if you fed meat that you knew was human grade (ie meat sold in a regular supermarket for human consumption), and that was not chicken, the risks would be minimised?

“Why you just can’t cook the meat” - because of a strong preference from dog for raw, and I’d never appreciated before there was a human health implication - so thought I was doing what he preferred and no harm done. I am reassessing this in the light of this thread and wondering if there’s a safe way to cater for his preference or if we have to move to cooked.

My dog eats meat from the supermarket.

I occasionally get commercial raw pet food for a treat, like tripe, and also if someone else is feeding him so they don't have to worry about proportions etc.

Raw is good for cats and dogs, with dogs you need to have additional stuff because they tolerate cereal type stuff which is in processed dog food but not difficult to supply.

If they have been used to a processed and/or dry diet, gradually introduce it. It's a healthy diet.

I became quite friendly with a local chiropodist (his profession is not relevant but we chatted about pets), and he fed his dogs and cats a raw diet, a butcher even ground up the chicken bones. His pets lived long healthy lives.

I have one cat who goes completely bonkers at the smell of raw meat so I cut a little off or if it is mince, I take a spoonful, and give it to her. She devours it. If she was my only animal I would feed her raw meat exclusively.

I’m not really clear on why you can’t just cook the meat then feed it as part of a balanced diet. Why does it have to be raw?

There's loads of good information on the web if you look for it.
I had questions like this when I got my first rescue dog, it took me a long time to decide to raw feed and a lot of reading and talking to experienced raw feeders. I was trying to find a food to stop him vomiting and help him gain weight.
Vet advised Science Diet which dog refused to eat.
He loved raw food right from the start and within a few months had put on weight and looked like a different dog.

Meat, I guess, doesn't HAVE to be raw, but chicken bones do else they are brittle and can damage dog.

There's loads of good information on the web if you look for it.

This is the web and i’m Asking on a raw feeding thread It would be helpful if someone would answer. I’m intrigued as to what the driving force is that makes dog owners expose other people to potentially pathogenic infection?

As a veterinary professional i’m Aware of the risks of cooked chicken bones (hence i said raw meat) but nutritionally cooked versus raw meat makes very little difference so why take the public health risk.

CaledonianSleeper depends a bit on the meat - supermarket chicken will still have a high risk of bacterial infection - it’s why there are such strict hygiene precautions around raw chicken prep.

I was under the impression that the bones were as important as the meat, thus bones with meat on are fed. Chicken is often recommended as cheapish as readily available. Hence why one wouldn't cook it. Personally speaking, if I was feeding just meat, no reason why it can't be cooked, but I'm reluctant to cook bones, chicken or otherwise.

I was under the impression that the bones were as important as the meat, thus bones with meat on are fed. Chicken is often recommended as cheapish as readily available. Hence why one wouldn't cook it. Personally speaking, if I was feeding just meat, no reason why it can't be cooked, but I'm reluctant to cook bones, chicken or otherwise.

Cooked lamb beef and pork bones are all safe. Also it might be worthwhile basing your dog’s nutritional requirements on more than just an impression. Home-cooked diets can absolutely meet a dog’s Nutritional requirements but it requires a lot of research. As does protecting public health

Cooked lamb beef and pork bones are too hard. Raw bones are softer.