Pros and cons of raw food?

[Pringle89]

Just interested in people’s opinions and what raw food/brand do you feed? Our puppy is 5 mths and seems to have a sensitive stomach regardless of what food he’s fed (only natural high meat content food)

We have two kids and I worry about the possible transfer or bacteria from raw food?

[StopMakingAFoolOutofMe]

Rice - it's a grain so is already bad for a dog. It can block them up and cause long term health problems.

It has no nutritional value.

It's used as a cheap filler in dog food, nothing more.

If you need to feed something after a stomach upset, plain boiled chicken is far better.

[BiteyShark]

The key is to find a food that suits your dog. I spent a lot of time changing foods at first but now I know the type he is good on I can easily switch between brands and flavours with no issues at all (even with his IBD).

I am not going to even get into the debate on raw because I ruled it out for us at the beginning anyway. Not sure why it's got so heated on here as missbattenburg was putting points across that were neither for or against but I guess the raw debate is one of those that elicits strong feelings in some.

What suits one dog and household won't necessarily suit another. It really comes down to your own dog. OP definitely try millies as lots of dogs seem to like that brand. You might want to look at forthglade as well as they have some that use sweet potatoe rather than rice. I switch between both brands.

[Smotheroffive]

Rice has been used (white rice that is) helping soothe inflamed guts time dogs had gippy tums, so long as its well hydrated and mixed with boiled chicken. Noones recommending it for long term use.

[Smotheroffive]

It's comes down the health of the animals, and recent data on highly processed food fed long term is not great, at best!

[OverFedStanley]

Smotheroffive can you give academic papers to support your claim above. Also what is the definition of highly processed food?

[Fortheloveofscience]

Just as an alternative anecdotal point of view - I fed both my dogs raw for over a year. I saw no improvement in either my dog with a normal digestion, and the other with some digestive issues. No noticeable change in skin, teeth or amount of muscle. Since it was a bit of a faff and didn’t give any noticeable improvement I switched back! I also raw fed my cat for about 6 months but switched back when it showed no tangible benefits and he prefers commercial wet food.

[Veterinari]

This thread outlines the main concerns with raw feeding. I work for a charity - what you feed your dog has zero commercial interest for me, regardless of the bike spouted by PP. But the public health concerns are valid.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/3489960-feeding-a-dog-raw

In a similar vein you may be interested to know that vets are seeing outbreaks of intestinal tuberculosis in cats fed commercial raw diets - another public health risk that emphasises that the meat used for raw diets may not be especially safe

[Smotheroffive]

I did know this, but its an issue of traditionally through the floor standards when it comes to animal feed, domestic pets being some of the worst fed, due to the aggressive commerical pet food industry (not to mention the completely over-inflated prices!)
Advertising tells owners that this is what dogs should have, much of the nutritional research is funded by the likes of mars and nestle to promote complete dry feeds which over work the kidneys. I mean, as a pop'n we're all a lot more aware of drinking water, and we don't eat dried up processed food all day every day.

I don't use commercial feeds, I just don't trust them, at all. They've never done the right thing by animals really. Why should they, when they can sell at crazy prices for rubbish!

[Smotheroffive]

Caveat: I have to keep some commercially produced food in the freezer as back up, and dried, same reason. On the plus side as well, very very little food is ever wasted or binned!

[Mullberry7373]

I feed our dogs raw and they love it. They are very healthy, the one with allergies itches less on it, they have shiny coats, good teeth, no farts, and pooh less - less crap goes in so less crap come out !

Our favourite is The Dogs Butcher, we also use Bulmers and DAF. Finding a good supplier is they best way, we order monthly from K9 catering as they do such a good variety. We have a separate freezer for it, not becasie I’m worried about contamination as I have some in my normal freezer too, but just becasie we order monthly and it wouldn’t all fit in my freezer !
For treats I dehydrate this strips of meat, but you can buy this too. I also get bags m of bones from a butcher of Morrison’s do them cheaply. We get lamb bones, meaty beef bones, marrowbones and chicken wings all from Morrison’s.

Chicken is the main cause of itchiness/allergies so we avoid chicken for one of ours. Our bulldog does have some dry food mixed with hers, some people wouldn’t agree with this but it’s a very high protein grain free food that can be fed alongside raw. Normally dry food digests at a different rate to raw which is why it’s not advised to feed both together. We found she needs it to keep her fuller for longer.

[Mullberry7373]

The one raw food we have found they won’t eat is The Raw Factory, but maybe just becasie it’s very different to the others as in it’s very dry and crumbly and honey. But some dogs love it crucnchy !

[Smotheroffive]

Mulberry I am surprised that can actually be marketed as 'raw'. There's doesn't sound much healthy about it if its dried and crunchy - bleeeuurgh!

[Mullberry7373]

It’s not actually ‘dried’ I didn’t say dried. It’s dry as it not really meaty, not much blood. It’s jist seemed crumbly.

[Smotheroffive]

Yeah I know, but sounds far from fresh, 'real'