Views on raw food diet for dogs

[Coffeeeeee]

I'm considering changing my 5 month old Labrador puppy's diet from dried food to the raw food diet, I'm interested to hear your opinions or advice please, would you advise it ?
Thanks in advance xx

7 month old mongrel I'm feeding JWB kibble with raw meat supplement, gradually increasing meat % until we finish this sack of kibble.

Was appreciating his small hard poos earlier on today and the decline in the Visits from the Brown Ghost, the DC's term for stinky dog farts.

I was advised by vet and the shop which sells raw food not to give it to a puppy, on hygiene grounds.So bought human grade meat then cooked it for pup. He’s still on this, with vegetables and brown rice. Plus sardines, eggs, raw bones.
It costs no more, for a small dog, than good quality commercial food.

My vet does not recommend, food poisoning is a risk plus it can lack balance of nutrition. Ddoghas dried with a bit of wet mixed in, free fed never gains weight

I feed my cocker spaniel Bella and Duke raw food, it gets delivered on time every month, is packaged well and there’s a clean bowl every time.

It’s about £68 a month for 20kg.

He was having a few allergy issues and skin infections which have all cleared since since switching to raw.

It is a bit more faff to feed raw but I think he's worth it.
And it's a bit more interesting for me too, rather than just chucking some dry biscuits in a bowl twice a day for the rest of his life!

I raw feed and have done since mine were puppies.

My girl wasn't interested in her food at all until we switched.
Her poos were evil too.

When we changed to raw we had firm poo, no dodgy stomachs, improved behaviour and better skin and coat.

I find it much cheaper than the expensive dry food we were using which was left in the bowl.

I really have been so impressed with it, our vet is also happy and our dog sitter is happy to feed raw.

We feed our dog a high quality kibble. The reason we picked kibble over raw is we don’t have the freezer space and can’t afford to buy a separate freezer, the dog already has the little drawer of the freezer. When we travel, it’s easy to take with us and it’s easy to feed her at other people’s houses without worrying about the smell (tripe particularly) or the waste disposal depending on their councils waste policies. We also use her meals as training when she was a puppy and now as a reward as we groom her. It’s very easy to feed her pieces of kibbles than pick up chunks of raw meat. Our dog tried to not eat her kibble for a time but we just minimised all other treats and waited her out. She has been offered raw by the neighbour before and doesn’t want it. Some dogs are just going to try and be fussy.

Our neighbour feeds raw and we look after the dog on occasion. The issues that I have with feeding raw is the smell. You either have stinkier meals or stinkier poos. The waste collection here means that we have no outside general waste bins, so the meat packets need rinsing out before putting in the bin. This leads to bits of meat in the strainer in the sink and I find it a lot more faff to prep the food and clean up after it. Storage - in winter you need to keep it somewhere it will defrost and in summer you need to keep it somewhere it won’t heat too much.

In addition to the kibble, we use some raw chews. We buy Gentle pressed bones and natures menu raw treats - so the little freezer drawer is full of duck wings/necks/beef throttle... she gets reduced kibble at weekend and a chew to help clean her teeth. She’s very rarely a farty dog, farting usually occurs as a result of having too many other treats. Poos can get a little runny - again usually when having too many other treats. Her coat is shiny and that’s mostly through her kibble. Not all raw foods will help with teeth cleaning, it depends on what is in them.

It’s all just a balance though for what works for your dog and your lifestyle. However, you can do a mixture of raw and dry/wet food. The thing to remember with raw is that it needs to be safe for raw feeding. So buying a chicken breast from the butchers has the intention of being cooked and serving that raw, even to a dog, is when you’re likely to get food poisoning. So raw foods need to be approved raw foods designed for a raw diet.

We got our pug at 2 years old and he had been fed on kibble. He stank! (Obviously pugs are generally pretty stinky little things). Switched him to raw and he no longer smells, it has made a huge difference.

DO IT!

You will never look back!

No farts, tiny poo's, healthy teeth, less smelly, improved behaviour, less greedy!

All of which we have seen with our dog!

We have a great local supplier, we use DAF complete. It's £1.40 a pack and a pack does our dog 3 meals!

ours is raw fed and loves it. The only issue is freezer space (ours is a rough collie so a fairly big dog).

I was really looking forwards to switching DDog to raw even though, as a vegetarian, I'm not great at handling meat products. I went for Paleo Ridge which comes highly recommended by other members of the family. Will DDog eat it? No. Despite several attempts he behaved in his usual melodramatic fashion (he's a lurcher) if invited to do something even slightly not to his taste. So we're back with the Lily's Kitchen augmented with a good, grain-free Canagan lookylike kibble. sighs

As a vet I would never feed my pet raw due to risk to both pet and humans of infection

@getthesprinkles serious question. Is that infection risk any different to handling other raw meat in the home? Before cooking for example?

I feed nutriment raw. My dog is 12 and in fantastic health. I don't leave it out. If he doesn't eat it I cling film an d out in fridge or bin it. He has half a tub a day do about £1 a day as he's small . He was underweight before but likes nutriment and finally put some weight on. Also it cleared up the itching he was suffering from.

In terms of infection, I treat the risk of sourcing, storing & preparing raw meat for my dog in a similar way to sourcing, storing and preparing raw meat for my family.
I think the risk of coming into contact with bacteria via the raw food route is significantly lower than the risk associated with picking up his poo, emptying our bins, using public toilets etc.
We can't obviously eliminate the risk, and it is greater than feeding dry biscuit, and I can totally understand why pet food manufacturers and vets are keen to get people to buy certain products, but I think there is also an element of scaremongering involved.

Is that infection risk any different to handling other raw meat in the home?

It's not just handling, it's the additional load of bacteria in the dog's body fluids etc.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1716752/

That's not me saying don't feed raw. That's just me passing on additional info.

Yes it makes sense that dogs who contract salmonella from eating contaminated raw food would continue to shed.
So that's where the sourcing and hygiene is important.

Thanks emeralds. That's really interesting. So high food hygiene / kitchen cleanliness standards are vital I would never have known how long after being exposed to salmonella a dog could still be shedding it.

Knowledge is a power and all. I now have the urge to deep clean my fridge, freezer, and all surfaces (even though I know I only did it last week and we wash every day)