Dog food

[Nana]

I notice that a few Grans feed their pooches fresh meat. When we got our first puppy our vet said to never give dogs bones...especially chicken bones as they splinter easily. Also any meat should be cooked & not eaten raw.

Libra & Daisy what advice did you follow?
(off to bed now so will check back tomoro').

[Daisy]

Nana - it's one of the hot topics in the veterinary profession. At vet school they get very little training in animal nutrition - and it's mostly delivered by manufacturers of processed dog food - tinned stuff and kibble, so it tends to be biased in favour of dry processed food.

I've done a lot of reading round the subject and as far as I can tell there are no health risks to feeding a dog on raw meat provided it's been frozen first. If you're squeamish skip the next bit! Most raw meat and fish contain parasites and these are killed in the cooking process (that's why it's ok for us humans) but nutritionally raw meat is better for dogs so freezing it first kills the parasites, making it safe to eat.


As far as bones are concerned, dogs are built to eat the prey they'd catch in the wild. They'd eat the whole animal/bird/whatever. That would give them a balanced diet of roughly 80% meat, 10% bone and 10% offal/other organs. They have much shorter digestive tracts than us and much higher levels of acid in their stomachs, so the food passes through relatively quickly and the acidity sees off nasties like salmonella, ecoli, c.difficile etc. This is why they can eat putrid prey they scavenge and not be ill.

The problem with bones can arise if they have too much - as you can imagine it creates a log jam in their digestive tracts which can lead to compaction which has to be dealt with on the operating table.

It's not a good idea either to give them weight bearing bones, like chicken legs, because these are harder and more likely to damage teeth. Cooking bones is a complete no-no because it makes them brittle, liable to splintering and so a danger to their tummies. Dogs' jaw are very powerful and they can easily crunch up other types of bone - Eva loves duck wings, among others.

All animals are liable to worm parasites of various sorts and they can be dealt with by giving chemical worming products, but I don't want to treat my dog chemically for something they may not actually have, so we have a procedure called a 'worm count' done every so often. If it came back positive then I'd treat accordingly.

Interestingly, dogs don't need vegetables to be healthy, although a lot of dogs like them and a lot of owners feel they 'should' give them their greens. They don't need grain at all - in fact you hear of dogs that can't even digest grain-fed meat.

[Nana]

Thank you for the information Daisy. A lot to think about. 👍

[Daisy]

Nana - are you thinking about switching your pooch to raw?

[Oma]

Storm from a pup has had a lot of stomach problems he was unable to digest a lot of pet food , it would come straight through very messily ,
Once DD put him on raw food he improved and within a week he was so much better ,
Now hes not keen on any cooked food like sausages etc , and turns his nose up at dry food .
His coat is wonderful and even the vet said he's a changed dog .

Daisy Storm likes carrots but wont suffer greens , he does like a piece of cheese mind and naughty Nana obliges

[Enfys]

Our DDs springer was changed to raw after his first year and loves it. His coat and teeth are in very good condition and he loves his chicken wings too. The vet said he could tell he was raw fed because of his coats and teeth. Also, his pooh is much better, sorry if too much information but useful to know 🙂

[Oma]

I know what you mean Enfys , the poo is better

[Daisy]

I'd avoided mentioning pooh, but yes it is much better and it's an immediate indication when you're getting the raw feed right for your dog (they're all a bit different) or if they've had too much or too little bone or offal etc.

I started raw feeding Rusty and Clyde (our Yorkies) to stop Rusty getting colitis - it worked very well! When I switched Eva to raw (she was on kibble when we got her) her tummy was bald. Now she's got a nice hairy tummy and her coat is really shiny, and her teeth are cleaner.

Oma - I think a lot of dogs like carrots even if they won't touch other veggies. Perhaps it's the crunch they like. Eva loves cheese and has a small piece at lunch-time. It's the only titbit she gets though!

[Enfys]

Trust me to lower the tone 😁

Dexter loves a raw carrot, it’s his treat when he’s been a good boy 🥕

[Libra Gran]

Shiloh loves his raw food and I have a great supplier,sadly I do not get the lovely lamb bones the butcher let me have when I was working,their like hen's teeth at my butchers. Tilly is still on dry food as she has a very,sensitive tummy and I am reluctant to try her yet. I will try the switch when she is a bit older,did try her but it had an averse effect.

[Daisy]

Enfys, no, you're not lowering the tone, but I'd already talked about parasites and I was imagining Nana or anyone else reading it while they were eating their cornflakes!

LG - what a pity Tilly had a bad reaction. With Rusty and Clyde it was just a straight swap - no problem, but with Eva being allergic to chicken I only gave her single proteins to start with in case she had other allergies we didn't know about. The first week I only gave her lamb tripe, on the advice of raw feeding experts, because that's very gentle on their tummies. The next week I gradually introduced lamb chunks, rather than chicken, then the following week beef, and so on. It worked fine. I found a supplier that did single proteins and they are brilliant. There are a couple of things she doesn't like much but other than that she eats a really good variety.

[Enfys]

We also found that Dexter is not interested in any other food besides his own, whereas before he would eat anything. I think he is so satisfied that he’s just not bothered. We can leave anything on a plate within his reach and he never goes near it.

[Daisy]

Eva's the same, Enfys. They digest virtually everything raw (hence the small, improved pooh!)

[Nana]

Daisy it would take more than parasites & dog poo to put me off my breckie. It's really interesting hearing what you all do. Is it an expensive way to feed your pooches though?

[Daisy]

Nana - glad the cornflakes are going down ok!

I have to admit I haven't costed it very carefully, mainly because I'm so convinced it's the best thing for Eva. There are lots of different raw food options out there. Some of it is very cheap, and some less so. As with most things you get what you pay for. I use a supplier who only sources their products from local organic/naturally fed sources. It's all fit for human consumption (as pet food has to be by law), apart from green tripe, and sometimes when I'm portioning it up I think it looks better than what we're having that day!! But the kibble I was buying was expensive (relative to something like Bakers) and I don't think there's much difference. You're also feeding less by weight because it's all digestible - you feed 2-3% of the dog's body weight per day (that's for an adult dog - it's different for puppies). So Eva weighs about 24 kg and we give her 440 grams of meat a day.