Raw Diet For Dogs

These benefits include:

1. no doggy odour
2. naturally cleans teeth - no need for toothbrushes, de-scaling jobs, or gum disease
3. the time it takes for a dog to chew a raw meaty bones give their stomach adequate time to get the acids moving
4. much less stools produced - and they are firm, and turn chalky after a couple of days
5. decreased or non-existant vet bills (your dogs are healthier!)
6. less cost for dog food - commercial dog foods are ludicriously expensive
7. mirrors what a dog would be getting in the wild - and certainly even the modern day dog has a digestive tract exactly the same as a wolf
8. puppies develop at a more appropriate rate - and quick growth spurts are avoided. A GOOD breeder will want to stop fast growth in any pup.
9. the ripping and chewing involved in eating raw meaty bones develops the jaw, neck, and shoulder muscles of the dog.

• dogs who were previously un-energetic, and sluggish become completely new dogs once the raw diet feeding begins
  
• allergies their dogs previously had on commercial foods, disappear once they start with the raw diet
  
• arthritis has significantly reduced or disappeared in some dogs switched to raw
  
• better weight control
  
• no more doggy odour!
  
• their dogs are living longer on a raw diet than what their other dogs previously had survived on commercial dog foods
  
• that their bitches managed their pregnancies better
  
• better weight and survival figures in puppies
  

On the other hand, cooked chicken bones can be a problem, and I recommend that you DON'T feed COOKED chicken bones.

Some people are worried about their dog choking on bones. While such incidents are very rare (far more incidents occur with dogs choking on kibble), I encourage the feeding of bigger portions of meaty bones, or if available, whole carcasses, such as whole chickens or rabbits.

So could a raw chicken bone kill a dog? Well I guess that anything is possible. Certainly scientifically you can't prove a negative argument. However what we do know is that dogs have died from inhaling kibble the wrong way and choking and suffocating to death.

Feeding your dog is about management of risk. No matter which path you decide to take there is always risk. There is always someone who will criticise your decision. However you, and only you can decide what is best for your dogs. Weigh up all the benefits and risks. Do your own analysis. Do your research. Do what will have the greatest overall benefit for your dog.

As a rough guide, my adult male boxer (neutered) will eat a chicken quarter a day as the base of his meal, and then some other bits and pieces. The same goes for my Portuguese Water Dogs. My borzoi requires about twice as much.

A toy poodle will have three chicken necks a day (or more if he's been a bit active) as the base for his meal.

A cats will eat about the same amount as the toy poodle, but they do prefer fish over all other food!

Look at your dogs and cats regularly - if they are looking a bit porky, then remove all carbs in their diet. If they look a bit thin, then, an extra chicken quarter in the diet for a few days may be the solution.

It's not hard to do, and when you get into a routine, it's darn easy. Trust me!

You need to be careful with all dogs regardless of what they eat during their meal times. I've heard of dogs choking and dying on kibble, and dogs choking on raw meaty bones. - Just like I have heard of humans who have choked and died on a small piece of sausage or cheese.

You should supervise all meal times.

If a dog is scarfing down their food, I feed them by hand, in an isolated environment, until they learn how to chew. Chewing is critical for a dog. And literally some dogs need to figure it out as adults how to do it. Sometimes I will hold one end of the chicken quarter and not let them swallow it until they have chewed it a bit. Puppies that I have brought up feeding raw meaty bones from an early age never seem to have these sort of issues. But you never can tell.

Some dogs will try and inhale even large meaty bones, so you really need to work with these guys carefully. They should eventually work it out. As stated early, feed really large portions, that forces the dogs to chew.

There is an increasing understanding that best nutrition is achieved when feeding the whole carcass, rather than just bits of it. So to help a "scarfer" perhaps a whole carcass might slow them down. Be also careful of the greedy guts who thinks s/he will be starving unless food is consumed in great quantities immediately. Most dogs will learn eventually, but others, well, it may take a long time.

So in summary, monitor meal times, and be sure to watch out for the greedy guts - and manage them carefully.