As long as your not worried about missing out essential nutrients, salmonella, E. coli and bone fragments piercing the esophogus, stomach or intestinal tact :mrgreen:

I feed Acana to my dogs. To keep them from loosing interest in the taste I mix a spoonful of Eagle Pack Holistic Select wet food into it.

They get everything they would eat in nature (plus some!) I do not see how they could possibly be missing essential nutrients :D. There are supplements available, I picked up some salmon oil to help with the coat, and I might try some alfalfa powder, but past that apparently they are getting everything they need. Dont be fooled about the kibble that adds all these viatmins and minerals into thier foods... they add it because the foods lack it to begin with! ;)

Not at all worried about salmonella & e coli, there have been more cases of dogs being sick from canned foods. Plus they have a highly acidic stomach (and super short digestive tract) that kills most bacteria.

And bone fragments? All the meats I give them are fully 100% ground, it looks like canned tuna. Raw bone does not splinter... its cooked bone that can be seriously bad for your dog. I would NEVER feed cooked bone (and no one should!).

I was worried about all these things too... until I did a lot of research and realized these were all myths. ;) Again, kibble is fine, but raw so far has been great to my doggies.

-Diana

Diana is right, those are myths. When I fed raw my dog (who is 85lbs) was given chunks of meat with the bones attached. In the case of chickens she got the bones with them too. Like Diana said, raw bones don't splinter, they are actually quite flexible. It is actually much better for dogs to get chunks of meat with the bone in than to get ground meats as the chewing helps to clean their teeth, and also stimulate saliva production which helps to digest the food, and clean their mouth (better breath). Ground meats also often contain quite a bit more fat than is ideal. I never fed ground meats because I wanted to be able to see what my dog what eating, as I believe that is half the point of raw feeding. As long as you feed proper meats (high quality, and not too fatty) with enough offal meats (organs) and fish your dog will be eating a more complete diet than even ultra grade kibble. You just need to be educated and aware of proper nutrition.

Having worked with dogs all my life, including helping vets, I have seen at least one of those myths happen many times. Lets just say there is not a hope I would ever feed my dog any meat products that wasn't cooked first.




I should also mention the salmonella and e.coli myths are not just the dogs problem but the owners too...you know one of those zoonotic thingys ;)

You only have issues if you don't follow the rules. People do dumb things (like poor unthawing practices, or not refrigerating meat properly thinking the dog doesn't need that, etc). ;) Your chances of getting e. coli or salmonella poisoning yourself isn't any greater than if the meat was for yourself. A dog may choke on a bone if he's a gobbler...gobblers are made from using kibble. Transitions are the only part that is at all risky, but common sense and a few preventatives goes a long way.

I started feeding home prepared food for my rotties since 1998, when my first ended up with cancer. I don't do BARF but I cook home prepared human grade meals for my pups. I do not vaccinate aside of rabies since I live out in the woods but will not do it yearly and will titer to see if it is needed or not.

Sadly five of my six (one is not even two year old yet) have died of various cancers. It is epidemic in this breed, and I hope Cyren will not be a part of this heart breaking strong of losses. My soul mate rottie Diva lived only seven years, never ate dog food or had a vaccine in her life. Most of my rotties get seven years no matter what the history of their lives are. I have rescued a couple along the way, and always will (anyone knowing of a rottie in need let me know).

My dogs get chicken, beef, liver, ground beef, veggies, and anything we are eating which means breakfast lunch and dinner on weekends. They thrive with their diet are not fat and are the picture of health until cancer comes knocking. I wish I knew why this is happening but dispite my best efforts it seems to find my dogs.

My dogs never need the vet unless it is something stupid or its for spay or neuter surgery. I find that if you spend the time and money on their diets, the payback is awesome. I have no issues with food allergies anymore, since they don't eat dogfood of any kind. They don't get grains and those seem to be an issues with yeast infections in their ears and skin allergies or itchie butts.

When I did the raw stint with chicken I NEVER fed the long bone like thighs or legs to my dogs. I had a good friend that raised rotties and she gave turkey legs and thighs to her crew. Her girl died due to a bone that pierced her intestines. I feed cooked chicken necks and backs and they never pose a problem since the bones are small and easily chewed up. Some dogs wolf down their food and will wolf down bones that are not really bite sized. I would not chance feeding long bones of poultry of any kind. My friend's heart break was enough for me not to take the chance.

Most nutrients in dogfood are lost due to the cooking process. I feel that dogfood is comparable to us eating Purina human chow every day. It may fill our nutritional needs, but I find a variety of foods keep them happily eating and if the eat something dead in the woods they don't ever get sick. I hear about dogs getting into the garbage and getting pancreatitis and almost dying from it. My dogs can eat anything and never get the runs or gassy ever.

Eeep! I would never feed cooked chicken bones! That's scary!

We have 2 purebred whippets. We got cabana at 8 wks, and toots @ 6 months or so. Cabana was on mountain dog food(which is ground up pre made chicken) when we first got her and toots was on kibble. After a couple days we ran out of MDF and started to just feed chicken legs from the grocery store because we could get a good deal on them. We switched toots over to raw when we got her and she loved it right away, and we noticed huge improvments in her coat, attitude, and her "waste".

They get raw eggs, shell and all, broccoli, carrots and apples, and brown rice once in awhile as well. Very seldom do they get beef or pork. We noticed it just gave them bad gas!!

We also were given one of those dog food salami looking things...It says premium dog food...da da da...After 3 or 4 feedings of that stuff we noticed our dogs couldnt stay away from the water bowl. Then i put two and two together and realized that they get little or no sodium in there raw diet, and now this so called premium soft dog food is just loaded with salt and they need to drink and drink and drink.

Also, and this could mean nothing as well, but i notice that our cat, who is a few lbs smaller than our dogs and east cheap no name kibble, will take a bigger "dump" than our dogs. Maybe its the food or maybe its not.

3 months ago we switched back to the premade raw, which IMO is not as good as raw from the grocery store. But for every one who thinks raw is so much more money I beg to differ. We did an order from mountain dog food and to have it shipped from van to our door in burns lake, we paid 1.68 per pound. We bought 300 lbs i believe. If we were to buy 500+ lbs then it would be under 1.50 per pound. So if there is a quality kibble that can be purchased for less than that i am all ears.

As much as we like the results of raw, at least on our dogs, we are expecting in june and are going to switch to kibble for sanitation sake!

Hope that made sense, its early!