published Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 at 1:42 am by
Dog Lover
Recently the commercial dog food industry has come under a lot of criticism in regard to the quality of food they offer. The year 2007 marked a time when a wide variety of dog food brands were discovered to contain at least three different poisonous ingredients which caused a huge pet food recall. During that recall, many families found out that their beloved pet had become seriously ill while others suffered with the death of their furry best friend.
During the latter part of 2011 and early 2012, more dog foods including so-called premium brands like Iams have had recalls after discovering excessive amounts of aflatoxin in the commercial food. Liver cancer is known to be a possibility after consumption of fungi like aflatoxin.
The situation has caused many pet owners to question the quality and control of commercial pet food makers. Could a raw meat diet for dogs be the answer, many pet owners are wondering.
Of course, the commercial pet food industry is completely against this. Billions of dollars are involved for the pet food makers, and reduced profits is the last thing they want. Some of these companies like Purina are posting warnings on their website about the “dangers” of a raw meat diet.
However, pet owners who have switched to feeding a diet closer to what their pet’s ancestors would have eaten are pointing to some major benefits. These benefits for their pets include:
- Improved coat and skin, sometimes with skin issues completely disappearing
- Cleaner and pearly white teeth
- Fewer allergic reactions
These are but a few of the benefits. Dog food makers seem to be on a mission to suggest that there is no real evidence to support the claims made by those who have switched their dogs diet. One of the risks, according to them is of bacterial infection and contamination of raw meat.
While it is true that the evidence is mostly anectodatal, those of us who are nervous about what is going into commercial pet foods have nothing else to go by. The commercial pet food companies are certainly not going to fund any studies to “prove” that their foods are better than the natural food that canines have been eating for a millenia.
Feeding your dog a raw meat diet is not that difficult. And when you think about it, the risks of contamination in raw are probably much lower than the risk of contamination in commercial pet food.
Another issue is the manner in which commercial foods are labelled, wanting us to believe that the primary ingredient in their food is meat. This is not true – it may be the first ingredient listed, but most of the time, the weight of total grains is far higher than the weight of the meat in kibble.
Meayt bones that are raw are an important part of a raw diet for dogs. Canines in the wild chew on and eat bone material; it contains vitamins and minerals that the actual meat does not have. We’ve been told many times that bones are a choking and splintering hazard – but this is only true when the bones are cooked. Bone composition changes when they are cooked; this is when they become more brittle and cause problems for pets eating them. Raw bones on the other hand are more easily
digested. Clean white teeth with no tartar is another perk of feeding raw bones.
Although some veterinarians will also give warnings about feeding raw (remember though, they are sponsored by the big pet food companies), it’s been admitted that they really don’t have that much nutritional training and those who feed raw seem to have less vet visits needed!
Click to learn more about meat and bones diet for dogs.
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