Do you feed raw food?

The only time that the bacteria in raw food will cause a problem for a dog is if the dog has a poor immune system--although, if a piece of meat is spoiled beyond the point of safe consumption, I'd say that it would cause a problem, too. Dogs are physically capable of handling any number of bacteria--their digestive systems, starting with their saliva and running down to their stomach acid--are all equipped to digest food that is too bacteria-laden for human consumption.

I imagine that your dog would vomit the meat because he would bolt down (presumably) large quantities at one time. When introducing raw meat to a dog's diet, it should be done like introducing any other new food, in small quantities, and by encouraging the dog to eat it at a normal pace. I'm not sure why people consider kibble to be a more "natural" diet for dogs, since commercially available kibble was not developed until WWII. Previous to that, dog food was "wet" and sold in tins--and even at the time, many farm dogs were still fed scraps and were expected to subsist on whatever they could catch or scavenge.

 

I don't feed my dogs raw meat. I don't see anything wrong with it I am just not comfortable doing it because of all the processing even raw meat goes through. There is also the fact of all the growth hormones animals could be ingesting. So, I just don't think it would be as healthy as you would think. Which I know what you're thinking! If I wouldn't feed my dogs the meat why would feed it to my family? I know, and I wouldn't except my husband and son are a meat and potatoes type person and I try to buy organic when I can but you can't always find it here.

 

First of all, hello everybody.

I'm new in this forum but I hope I won't stick out like a sore thumb here when I say I feed all my toy dog raw food. In the past I was also giving dog kibbles to them but in the back of my mind I know there's a better alternative to this. So I did some research and found out that raw food are actually healthier for my toy dogs. But you should be careful to where you get your source. I myself only feed human grade raw foods to my dogs. As long as you know where you get your source, your dogs will be fine.

 

Well, I've fed venison to my dogs and you can't get that in a store around here. However, I would say that even though it's not been professionally graded, it's fit for human consumption because it's clean and has been processed within a day of the deer being killed. As Friday said, knowing the source is very helpful.

 

Come to think of it, all the street mongrels are living on all kinds of "rubbish" yet they survived. I think sometimes we over-pamper our dogs. Not saying that we should give them rubbish but surely a bit of raw food or left-overs wouldn't hurt them.

 

That's exactly the point I am trying to stress here, you just have to be sure that the raw meat you are going to feed your dogs are safe. You knowing the source of the raw food is really very helpful and in my opinion gives you peace of mind. Our dogs can actually tolerate moderately spoiled meat better than we thought they are capable, this is because dogs have a different digestive and intestinal system than humans. They are capable of withstanding spoiled food far better than humans.

 

Yes, and let's not forget that spoiled food actually spends less time inside of dogs than it does in us, due to their shorter digestive tracts. I'm not saying that we should feed our dogs anything spoiled, but giving your dog that little bit of hamburger or stew meat that you planned to make for dinner one night and somehow got pushed to the back of the fridge is okay, even if it is a little dark at the edges or smells slightly off. Americans in particular seem to baby their dogs a bit too much, insisting that "only the best" is appropriate for their dogs while they and their children eat frozen food and fast food. (And yeah, I'm an American . . .)

 

It's quite a conflicting set of circumstances, isn't it? On the one hand, people pamper their dogs and treat the dogs better than their own children. At the same time, people also abandon dogs and put dogs to sleep.

 

Sometimes, yes, but only when I know the source of the meat and how long since it was killed. As in, if I get the meat from a grocery store, I usually freeze and/or cook it instead of feeding it to him fresh. When I got a pig butchered, though, I knew it had just been killed the day before and felt a bit better about letting him indulge on some of it raw.

Here's how I make mine instead: http://www.quirkycookery.com/2011/11/how-to-make-your-own-dog-food.html I do feed raw veggies and whatnot, of course, but that's a little different.

 

Because of all the diseases that can be in raw food, I would not suggest feeding your dog raw food. Yes, they do love raw food, but if it's better their health, maybe just give them a tiny bit for a treat, but not very often and not a lot either.

 

Yes, I certainly do. I feed them raw carrots and raw beef bones. Feeding small bones to them boiled can possibly cause throat splintering. However, when it comes to eating, my dogs aren't that picky. One of them actually devoured a live chicken which had gotten inside our fence. And it was quite funny because he still had some feathers on his mouth when I caught him.

 

I know I dog I used to have would always go after live rabbits, for chasing and killing. We never let him eat it though.

 

If we feed our dogs anything raw than it's stuff that we raise ourselves and we know is healthy. We raise rabbits and our about to start raising chickens and we will feed them raw. The vet said is was okay as long as it was cleaned properly. We make sure to take out anything that is unhealthy for anyone to eat. If I buy it from the store I give it to them cooked.

 

What did you do with it then? Did you just let it kill it and then take the dog away from the situation then? Or did you take the rabbit or whatever away from it and dispose of it otherwise? If it was wild, why not let him eat it then?

 

What kind of diseases are you referring to? Dogs' stomach acid/enzymes usually take care of things that would harm or kill a human being. Raw food is absolutely fine for dogs on even a daily basis, as long as all of their nutritional needs are being met.