Raw Food Diets May Be Dangerous for Pets

My rescued senior are on prescription diets appropriate for the health conditions they arrived with, and they have made remarkable turnarounds. My younger dachshund eats a top-quality commercial food, and is in excellent physical condition. I have always worked closely with my veterinarian regarding appropriate foods, treats, and exercise for my dogs. I would never feed them raw food - yes, it's true that their wild canine ancestors ate raw meat, but our dogs are domesticated and no longer need to hunt for their meals. They rely on their owners for food, shelter, medical care, and love. High-quality commercial diets, developed over years of careful reseach and testing, are the best choice for keeping them healthy.

I am not one to buy into dietary fads,whether it be for myself or my pets.In fact, I used to poke fun at the raw food movement. Then I adopted a dog with severe GI problems. I tried feeding him just about every healthy commercial food on the market--and I tried cooking his food at home.Still, he had frequent episodes of digestive discomfort--he even had to be hospitalized once. Then I bought some commercial raw food. Since then, his GI health has improved significantly. I don't want to give too much information--but commercial raw food are the only thing he can eat and not have bloody stools. I'm not a raw food fanatic, and don't think it's for everyone--but if it keeps my beloved dog healthy, then that's what I will give him!

I currently have 5 rescued dogs of varying ages and 9 rescued cats. All are on raw diet including bones and organ meat. Have never had any health problems that could be related to their diet. Several of my cats are 15 and 16 and you would think they were much younger. My Lab mix is 12 and keeps up with 2 Cairn mix puppies. One word of caution, always feed human grade meat from a source that you would chose for your human family.

It's funny that all the food and treats recalled almost one right after another these last few months (new one today with Yoghund) and years are ALL processed wet, dry and "treats" - NO RAW - and this ploy about the dangers of raw is only monetarily triggered by the donors to the AVMA - Science Diet, IAMS, Merial (vaccines), et al. If you've read any of the issues and transcripts, it's pretty clear once again to just follow the money. I handle the raw food for the dogs like I do my own, and they also get green tripe. The biggest problems come from unsanitary eating conditions like not washing the food and water bowls, which is pretty much common sense since you wash your own dishes, right? The next best option is home prepared food with human grade ingredients with proper supplements and probiotics like you do for raw feeding. Do what you can for your pets and feel good about it, price is a big issue today, but raw is cheaper in the long run with fewer illnesses and vet bills. Regardless, just do some basic research like on Dog Food Advisor, and even if you stick with processed, make sure it's a good one and add digestive enzymes and probiotics. Check in with a holistic vet and get on the right path for your animals. One good site is Mercola Healthy Pets and Dr. Karen Becker - good cookbook there also, and checking out Dr. Marty (Martin Goldstein) and his website, book, and veterinary practice website to learn about food and vaccines.

Have been feeding my dogs raw meat with vegetables and supplements for 25 years. Its the best food for dogs hands down not processed cooked foods.

I feed my canine girl Nature's Variety Instinct Raw frozen patties. With some Taste of the Wild kibble mixed In. She loves it. It's the only food she's ever had that she always finishes, every meal. For 6 months now and she is still crazy about it.

My 12 year old cat, Nico was recently diagnosed with I.B.S. She had began improperly eliminating around the litter box, not in it. She has very loose stool with a foul odor. She was losing weight and hair, stopped grooming herself, and began to look sickly and unkept. I thought for sure her days were numbered, which broke my heart. The Vet diagnosed her with I.B.S. and so began the search for food. I bought all of the different grain free, sensitive stomach type foods I could find and nothing helped her. That was when I decided to try a commercially available, frozen raw food. Within the week of her eating that food her improper elimination stopped, her stool wasn't loose and foul smelling, her coat started to glow, she stopped losing hair and she started gaining weight. She also always had a "crumb chin" (her chin always felt like there were crumb in/on it), which we have always been told was kitty acne. That too is now gone. Regardless of what AVMA says a raw diet saved my cats life. It may not be for everyone, but it certainly saved my Nico Kitty.

8 love the contradictions from "experts" about dogs. Some days they are more like wolves, and some days, like according to this article they are not. 2hen it is convenient, like selling a crate to a hesitant dog owner, dogs are almost exactly like wolves and love to be in dens just like wolves. When a dog has a hard time being trained, the dog is just like a wolf and needs to be shown who the alpha wolf is in the hierarchy. When it comes to feeding your pet, a dog is nothing at all like a wolf and MUST eat grains and cooked food and kibbles and must NEVER eat raw meat. Which is it? Or are they only what the experts want them to be when it is convenient?

Vets can, at times, be helpful in pointing owners in the right direction regarding raw/homemade feeding. When I decided to make the switch, my vet was reluctant but suggested I look into Dr. Pitcairn's book "Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats", which I cannot even begin to explain how helpful the book was for me. Of course, many conventional vets would most likely try to talk you OUT of feeding raw/homecooked, as they are instructed in vet school to "feed a quality kibble." They even sell kibble (science diet) for goodness sakes. A great source of help would more likely be a holistic vet, and of course there's plenty of info online.

Shame on you, ASPCA, getting on board with the AVMA-cited "studies" backed by the same pet food giants who are churning out kibble packed with diseased, rotten animal parts, moldy grains, and other disgusting ingredients never betrayed by the wholesome, natural "human-grade" image projected by their marketing. Read up on FDA compliance policies and bring some factual information to your supporters on this.

I have bought or made my own raw pet food following Pat McKays recipes or approximately 20 years. People always say how beautiful and healthy my animals are. There are certain rules that you must follow but it is so worth it. I also use her supplements for my animals. www.animalhomeopathy.net All of her products are human grade. I highly recommend.

My husband and I have three wonderful mature kitties, two beautiful black gentlemen are fifteen, our lovely little lady is ten. One of our fellows has been battling IBD for years and was placed on predisone, side effects and all, including diabetes. We are still on the fence about adding raw to his diet, but we're also getting desperate since he never seems completely under control on his current super premium, no grain, canned food only diet and will soon be sixteen making us even more worried about so much steroid. We have read other accounts of IBD and IBS responding well to raw diets and have researched them thoroughly but are still hesitant. Maybe it is time for that next step, however, since as time goes on, it's getting even more critical to get his disease under control.

I wonder how many people are aware that, by law in America, pet food manufacturers are allowed to change the ingredients in the can or the package and have 6 months to change the label to match!? If you are interested in having a really healthy pet then I would avoid all commercial foods and read more at PETA's web site on what goes into them, in a word, they are made out of WASTE that is not fit for human consumption.

I am a huge proponent of raw food and have done tons of research regarding this. I don't have my 2 Chihuahuas on a BARF diet, but feed them dehydrated raw, while supplementing my oldest Chi's food with either a Primal nugget or Bravo patty (my youngest had liver issues in the past, so I try to keep her protein minimal). They have been on this kind of diet for over 3 years now and they have never been healthier. Most vets know nothing regarding nutrition, what they do know is what the sales reps that come into their practice tell them about their garbage food. Vets only push these foods because they get a cut of the sales, one way to boost their income, just like they push the vaccines (vaccines cost little to produce, vets jack up the prices). I became disenchanted with my regular vet when they looked at me like I was crazy when I used to refuse many of the unnecessary vaccines, and whenever I asked them questions about a particular food or nutrition, they never had answers for me. That's why today we see a holistic vet. I have a friend who recently adopted 2 kitties, when I asked her what she was feeding them, I nearly fell over when she told me it was Hills Science Diet, on the recommendation of her vet!!! I tried vainly for several months to get her to switch to a better food, threw all kinds of facts at her, and it took (hopefully) a recent article stating that Hills was going to start adding polyethylene to their food to extend the shelf life. I am hoping that scared her enough to finally listen to me and not her uninformed vet. Kibble is baked at high temperatures to obtain that dry, hard stage, and therefore, because it is baked at high temperatures, most of the nutrients are baked right out of it. With raw, or dehydrated diets, the food contains all of the nutritional value. Like it has been already mentioned, there has been numerous recalls of kibble because of salmonella contamination, yet has anyone ever heard of a prepared raw food being recalled because of this? The big pet food manufacturers are behind the AVMA and that is why that poppycock report was published.

All these statements about "oh my pets are on raw diets and they are so much healthier" are ridiculous...it doesnt prove anything. If you go from feeding crap food to raw youre probably going to see an improvement - and when I say crap I'm not just talking about alpo and ol roy types, even Science Diet and Iams are crap. There are some very good commercially processed pet foods out there, do your research.

Human food is also constantly recalled for contamination, often fresh produce is the culprit not just processed food, so does that mean we should all quit eating anything from the grocery store? We can't all hunt and forage our own food every day. I mean the argument that because sometimes processed pet foods are recalled we should not feed processed pet foods is ridiculous, it happens in human food too and it happens in RAW food. You dont here about it because there's not some big kibble company to blame who's food went out to thousands of households, it's one person here and there, but I promise you it happens. At least one person here already pointed out that a dog they rescued that was on a raw diet had giardia when she got it. It happens. If there is an argument for raw food it's not because it's safer because processed pet food is sometimes recalled. Do any of you possess an ounce of logic?

Please see http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/a-review-of-avma-raw-pet-food-policy.html As far as I can tell, there's no hard evidence that raw food is more dangerous than prepared food: there's just a bunch of "studies" without valid control groups, instituted to obtained pre-ordained results. There are recalls of prepared food because of salmonella and other pathogens, the very reason AVMA supposedly objects to raw food, at least once a month; check out the FDA's website sometime. Nonetheless, on the basis of pseudo-research, which is nothing but big dog food manufacturer marketing in cheap disguise, AVMA has instead put every single US veterinarian in a position of risking having her license pulled if she does not to push the "no raw" party line, no matter what her conscience and research tell her is better for a particular patient, when asked. Raw food certainly hasn't caused the loss of life melamine has done, but small companies don't have the money of large companies. Personally, I feed by-product-free, cooked, pre-prepared, name brand food and am not a raw food groupie, so I have no personal stake in raw food per se. Nonetheless, I find it troubling that what should be an independent body whose sole concern is pet health because its decisions have a direct bearing on veterinary policy throughout our country, is instead a blatant tool of big pet food manufacturers. If AVMA truly gave a rat's heinie about pet food safety, it would come out with a "recommendation" against by-products, rendered products, sugar, and food ingredients that come from diseased animals, rather than against a type of feeding that almost no one uses unles they've done a whole lot of research and care a whole lot about their animals; it's more expensive and time-consuming that opening a bag of whatever's cheapest at the local grocery. It's no coincidence AVMA's first food "recommendation" - and is it really just a "recommendation" when going against it can be reason to pull people's licenses, should a patient complain? - in years happens to be about a trend that threatened to cut into the profits of pet food giants? What about recommending against the practices of those pet food giants which have, over and over in the very recent past, caused thousands of sick and hundreds of dead animals?

People get so heated about raw vs. cooked diets that it sometimes makes me angry just reading what people write! Advocates of raw diets are so adamant about their viewpoints without providing much empirical, scientific evidence but instead basing their claims on personal experiences. I haven't yet made up my mind yet about whether raw is better for dogs, but I'm leaning more towards cooked just to err on the side of caution against parasites, bacteria, etc. I've done a lot of research on this issue, I have discussed dog evolution with professors, and I have a BA in Biological Anthropology and Evolutionary Psychology. Some points I'd like to make and questions that I'd like to find out the answers to, regarding raw and cooked: Are the improvements raw-advocates see in their dogs from feeding raw, or from feeding fresh human-grade meat? Wolves have much shorter lifespans. Dogs can live 15+ years, even without veterinary care and modern medicine to treat illnesses. BUT obesity, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic diseases is a recent phenomenon. I attribute this to lack of exercise and inappropriate diets (sugar, grains, artificial preservatives, etc.) Dogs are no longer wolves. Humans have spent tens of thousands of years selectively breeding dogs. Dogs are humans' oldest domesticates, before any crops or any other animal. So how much has the dog changed since its evolution from the wolf? One crucial point: dogs have lost their ability to hunt; they are mostly scavengers. How has that effected their bodies, and what is their (now) ideal food source? The dog's ideal diet may indeed be what it has evolved to eat, which may be what humans have fed it for thousands of years, instead of what the wolf ate. But what did people feed dogs over the course of their evolution? This may be breed-specific. Arctic dogs were fed raw meat, but probably not so much lap dogs. Humans have shorter digestive tracts than other omnivores. This is because we eat cooked foods, which are easier to digest. So dogs' short digestive tracts may be a combination of their history as carnivores AND their history of benefitting off of the digestibility of cooked foods (fresh, not kibble). The digestive tracts of smaller dogs make up a larger proportion of their bodies than larger dogs. Years of selective breeding may have messed up their ability to safely process raw meats. Humans greatly benefitted from cooked foods. Hominids once ate raw foods too. Cooking food increased the bioavailability of nutrients and aided in the development of larger brains in humans. Maybe animals in the wild would benefit from cooked foods too, but they haven't been able to man fire yet! (It's possible that cooked foods also allowed dogs to have increased cranial capacity and become more intelligent too). It's true that cooking destroys some nutrients. But it also makes others more bioavailable, producing certain enzymes and allowing nutrients to be more easily absorbed. I believe fruits and veggies should be cooked for dogs to allow for easier digestion and proper absorption of nutrients. There are numerous studies showing that dogs who eat raw meat shed Salmonella and E. Coli in their stools but don't show clinical symptoms. I'm sure dogs can handle raw meat and its bacteria. I'm not so sure about parasites, which have evolved to be able to survive stomach acid and attach themselves to the lining of the intestines. I do NOT believe dogs should be fed any grains, especially not wheat, corn, or soy. Humans do not even do well on these cereals, which have spent hundreds of thousands of years evolving defense mechanisms to prevent mammals from ingesting them. Wheat makes mammals' digestive tracts more permeable, allowing larger food particles to pass through and be recognized by the body as foreign antigens. Thus, the large incidences of food allergies in dogs to things they should not otherwise be allergic to (beef, chicken, lamb, etc.). And now for the personal anecdotes lol. I have two dogs: a chi-jack russell mix and a chi-doxie-terrier mix. My dogs LOVE cooked meats. They don't seem to like raw meat for some reason. Is this because they are less "primitive" than other dog breeds (Chows and Shibas for instance)? I NEVER feed them any grains, and I feed them high animal-protein diets. They have full, soft, lustrous coats (for wiry hair!) and no bad breath whatsoever. Their vets always compliment their white, plaque-free teeth. (Btw, vets know NOTHING about nutrition! I've seen two vets and they feed their dogs Science Diet and Purina!) Little dogs have a lot of problems from selective breeding, such as dental problems and environmental allergies. They are very far removed from their wolf ancestors. I take my dogs hiking a lot, and they drink from the streams when they are thirsty. I discovered this is a bad idea. One of my dogs contracted giardia and at least two other parasites, I'm assuming from scavenging (they tend to pick up meat, bones, other food on walks and parks) and drinking contaminated water, as they don't eat poop. So dogs can easily pick up parasites! Another reason I am very careful with raw diets, although I do feed seared meat and some raw meat. (Raw chicken bones, at least the leg bones, DO SPLINTER!) Pet parents, please do your own research before making assumptions and believing unfounded facts and testimonials not based on empirical research and primary scientific studies (NOT the reporting/synopsis of the studies on websites, especially not dog food company or government sites).