How do you go about starting this.

Say I buy a dog. how do I know what meats, what bones, how much, etc to start feeding him?

how do I find a vet that supports this kind of diet?

It all seems so complicated.

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Do not abandon yourselves to despair.
We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.

Pope John Paul II

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I have a question.  

How do you go about starting this.  

Say I buy a dog. how do I know what meats, what bones, how much, etc to start feeding him?

how do I find a vet that supports this kind of diet?

It all seems so complicated.

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The best thing to do is join a board and ask other members, particularly breeders. There are certain things you cannot feed, such as raw pork and certain types of fish. But usually, you'll have no problem knowing what to avoid. Poultry, beef, deer, rabbit, squirrel, even ostrich I've seen fed before. And you can feed roughly the same amount that you'd feed in kibble. You would just need to convert that, since you can't really feed so many cups of whole chicken leg.

I don't know how easy it will be to find a vet that supports raw feeding due to the things they go through with companies like Purina and Science Diet, and the fact that they sponsor them. A lot of independent vets are easier to deal with in that aspect, rather than vets at places like Petsmart, or big clinics. Those are the ones usually getting the most from pet food companies.

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We started cooking meat to prevent desease. You want your dog to live long, feed it a mix of foods. Raw foods will toughen the system, but too much will harm it.  

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No, it will not.
Cooking the meat ruins the nutrients in it that your animals will get from it. Raw food will not harm an animal unless you are buying very low-grade, which you shouldn't be anyway. And all pre-made raw diets are made with only human-grade meats.

They will not harm your dog or cat.
Feeding cooked meat is doing nothing but giving them a treat.

And if by disease, you are trying to say something about salmonella, you are incorrect there as well. Dogs and cats both have bodies that easily break down salmonella bacteria so that it does them no harm.
If only eating raw meat killed your animal faster, there'd be no carnivores left in the wild beyond a certain age, and none of them would be healthy. Invalid argument is ridiculously invalid.

Post edited at 7:51 am on Mar. 26, 2009 by the raven

also for people who are worried about buying human, store bouht raw food you can buy raw food at pet stores (in most places around here anyways) if that makes them feel better.

My dog is on Nutram and he's healthy, and fit for his age. But probabaly could be better if fed on raw food. But he's my moms dog so i have no choice. Plus dry kibble is just easier to do for most people.

But i 100% agree with you. and i learned a lot so thank you :)

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Life's not fair, It's just fairer then death, That's all

but dumbing the food down out of laziness always bothers me. and that's what most people do unfortunately. and then, as you said in your example, their dogs die due to problems that could have been easily avoided.

There might be an oversimplification in this thread, though. 'Raw meat' doesn't necessarily mean a big raw steak per se. Dogs have adapted to eat what tribal humans provided them with, which would have been more along the lines of the offal of the animal (which is actually very nutrituous), chuck bones and grains/vegetables. I'm no nutritionist, but I'd speculate that organ meat supplemented with some grains and veggies (carrots, potatoes) would constitute good food for dogs (or hell, even humans).

I'm not necessarily claiming that kibblets are 'bad', I just don't buy all the hype about feeding a dog raw meat being of the devil.

Post edited at 8:14 pm on June 5, 2009 by mountain hare

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This is an excellent topic of discussion. I've often been a little skeptical of claims that canned/dry food is 'nutritionally balanaced' while food which dogs have been eating for thousands of years is detrimental to their health.

There might be an oversimplification in this thread, though. 'Raw meat' doesn't necessarily mean a big raw steak per se. Dogs have adapted to eat what tribal humans provided them with, which would have been more along the lines of the offal of the animal (which is actually very nutrituous), chuck bones and grains/vegetables. I'm no nutritionist, but I'd speculate that organ meat supplemented with some grains and veggies (carrots, potatoes) would constitute good food for dogs (or hell, even humans).

I'm not necessarily claiming that kibblets are 'bad', I just don't buy all the hype about feeding a dog raw meat being of the devil.

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definitely. the diet is useless without the proper meat and organs being fed. the heart and liver are two of the best to feed. bone marrow is another.
i didn't really go into detail on that in the op too much, because i provided such informative links for anyone who was interested. so i just didn't want to be redundant. i figure if a reader is serious about getting their pet into this diet, they'll be smart enough to read the links i posted. those are really good ones.

i dont see why so many people are against feeding a raw diet. they act as if it is unhealthy for the animal and for the owner. they fail to do real research and assume that the meat must be cooked to kill bacteria, and think that all bones (especially uncooked chicken bones, apparently) will splinter, when meaty bones and bones full of marrow are the best kind, and are amazingly good for health and dental care. it does wonders for dogs with periodontal disease, feeders have found.