The key to a healthy diet is variety. The best homemade diets include red meat, poultry, fish, liver, eggs, dairy, vegetables, and fruits, with grains and legumes. Blakkatz is home to naturally raised American Shorthairs and is your source for information on natural cat care including a raw meat diet, homeopathy and the dangers. The Benefits of Psyllium Husk Powder in a Homemade Feline Diet. The Benefits of Psyllium Husk Powder in a Homemade Feline Diet. Every few weeks someone will e- mail me and tell me about someone who . The individual ingredients operate together- the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Raw Dog Food Diet: Benefits and Risks. Raw dog food diets are controversial. But the popularity of the diets - - which emphasize raw meat, bones, fruits, and vegetables - - is rising. Racing greyhounds and sled dogs have long eaten raw food diets. Extending those feeding practices to the family pet is a more recent idea, proposed in 1. Australian veterinarian Ian Billinghurst. He called his feeding suggestions the BARF diet, an acronym that stands for Bones and Raw Food, or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. Billinghurst suggested that adult dogs would thrive on an evolutionary diet based on what canines ate before they became domesticated: Raw, meaty bones and vegetable scraps. Make your own tasty homemade dog food recipes. Learn how to make your own dog food and how much you should be feeding to your dog for optimal health and longevity.
Grain- based commercial pet foods, he contended, were harmful to a dog’s health. Many mainstream veterinarians disagree, as does the FDA. The risks of raw diets have been documented in several studies published in veterinary journals. Potential benefits of the raw dog food diet that supporters tout include: Shinier coats. Healthier skin. Cleaner teeth. Higher energy levels. Smaller stools. Potential risks include: Threats to human and dog health from bacteria in raw meat. An unbalanced diet that may damage the health of dogs if given for an extended period. Potential for whole bones to choke an animal, break teeth or cause an internal puncture. Since Billinghurst’s book,Give Your Dog a Bone, was published, several other types of raw dog food diets have emerged, including commercially processed raw food diets that are frozen or freeze- dried and combination diets that use blends of grains, vegetables, and vitamins that are mixed with raw meat purchased by the owner at the grocery store. Raw dog food recipes and meal suggestions are readily found online and in books. Interest from pet owners continues to grow, with the widespread recall of melamine- contaminated pet food in 2. Raw dog food diet: What it is. A raw dog food diet typically consists of: Muscle meat, often still on the bone. Bones, either whole or ground. Organ meats such as livers and kidneys. Raw eggs. Vegetables like broccoli, spinach, and celery. Apples or other fruit. Some dairy, such as yogurt. Continued“For most animals, it’s more beneficial than processed foods,” says Doug Knueven, DVM, of the Beaver Animal Clinic in Beaver, Pa. Knueven specializes in holistic medicine and also consults for Nature’s Variety, a Lincoln, Neb.- based manufacturer of frozen raw food diets as well as cooked dry and canned foods. Barbara Benjamin- Creel of Marietta started giving raw food to her three dogs after Scooter, a German Shepherd, was diagnosed with cancer. The diet change came too late to help Scooter, she says, but the other dogs are thriving after two years on raw dog food. The 1. 1- year- old dogs seem more energetic, and one with chronic digestive problems tolerates the raw diet better.“The change in the coat was pretty immediate,” Benjamin- Creel says. To cut costs, she stocks up on ground meat when it’s on sale. For a 3. 0- pound dog, a one- day supply of one variety of a frozen, commercially available raw chicken diet costs about $2. A super- premium, commercial dry dog food costs about $1. Raw Dog Food Diet: What the research shows. Lisa M. Freeman, DVM, Ph. D, headed an evaluation of raw dog food diets published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Association in 2. She cautions pet owners against them, saying that many dog owners are choosing raw diets based on online myths and scare tactics about commercial pet food. For pet owners who want to avoid commercial food, Freeman advises a cooked homemade diet designed by a nutritionist certified by the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. Freeman, a nutrition professor at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, says that many of the benefits attributed to a raw food diet for dogs, such as a shinier coat, instead are the result of the high fat composition of the typical raw diet. High- fat commercial foods that would produce the same effect are available, she notes, without the risk of an unbalanced diet. Supplements can also be used as an alternative to increasing fat in the diet. Continued. The evaluation looked at five raw diets, three homemade and two commercially available. All had nutritional deficiencies or excesses that could cause serious health problems when given long term, according to the report. Joseph Wakshlag, DVM, Ph. D, has seen those problems appear in some dogs as poor coats, bad skin, or weak bones. Too little fat means a bad coat; but too much fat and not enough protein can cause mild anemia, says Wakshlag, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. Wakshlag - - who accepts some research funding from Nestle Purina Pet. Care - - says homemade raw diets also may lack enough calcium and phosphorous, causing bone fractures and dental problems. Depending on the quality of the diet, the calcium or phosphorus may also be difficult to properly digest, even if present in adequate amounts. Studies of raw pet food also have shown bacterial contamination. The FDA issued suggestions in 2. A 2. 00. 6 study of 2. These bacteria can also be shed in the feces, leading to a potential source of human exposure and infection. The study also sampled four canned and dry dog foods. Feeding a raw meat diet is no different than cooking chicken for the family .. Raw- meat diets high in liver also may supply too much vitamin A, which can lead to vitamin A toxicity if fed for an extended period. Even veterinarians like Knueven who support raw dog food diets say that they’re not appropriate for all dogs. Because the diets are typically high in protein, they aren’t appropriate for dogs with late- stage kidney or severe liver failure. He recommends that dogs with pancreatitis or other digestive issues start with a cooked, homemade diet and clear up problems before switching to raw. Dogs with cancer, on chemotherapy, or dogs with other immunosuppressive diseases also should not eat raw food. And puppies aren’t good candidates, either.“The only place I’ve seen a problem with this diet is puppies,” Knueven says. Give Your Dog a Bone, self- published, 1. Freeman, L. Journal of the American Veterinary Association, March 1, 2. Strohmeyer, R. Journal of the American Veterinary Association, Feb. U. S. Food and Drug Administration, Manufacture and Labeling of Raw Meat Foods for Companion and Captive Noncompanion Carnivores and Omnivores. Doug Knueven, DVM, holistic practitioner, Beaver Animal Clinic, Beaver, Pa. Barbara Benjamin- Creel, pet owner, Marietta, Ga. Lisa M. Freeman, DVM, Ph. D, nutrition professor, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine,Tufts University. Joseph Wakshlag, DVM, Ph. D, assistant professor of clinical nutrition, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. Disclosure: Research funding from Nestle Purina Pet.
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