Expert: Jana Connell RVT, CVT - 11/19/2010

Question
Hi Jana,

Are there any health risks to dogs to feeding them a raw food diet?  For example, raw chicken with bones, ground beef, etc.   We have a 5 year old Siberian Husky cross and we are currently feeding him dry dog food and we want to switch to raw foods to avoid fillers and unnatural additives.

Thanks for your assistance.

Wendy

Answer
Raw food diets are for wolves and coyotes, not domestic dogs. For you to feed a dog a raw diet that will be balanced and not hurt them you will have to start hunting and feeding him entire carcasses of rabbits, deer, etc.

Dogs are not wolves or coyotes. These animals survive on raw foods because the eat the whole animal- bones go down with fur and flesh and they eat the stomachs for carbohydrates since their prey are usually vegetable eaters. Many tests have been done with dogs vs. wolves to see if dogs could eat the same way and the result was always the same- no.

Dogs have lived with mankind for who knows how many years. Just as there are many breeds now, thanks to the manipulation of man, their wild traits have been bred out of them as well as their ability to eat like their wild cousins. Feed a dog raw foods and bones and you will have a very sick dog on your hands with a possible pierced intestinal wall to boot.

Dogs and bones do not mix. I don't care if they are raw or cooked, bones are dangerous to dogs. The only possible exception to this would be a big knuckle bone for them to chew on.

It is commendable that you want what is best for your dog. There are many premium dog foods on the market that don't have fillers or unnatural additives. You would want a food that has a good protein to carb ratio and one that has optimal nutrition for the amount fed.

Ingredients are important, so watch out for ingredient splitting and false claims. Get a food from a company that has veterinary research behind it and has done years of feeding trials. Don't buy a food that is "formulated to meet AAFCO standards" because those foods have not been trial fed at all. They really do not know if they can maintain a dog at different life-stages. Make sure you get a food that is of the proper life-stage as well. Foods that claim to "maintain all stages of a dog's life" are by law formulated to meet the nutrient needs of a puppy- which has way too much protein and fats for an adult or senior dog.

There are a lot of foods out there Wendy and they can be very convincing in their marketing campaigns. Go to the web sites and read the ingredient lists and look for a dry weight analysis on the food.
Only a dry weight analysis will tell you the TRUE amounts of nutrients in a given food.

I have been feeding and recommending Science Diet for over 30 years with incredible results in the health of my own pets and our clients pets as well. Less illnesses, less cancers, longer, healthier lives is what we are seeing with this food.

Science Diet makes a brand called Nature's Best which is made the way you are looking for a food to be. No artificial ingredients, no pesticides, or fillers, no additives. The colors they use in the food are all natural beet colors or vegetable colors. It is a very popular brand as a result. Hill's guarantees the food has no pesticides from the fields to the bag in the case of this food. They have total control over it. Hills always makes their food from food grown right here in the USA, never overseas.

So you might want to give it a try. It has the same 50 + years of veterinary research behind it, along with the optimal nutrition your dog needs without excesses of vitamins or minerals.

http://www.hillspet.com/products/sd-canine-natures-best-chicken-and-brown-rice-d...

Science Diet®
Nature's Best® Chicken & Brown Rice Dinner Adult

Science Diet® Nature's Best® is the first and only natural pet food clinically proven to provide complete, balanced nutrition. REAL lamb or chicken. REAL fruits, vegetables and whole grains. NO ARTIFICIAL preservatives. NO ARTIFICIAL colors. NO fillers. Not just HEALTHFUL but TASTES GREAT, too.

This also comes in Lamb & Rice formula.

This is one of the best foods you can buy. The dry weight (or dry matter) analysis is also on the site. Most of the time the only thing you will find is the guaranteed analysis, which really tells you nothing.

verage Nutrient And Caloric Contents

Dry 3682 kcal/kg (376.8 kcal/per cup²)
¹Measurement of Usable Energy in a food, which differs substantially from gross caloric content.
² An eight fluid oz. measuring cup of Nature's Best® Chicken & Brown Rice Dinner Adult contains 3.6 oz. by weight.

Nutrient
Dry Matter %
Protein            25.2
Fat            15.7
Carbohydrate (NFE)51.4
Crude Fiber   2.4
  
Calcium           0.80
Phosphorus   0.70
Sodium           0.40
Potassium   0.70
Magnesium   0.142
Vitamin C   258 mg/kg
Vitamin E   712 IU/kg
Linoleic Acid   3.36
Omega-3 Fatty Acids Total   0.43
¹The nutrient in the product after moisture is removed. It is used to make direct comparisons of nutrient profiles of products with differing moisture contents.

When a food is measured by it's dry weight (all water removed) then you get a true picture of the actual amounts of protein, carbs and more importantly, the minerals and vitamins in the food.The calcium/phosphorus ratio is very important for bone and joint health in larger breeds.


I spoke to a number of vets at a conference once about raw and barf diets and was amazed at the vehement opposition to these diets. I don't have the time or space to go into all of it, but the major reasons were due to bacterial infections from raw food, lack of owner compliance and knowledge about creating healthy, BALANCED raw diets and the fact that they saw way too many sick dogs on these diets.

So let me know if this helps at all Wendy.