it might be, it was in the waiting room at our vets lol but seriously weird stuff said about veggies and dogs, tails...

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Choking can be reduced with kibble by soaking the food for a couple of hours before feeding your dog with it, this softens the food and it goes down the throat much easier. Dogs also think they have had more food than they have which I find very handy with my dogs.

There have been cases were owners just fed chicken wings of dogs becoming ill, this is because the dog was not getting what he needed and not caused by feeding raw. Dogs need more than meat, they need veg and fruit as well. I had a dog that would gently pick off the black blackberries and leave the rest. My dogs will also help themselves to any raw veg that they can get their mouths round.

Whichever way you decide to feed your dog, research all the posibilities first before making your decision what to feed.

How can insure that you're feeding a completely balanced diet on raw foods

Sorry I do have to disagree with your comment that dogs NEED fruit and veg - they dont - not if they are fed the correct raw diet.
Can I ask everyone or anyone who feeds a dry commercial food - do you add fruit and veg?
If you feed the correct raw diet it is balanced......so they get the correct amount of meats, organs etc mine do get 2 raw eggs a week and a little goats milk now and again but thats my choice to give that to them.
I also struggled to see how raw would be balanced like a commercial food before I changed from feeding kibble - but the more I read on the internet and speak to many people who have fed raw for years - I can see just how it all works and that in my opinion feeding kibble was damaging my dogs health.

Wild dogs have a mixed diet, not just meat, they also eat fruit and veg but the wild varietys not what we eat.

When I was growing up my uncle had a farm, he had a dog that wouldn't eat any food given to her, she went and caught a rabbit every day but she would also go into the orchard and get fruit, the vegatable patch and eat veg, and also go round when collecting the eggs for eggs.

Feeding just meat to a dog does not give them a balanced diet.

If your dog is overweight, you can also bulk out food with some veg, carrots go right through a dog but will help the dog think he is full, cabbage is another veg you can feed to aid him loosing weight.

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Raw feeders don't just feed meat.

That is correct - thankyou for pointing that out - I have a breed that suffers from bloat.

lol my dog can pick carrots out of anything, they're about the only thing she won't eat, even if my mum mashes them up completely into food she still finds them :P

My dog was always a fussy eater so she tends to be fed on a mix of human food and pouches, she just wouldn't eat when she was a baby, we probably never tried hard enough but it was a long time ago and there was less of a thing about what to feed dogs.

I've never realliy agreed with feeding dried food though (i take it this is kibble?) All my friends dogs eat it because they were told it was best and everyone i know seems to think it's healthiest but to me it always seemed a bit like a human who ate all vitamins or all balanced frozen meals or something, getting everything they need technically, but it's no where near as good as fresh food.

My dogs always ate a lot of human food, which means lots of meat fruit and veg and she's was always the healthiest out of any of my friends dogs (till now when she's old), the only one who's not overweight, overly clingy or hyper. The only problem she had was bad skin and a bad heart which is very common to her breed and she was born with the heart thing.

I have spent a few weeks researching Raw Vs Dried and i am leaning towards the RAW side of things i must say. If for nothing else apart from when me and Dias' are walking through the forest, the place youd expect dogs to inhabit should they be indigenous to this land, i did see many, or even any Wag bushes, or Iams plants, and certainly no areas of Pedigree Chum trees. I did however come across quite a few, very fast moving samples of meat, and a few bushes of berries and such that Diasy surely liked eating.

There is rarely any argument between humans as to weather processed and packaged foods hold an advantage over natural foods.

That being said and all the research i have done, i find myself feeling somewhat nieve about the two sides. Id love to start Daisy on a natural diet but i wouldnt know where to start. I was thinking of winging it and just going down the local butchers and buying what looked good and giving it to her. Thank god i read this thread first as i certainly would not have frozen any meat before giving it to her. That little find has scared me somewhat and i feel that kibble is a safer option. Yes i know that they can choke on anything not just raw meats but atleast i dont have to freeze the kibble or any other strange processes to stop certain disaster. However convenience, i dont class as an excuse to feed my dog utter crap so...

Can i have either a nice big list of what may make a truly balanced, health diet while totally avoiding crappy processed foods ?

If no one can be bothered to sit here for that long thinking and planning a comprehensive list. Please can you atleast supply a list of do's and don'ts ?

Im not being lazy and waiting for all you guys to do all the hard work, i am reading up on it aswell but so many people say so many different things its hard to know whats bull and whats not. I dont want a list to end all arguments, just a list that is likely to prevent me from killing my beloved dog while tying to improve her health.

She seemed ok from birth but in the last week she has started to behave very lethargically, she now has dandruff and ALOT of hair is falling out compared to what used to so i fear that 14months of processed foods is begining to take its toll and measures must be taken. I go to the vets about it but all they do is recommend a different type of dried food which contains Magical-digestivum2 and happydoggy enzyme complex. Which just seems to be the same crap im trying to avoid.

Thank you for your time.