I know many people who feed raw, possibly into three figures, across all breeds, NONE have ever had any problems, in fact the opposite!

£ years in the industry and 10 weeks in a vet practice hardly constitutes a wealth of exeperience in my book.

Try speaking to breeders who have raw fed for 30+ years or more.............

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Fere libenter hormines id quod volunt credunt

To me that proves the point that your experiences are not representative of people who feed a properly constructed raw diet. Any experienced raw feeder knows that large bones are a big no no, they are too hard to chew and result in exactly what you have seen, broken teeth and excessive intake leading to impaction. If, however, your run of the mill dog owner goes into a butchers shop and asks for bones for the dog then 9 times out of 10 this is what they will get, so called marrow bones, usually beef hip or thighs which are completely unsuitable for domestic dogs.

Such bones are not part of a raw diet, they are a treat that ill informed owners occasionally give their dogs without knowing any better.

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Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people look bright until you hear them speak

This is exactly what I mean as well, I don't feed mine large marrow bones, I have in the past, but always supervised them for a set amount of time, and they were more recreational than a food source. I stopped feeding them after a few friends had problems with them, and now don't use weight bearing bones or those of older animals, which are more prone to splintering, and causing the very hard boney stools that can be problematic.

Lou3, I hope you're not feeling picked on, my comments are purely because I feel strongly that far too many people rely on chucking a bowl of something down, which may or may not be that good for their dog. Taken in context a good complete food may well provide enough nutritional range to ensure an individual dog lives a healthy and happy life, but I just prefer, as many others do, to provide that nutritional range myself, unprocessed.

Like others, the problems you seem to have had at your practice seem out of proportion from what I've experienced. My vet is always keen to see my girls, even though they're only ever in for their boosters, as they are such healthy and happy characters. He knows I raw feed and is impressed with their condition, they are two of the best examples of the breed registered with the surgery for fitness and health.

Although I can't claim to have studied nutrition, or be a nutritionalist, I have researched very carefully what to feed, what different foods contain, and what amounts to give. I supplement the diet of mine with a few extras, such as turmeric, because of the health benefits this has been shown to provide.

You obviously feel very differently because of the experiences you've had working within a busy surgery, my experiences and those who oppose your view on here, have obviously been very different. It's good to debate this sort of thing because it does throw up the need to do your research, and not just chuck a dog bones without looking into what is the right sort of diet to give them, what they need included in there. It isn't a case of opening a packet and measuring it out, it isn't all that difficult either, but you're very right in that people do need to look into raw feeding more than just beyond the title. Which is why my initial question threw up the point that there are many ways to raw feed, some aren't that good for your dog, others are one of the best ways of feeding your dog imo

Edited to add, I read an article a few months ago, very interesting indeed. It focused on injuries to the mouth, and how many of these are caused by dog toys, particularly the more robust ones, which many vet surgeries sell. It posed the question of just how ethical it is for vets to sell these, and then end up treating the dogs for injuries caused by them.

Then you should have resaerched a little more into the raw diet and not just gone by what you saw. As jaspersbloke said, if you feed properly with enough research and insight you won't have any problems. With my one marrow bone incident I had forgotten my dog had it, as I only ever let them have a marrow bone for around half hour, just enough time to get the marrow and meaty bits off- so I don't put that down to raw being bad for him, just my absent mindedness. I wonder how many of the cases you saw were due to just chucking the dog a bone and letting it get on with it, if you're talking about broken teeth then obviously the people feeding the bones haven't a clue as to how to do it properly. That's not a bad diet, it's a stupid owner!

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Flynn - Kali - Britches - Bruce - T-Bo - Marty



"For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack"

I know when my Springer was a pup, for a long while I seriously regretting getting her. I know all pups are hard work but she really was a horrible little monster until I changed to raw. Its good for my health too because it saved my sanity!!
I honestly think if everyone researched a bit better in to what they feed their dogs there'd be a lot less in rescue.

I'm a new raw feeder (only 4 days in) and so far so good. My girl is 2 next week and for her entire life I have been having issues with her stomach digestion and pooping too much and not been able to hold her bowel through the night at almost 2 my dog was still pooping in the house through the night. We have tried the following, JWB (went straight through her) fish4dogs went straight through her, Orijen she wouldn't eat, burns she was on but didn't solve the pooping problem, wainwrights went through her and Collards she had a massive reaction to and ended up on antibiotics with blistered feet, I was at the end of my tether, the vet has said that she has irritable bowel is sensitive to all cereals and has a sensitive stomach, but can’t eat their sensitive stomach food, it goes through her and I was not putting her on hills. In desperation I started googling read up on raw, absorbed all the information I could, read everything drew up lists of possible menus read all the negatives too but having no real other options I decided to give it a go. She loves it, we have reduced her pooing numbers to twice a day, which for a dog known to go 9 times a day twice is a miracle, she has been clean through the night every night since Saturday which is good for her, and we have had no runny tummy. For me the positive WELL outweigh any possible negatives. All I have to go on is the fact that I have tried over 10 commercial foods and none of them have every worked this well with her.

I am so pleased to hear that and I hope it works out for you and your girl.

Almost everyone I tell about my dogs diet is shocked (including, surprisingly, most butchers!) but I have learnt that the most important thing you need for a successful raw diet is simply an open mind.

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Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people look bright until you hear them speak

The problem is many people start to feed raw without properly informing themselves of the dogs basic nutritional needs. I always advise people to give themselves a basic education in exactly what a dog needs to not just survive, but thrive. This includes ratios of bone, meat, vitamins and minerals etc.

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Get information about preparing Homemade Dog Food Recipes.

I'm listening to what has been said and yet in the domestication of dogs, what has changed biologically?

Gerard Lippert and Bruno Sapy published a report in 2003 which showed homemade food added approx three years to the lifespan when fed in comparison to those dogs fed commercial foods. Okay, not necessarily raw but shows commercial food isn't what the manufacturers make it out to be.

We feed 4 dogs raw and have had no trouble. Did have one of them start to choke on kibble though before she started on raw. Changing to raw helped us to resolve a couple of medical issues. Our vets know we feed raw. They don't necessarily like it but haven't argued against it. Could it be they are aware that we do not see them as often as we used to despite now having more dogs?

Those who have done research and looked into raw have heard the scare stories. We rarely see facts based on published statistics. If anything all we see is people stating the opposite. Where are all these "victims"? Let's look at other threads.. How about:
Bad Raw Experiences

There used to be a site anti raw on the internet called the second chance ranch. It was great. Listed a complete range of reasons not to feed raw and even had a couple of anti raw testimonials. For some reason it no longer exists, although rebuttals are still available. Thing is none of the anti raw arguments seem to be experienced by the people actually raw feeding and being active in the raw feeding social circles. If something happened wouldn't you make sure other people knew the dangers?

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I have been feeding Lucky raw since she was 6 months old and have never had any problems, she gets mainly prey model but I do add fresh fruit such as bananas and apple as a treat occassionally, she also gets green tripe and raw eggs.

Nothing will persuade me that a diet of varied, fresh, raw ingredients is bad compared to highly processed foods, it just doesn't seem logical to me. I know exactly what my dog is eating, I am 100% happy with the diet my dog
is on. She goes crazy at meal times now, she can't wait to eat. When she was on kibble she wouldn't be bothered at meal times.

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Raw fed since 2010