Does anyone here feed their animals RAW food??? (Anchorage, Fairbanks: home, universities)

[Siouxcia]

Originally Posted by DreamChasers8

Souxcia, I was rather nervous myself about giving my dogs raw food, but instead of fearing it I learned all I could about it and continue to. Everyone has their own opinion and like I said I'm not here to argue with anyone about what's right or wrong. All I will ask you to do is research it for yourself. If you would like some help, DM me, and I would be more than happy to supply you with a list of links to a wealth of information.

Thanks but I have a healthy 12 year old pooch who is doing great on his commercial diet. My 2 cents worth is mainly to have people proceed cautiously if their going to switch their dog's or cat's diet to a raw meat diet or to include raw meat in their diet. At the very least, I would have the dog examined and deemed healthy before switching.

[DreamChasers8]

Raw is the healthiest diet and the natural appropriate diet. I have personally seen sick animals suffering from serious allergies have complete turn arounds and get healthy from a raw diet. As they were able to get rid of all of the fillers and crap like grains out of their feed. Not to mention kibble is the reason dogs need to have their teeth cleaned... Raw doens't require teeth cleaning nor does it lead to gum disease. Raw is not the risky diet, they do not need to be checked to make sure they can handle it.

[Siouxcia]

Originally Posted by DreamChasers8

Raw is the healthiest diet and the natural appropriate diet. I have personally seen sick animals suffering from serious allergies have complete turn arounds and get healthy from a raw diet. As they were able to get rid of all of the fillers and crap like grains out of their feed. Not to mention kibble is the reason dogs need to have their teeth cleaned... Raw doens't require teeth cleaning nor does it lead to gum disease. Raw is not the risky diet, they do not need to be checked to make sure they can handle it.

And, on that, we can agree to disagree.

[DreamChasers8]

Just cause you don't agree doesn't mean you can't check it out to at least view both sides.

Ignorance is bliss

[Siouxcia]

Originally Posted by DreamChasers8

Just cause you don't agree doesn't mean you can't check it out to at least view both sides.

Ignorance is bliss

I thought we were having an intelligent conversation with two differing points of views? You're assuming I haven't checked it out. I give little credence to blogs and testimonials. As I stated earlier, my dog is very healthy on his commercial diet. All I ask is pet owners do what is best for their own dog or cat.

No need to imply I'm ignorant because I don't agree with you.

[Rance]

I feed my birds raw sunflower seeds.

I feed myself raw fruits and veggies.

[Siouxcia]

Originally Posted by Rance

I feed my birds raw sunflower seeds.

I feed myself raw fruits and veggies.

If that's all you're eating, your birds' and your risk of contracting salmonella, E coli, enterococcus and the new prevalent antimicrobial resistant bacterias is virtually non-existant.

But, to be honest your chances of contracting MRSA are about the same if you ate raw meat or didn't eat raw meat.

[RayinAK]

Well, the way I see it is as follows: we humans struggle to come up with ideas on what diets are best for us, and it seems to be working as people's life span is getting longer each day. Except as noted in one of my posts above, we (my wife and I) add some of our own foods to the dog's diet, and don't feed her raw meats. We feed her herring, salmon, tuna, wild meat, and supermarket meat (the same foods we eat). Raw meats are probably just as good as cooked meats, although we just don't want to introduce parasites to the dog.

Our dog loves lettuce, probably because she can't find grass to eat in the middle of the winter. She eats it just like a treat, so we don't let her have too much of it. She likes carrots, too, but moose meat makes her mouth water to the point that she drools out both corners of her mouth. It looks like two strands of boiled spaghetti are hanging from her lips. No kidding!

[DreamChasers8]

We are having an intelligent conversation. But when you dispel the information out there, some of which even includes Vets who back a raw diet, or the "testimonials" of 1000's of animals suffering from allergies from commercial dog foods and recovered due to proper nutrition from a raw diet, all because your dog is just fine on his commercial food isn't much of an arguing viewpoint. Blogs or testimonials are not what I was referring to.

My comment about ignorance being bliss was not a personal attack at you, I was implying no one knows about anything they don't look into themselves. People shouldn't judge something until they have check it out so to speak. I feel I have looked carefully at both sides and I can make an educated decision about what I feel is best for my animals. I feel you should do the same before warning people about something you don't appear to know alot about.

[Dusty Rhodes]

Originally Posted by DreamChasers8

Nutro is a descent brand, I use to feed Solid Gold which is organic and holisitc, but at $53 a bag that would only last us a week got to be rather much.
I have found that the prepackaged raw meals are another way to waste money and cost twice as much as name brand kibble. If you can afford them...I can't...then use them, they are definitly better than any kibble. However I find that it's really easy to feed them raw from my own kitchen. Rule of thumb is 2-3% of their body weight. I feed twice a day so for a 100# dog I would feed 1 1/2 pounds in the am and same in the pm. I use a little kitchen scale for accuracy. Give a chicken quarter with bones and skin or ground beef or an organ meat. Basically you want to try to re-create the entire prey animal over a period of a few days. It's really simple. Plus I raise chickens for us as well as the dogs for eggs and meat. If you hunt or no someone who does that also helps. If not buy the food at the grocery store or from a meat processing plant. Always remember to feed the Raw Meaty Bones (RMB)....NEVER COOKED BONES, they splinter can can get stuck in the digestive tract. Raw bones are softer. It's really very easy and not time consuming at all especially once you are in a routine.

Back in the old days, with my first GSD, I asked my vet about bones, Deer & other critters. He said that small dogs do not have a large enough digestive system to safely pass the bone shards, they get stuck, go septic and the dog dies before you really understand it is sick. He also said that he had never even heard of an impacted bone in a dog greater than 45 lbs and regularly fed all types of bones, cooked and raw to his animals. My first GSD was a working Guard Dog, in the 90lb range. He lived to be a bit over eleven years old with a diet of fish, fowl, Deer, and table scraps- what eventually got him were the two bullets he took, had he not been there, I would have taken those bullets- I cried for about 3 days.