What Is The Healthiest Diet For A Dog? (i Am Open To Feeding Her Raw Meat, If That Be The Healthiest.)?
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Oct 13th, 2009 |
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Vets aren’t always right. If all vets knew what the healthiest diet for dogs was, there wouldn’t be as much work for them to do. And yes, sometimes lay people know things about veterinary medicine that even the best vets don’t. It’s not as rare as some would say.
So, what’s the healthiest, in your opinion?
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There’s not any one food or diet that is going to be beneficial for every dog. The raw diet may be a good option, but there are plenty of great quality foods out there. Check out http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com, learn to read the labels, and go shopping to see what’s available in your area. Then, evaluate how your dog does on the food. A good diet should be one that he enjoys eating, improves and maintains the quality of his teeth, skin, and coat, produces a healthy stool, and provides valuable sources of fats, proteins (meats, etc), and ideally, fruits and vegetables for a well-rounded diet.
A BARF is definitely the best diet if it is balanced and includes meat, veggies, calcium, etc. All things being equal, raw is better than cooked.
Do doubt about it.
Raw is PROBABLY the best diet, however, do realize that raw is not best for every dog. I PERSONALLY know several dogs that had behavioral issues get worse when on a raw diet. Raw is just to much of a prize to some dogs/cats- and they can display aggression or have behavior issues crop out of it! (if a dog stresses easily, a big prize like raw can put them over the egde and make them nervous). My one cat would take food from the mouth of other cats if it was raw, growling, but was fine with dry or biscuits.
That said, Raw is a great diet, as it provides ample moisture with the diet, placing less stress on the kidneys, liver, digestive track. Also, raw diets require less digestive enzymes. Animals with allergies/food sensitivity do alot better on raw, as the protein source is from one animal, and not mixed with 20 ingredients. The most important aspect of raw is the ratios and the source of the food. Ratios: 80% meat, 10% bone, 10% organs. Source of the food should be from grass fed/ range raised animals- as this makes the animal be optimum nutrition.
Top quality dry foods are regularly printed in Whole dog magazine, or other such publications. A few top notch dry diets include: wellness, timberwolf organics, any innova (www.naturapet.com), eagle pack, wysong, etc. There are many! Some of my favorites are the grain free like nature’s variety raw instinct- a step down from raw, or the EVO diet by innova, also grain free!
I feed my dogs Royal Canin.but i did see some good books at the bookstore with recipes for making your own food at home.I have heard feeding red meat could cause aggression problems not sure read it in a book somewhere.
Vets spend about one day during their training to study nutrition. Then when they qualify they recommend that you buy a food from them which gives them the highest profit.
I tried feeding raw, however my dog did not like it. Should you decide to go down this route you will need an extra freezer, a food processor and several books. There is a book called “Raw Meaty Bones” by Tom Lonsdale. He has a website and you can download almost all of this book, its http://www.rawmeatybones.com
The experts are now saying that grain causes numerous health problems. Avoid any food which contains grain, rice, beef, beef derivatives and dairy products. The food that I use has beet pulp for fibre and fish instead of meat.
I always feed a varied diet to my dogs, but for their main meal everyday they eat RAW beef tripe, or other raw meats. Cooked food for dogs is terrible, especially canned dog food. Just have a read on the labels and see how much crap is in commercial dog foods. Ive always fed raw to my dogs and their litters. They have always been strong and healthy, and its also a lot cheaper.