What do vets say about a species appropriate diet?
Seven top vets respond to questions about raw dog food
Is there a connection between diet and health?
Is it easy to raw feed?
Is a raw dog food diet safe?
How bad is it to feed processed food like kibble?
Making the switch? Then you’ve found the right place. Check out what seven seriously informed vets say when they’re quizzed about raw dog food.
‘Why shouldn’t we be looking for a species appropriate diet for our dogs?’
‘Critics of raw feeding say you’ll get problems with bones and infection with salmonella, but we’re just not seeing these problems in reality.’
‘If raw meat and raw bones were bad for dogs, then there would be no wolves or foxes, they would have died out millions of years ago. I started feeding raw to my own dogs and, not only did their coats improve, but I started to use it in my surgery for dogs that had bad skins, teeth or gum problems. After about six months I had four chest freezers of raw food. I saw that about one-third of all the dogs I treated with chronic illnesses improved, when I took them off kibble and put them on raw food. It’s become a major part of my treatment and prevention regime.’
‘All the raw fed dogs that I’ve seen have beautiful teeth, they don’t need dental procedures.’
‘There’s no doubt that dogs are carnivores. They catch and eat prey: the innards, the bones and the meat. They’re also scavengers, which means they’ll pick up roots, berries, fruits and vegetable matter, so I think that a healthy diet for a dog is being as close to that as possible, which is raw meat, raw offal, raw bones and vegetables. That’s what my dogs eat and that’s what I put my clients’ dogs on.’
‘If dogs died from eating kibble it would be another story, but there are lots of kids running around who eat McDonald’s. My belief and my experience is that we start to see the price that’s being paid for cheap and poor quality ingredients further down the line. I’ve been in practice for long enough to see more of the degenerative diseases that are affecting humans. My argument is that you can’t run a Ferrari on paraffin. How do we expect to grow good, healthy bodies on poor quality ingredients? I think it’s also become normal to see fat dogs, often with heart problems. Many dogs that are considered well are often overweight, have flaky coats and teeth problems. Having had dogs fed on raw – almost from weaning – I can tell you that that is not normal.’
‘There are quite a few companies in the UK now that are preparing excellent raw food so that it’s all done for you.’
Learn more from these seriously informed vets by checking out the RFVS website. The RFVS is a group of motivated vets and nurses with a common interest in species appropriate nutrition in dogs and cats. Thanks for reading and remember to check out our other blogs on raw dog feeding.