The American Veterinary Medical Association opposes the unregulated feeding of raw food and advises against “feeding cats and dogs any protein of animal origin that has not been first subjected to a process to eliminate pathogens, due to the risk of disease for cats and dogs, as well as to humans. Raw food supporters claim they offer numerous benefits to dogs, including more energy and healthier teeth, skin and coat. Torres says there isn't much evidence demonstrating the benefits of feeding pets raw food, but there is evidence of health risks, such as exposure to pathogenic bacteria. Feeding your dog a “Barf” diet (meaning “bones and raw food” or “biologically appropriate raw food”) has become popular in the United States in recent years, and now many UK pet owners are considering it as well.
Dog owners who support a raw diet claim that it promotes a brighter coat and healthier skin, better energy levels and fewer digestive problems. The basis of your dog's raw diet is proteins and fats. This makes up most of their food. It's as simple as buying ground beef or pieces and putting them in your dog's bowl.
Raw food enthusiasts claim that the diet has given their pets more energy and healthier skin and coat. Bones from a raw food diet may be good for your dog's dental health. And the meat is denser in nutrients, which makes the stool smaller. The best method to correct this behavior is to remove food when the dog moves away from the bowl.
Advocates of raw food diets say commercial diets are not natural and that raw diets more closely reflect what dogs would eat in the wild. If for some reason a dog cannot stand whole bones, most prepared raw foods contain 2 to 4 percent ground bone. When you're used to seeing the price of kibble diets at the grocery store, the raw food section of your local pet store may seem shocking. I'm not going to lie; feeding your dog a raw diet isn't as simple as throwing the kibble into a bowl and leaving.
This can be limiting if you are traveling with an unprocessed fed dog, so you may want to look for some kibble style dog foods that use very low temperatures to gently cook food and retain nutrients that are normally lost in the kibble extrusion process. However, a recent study from Portugal found that while commercial dog food of all kinds may harbor some unpleasant bacteria, raw dog food presents a high risk of transmitting antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can harm pets and immunocompromised people, by time that contributes to greater public health. problem of antibiotic resistance. Unless the dog owner is an expert in animal nutrition, a homemade diet can be difficult to do well: a dog needs 37 essential nutrients to stay in good shape, and balancing the right amounts of zinc and iron, for example, is very difficult.
Some raw foods offer options for smaller pets that are pre-divided into kibble sized or 1-ounce pieces. Some believe that their dog's overall health, and especially its coat, would benefit from a raw food diet. You may be exposed to bacterial contaminants both when preparing your pet's raw food diet and accidentally encountering your dog's feces. As long as the protein is fresh and of good quality, most older pets do very well with protein-rich foods, such as raw.
The risk of homemade and commercial raw food diets for dogs is that these diets are often not well balanced for the dog's nutrient requirements. .
