I know a raw diet is supposedly great for cats/ dogs, but how much better is it than my dry food?

I have 3 dogs and 2 cats.

Both cats are indoor/outdoor and hunt occasionally when out. I fee them Blue Buffalo Wilderness - Duck(Grain Free)

1 of my dogs is on Nature's Recipe Grain Free Salmon, Pumpkin, and Sweet Potato

1 is on Blue Buffalo Large Breed Fish and Oatmeal

1 is on Blue Buffalo Puppy Lamb and Oatmeal



I know the main concern with switching to raw is that its grain free, but if my cats and 1 dog are already on grain free diets, is there really that much of a difference?



Also, I am very busy (law student %26amp; dog trainer), so I wouldn't be able to feed them raw in the morning. My dogs eat twice a day and my cats eat sparingly. No one is overweight, but I was wondering if I can feed their kibble in the morning and raw at night, or would that throw them off?



Also, I know to feed them 2-3% of their body weight, but I have a 28lb corgi, a 100lb lab, and a 19lb corgi puppy. I can do the math, but I have yet to find recipes or examples besides just ingredients to give them. Anyone have any suggestions for exactly what to give at meals?



Also, I supplement my dogs with fish oil (omega 3 %26amp;6) every night, would I need to keep doing this if on raw? How much omega 3 %26amp;6 are in actual fish?



SORRY FOR ALL THE QUESTIONS!!! THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!I know a raw diet is supposedly great for cats/ dogs, but how much better is it than my dry food?
There are alot of opinions and myths out there about dog and cat foods...including that grains are bad for dogs and cats. Grains are needed in the diet, but in the right proportion and of good quality.

In speaking with some nutritionists and researching the subject, I would absolutely NOT feed a raw diet. It is too difficult to give them everything they need for proper nutrition and too dangerous to feed raw meat.

That being said, here are two good things to read (for new people to the subject and others):

http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/news/Be鈥?/a>

http://www.dogspelledforward.com/eukanub鈥?/a>I know a raw diet is supposedly great for cats/ dogs, but how much better is it than my dry food?
Blue buffalo dog food is awesome stuff but ask yourself this question: if you ate a regular diet of bread and wheat for a few months, how would you feel and what would you look like?

We feed our dogs (8 mon. aussie pup, 4 yrs. pudelpointer and 8 yrs. GWP) 1-3 cups of pureed veggies with vitamin C and flax mixed in; and 2-3 pieces raw chicken in the evening. They are rarely sick, perfect weight, white teeth, glossy coats, etc. Grain feeding puts weight on a dog especially if they don't use up all the calories they are ingesting. So for high energy dogs it could be okay but in the long run raw feeding it a better overall diet in my opinion. We've been doing it for the past 10 years now and our dogs have been competing with great success.



Now cat's on the other hand are different. We also own 4 cats and they are not giddy about veggies. So they get a purely meat diet, mostly raw chicken with ocassional liver or duck. They get fed once a day, one huge meal. If you have a heated garage you can just put them out there to eat on thick newpapers (this way you can give them chunks of meat without having to cut it up) or you can puree the meat in the food processor and serve it on plates in the house.



With a raw meat diet you don't really have to worry about perfect proportions. With puppies you give them enough veggies and meat until they don't want anymore and for dogs 40-60 lbs. 2-3 cups of veggies and 2-3 chunks of raw meat will do.



If you trying to adjust your dogs to the raw diet from the grain diet, you could do half and half. Mix half the amount of kibble in with the veggies and then gradually wean them off. Cool thing about the doing veggies is you can sneak in all you dog's supplements without them knowing :)



Hope all this helps
I actually tried feeding my dogs raw food for a few weeks. I had a nightmare of diarrhea. I would let them out often and always right before bed, but they still had accidents in the house because they just couldn't hold it. The kept it to the tile floors and bathroom rugs that could be washed, but when one of them had a ton of diarrhea on the carpet, that was the last straw. I switched to Blue.



The reason I switched to raw food was because of chronic ear infections. The one good thing that came out of the raw food ordeal was I found out that one of my dogs is allergic to chicken. Not only did she have the diarrhea on chicken, she would throw up everything shortly after she ate it. So when I switched to Blue, I made sure I chose the one with absolutely no chicken in it.



Raw takes quite a lot of preparation. I would prepare the portions for their meals a couple weeks in advance. It would take me several hours to do 2 weeks worth of food. It would take them less than 5 minutes to eat it. It was also smelly, disgusting, and after preparing the food I would have to take a shower. I just felt gross after handling all that raw meat.



Blue is actually a very good dog food to feed your dogs. If they are doing fine with the Blue dog food then just keep doing what you're doing.



After switching to Blue, my dogs have been infection free. I never found out what was causing the other dogs infections, but obviously it was something in the food. I give them a spoonful of yogurt once a day to help keep them from getting an infection, just in case. I was just giving them a spoonful a week but our vet said once a day would be okay.



If you still want to try raw food, there are sights online that will tell you how to switch and what exactly to feed. That's where I found out all the information when I tried to switch my dogs.I know a raw diet is supposedly great for cats/ dogs, but how much better is it than my dry food?
By making a batch of food in advance and putting it in ice cube trays or popsicle trays for a larger dog, you can feed raw all the time no matter how busy you are.



There are Omega 3-6 in grass fed beef as well as in fish. The proportion that is in raw meat is the correct proportion.



You can't use meat from the grocery because it's treated with ammonia for it's long shipping and storage needs. You have to get meat, including organ meat and bones from a farm or butcher to make raw food.



You can get Prairie or Stella %26amp; Chewie's prepared raw food.



The dog foods you buy are pretty good ones. They still have meat meal which can include rendered stuff I would not feed to may dogs.



I don't feed raw though. Canned food is better than kibble if it's Spot's Stew or Evanger's chicken drumettes. Bones and all.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SilentKhayos



My channel. Has videos of my cats and dog eating plus an intro to raw feeding.



You can feed kibble in the am and raw in the pm. Personally, I'd at least switch to a wet food. Cats get most of their water from the food they eat. Kibble is bad for them due t that.



I know people tat supplement, I personally do not.I know a raw diet is supposedly great for cats/ dogs, but how much better is it than my dry food?
In addition to some raw experienced answers above:



I know more than a few DVMs who are pro-raw, have fed raw to their own for over 20 yrs, and are quick to realize the limited education provided in veterinary school regarding canine and feline nutrition. DVMs that support commercial dog foods or larger corporations do so out of their own limited education and experience. If a single practice vet rarely networks with other vets, then their educational world is very limited. They don't so much "profit" from pet foods, as they are taught the limited knowledge that have by Purina. When the pet food industry is teaching nutrition, the trend is definitely in their favor. With this principle, pet nutrition = pet food industry. Just as an excellent professor and teacher excel due to thinking outside the box and asking questions, so too does a good vet.



I never see patients fed raw for bacterial or other contamination. I have seen many sick patients for such contamination, toxicity, or deficiency that are on commercial pet foods.



Continue the additional supplement of omega 3/6 fatty acids. These are excellent anti-inflammatory and cellular regenerating nutrients for joints, heart, skin, and immunity.



Do not feed large weight-bearing bone portions. Stick to smaller, crunchy bones that pose less risk to slab-fractures of teeth. Depending on what my meat market has, I get whole rabbits/quail, chicken necks, backs, wings, turkey necks, fresh eggs, venison (love the loin!), and large cuts of beef/bison. I save beef/bison bones to give separately from meal time, for chewing. I use a veterinary strength diluted cleanser after every feeding, on the bowls and floor where the dogs and cats are fed.



A labrador retriever breeder typically feeds her dogs the variety I feed as above. Her 2 yr old male I just evaluated last week is fed 10lbs daily, split into 2 meals, such as 10 wings, 5 necks, and 3 livers in the morning, and 5 lbs of beef ribs in the evening. We tend to feed liver of the same species of 2 meals weekly. If feeding a rabbit or quail, they're already ingesting the organs.



I started feeding raw in college 10 yrs ago when I had a rescue foster with poor skin, ears, and GI health. As an example, he never digested pork well, and my own dogs at the time didn't digest poultry vertebra (necks/backs) well, so each had their individual limitations with raw diet. After 2 yrs, I learned they did not need the vegetables, but offer the carrots, apples, peppers, banana as treats, alongside finely chopped dried meat for training.



Even in college, the prep and feeding time was minimal, especially without processing veggies. And it saved me 6-8 wks time in TPLO surgery recovery, saved me in vet visits, as we were at the hospital weekly when on his premium commercial diet (Eukanuba Fish Rx diet), saved me money as the hospital visits, surgeries, and Rx diets were extremely costly, and increased his lifespan to be the healthiest, happiest years possible I could give him. After him, all my fosters were on raw and Innova combined, as critters on "raw only" limited their potential adoption.



You can combine with dry, but raw feeding is the best way to go. Often, the transition of going from raw to kibble is a cause of diarrhea. Then, pro-kibble vets insist it's the raw food causing diarrhea, and use this as support to discourage raw feeding. They just don't know any better. My vet that has been feeding raw the longest, starting with her hoard of dals she bred to national specialty and grand champion status on a regular basis, for over 20 yrs, has observed the trend when raw/dry combo owners present her with prolonged intermittent diarrhea. Once they are on raw only, the diarrhea stops. And so does their constant administration of anti-diarrhea antibiotics, such as Tylan or Metronidazole.



Other than "grain free" raw meat is "water rich" and very low in carbohydrate. It has whole bone, which mechanically removes plaque and tartar from teeth, which dry kibble cannot do. Grain free diets still have potato and pea fiber, typically, as the carbohydrate source, because kibble cannot be formed from meat alone. The consistency and texture of pressed, baked kibble must have non-meat ingredients to press into kibble form. This carbohydrate content is mostly fiber, that goes in the mouth, and out the rear, without much transition in between. Grain free kibble and canned are cooked, which still destroys trace vitamins and minerals that must be artificially returned with a topical spray, and enzymes and proteins are cooked and partially or completely destroyed.



I transfer the dogs' and cats' meals for the next day from freezer to refrigerator, and splitting them into small portions that thaw within 24 hrs takes less than 30 sec per portion, from cutting to individual bagging or wrapping. A few extra minutes is so cost and time effective in the long-run, I will never return to dry food feeding.
I know the main concern with switching to raw is that its grain free, but if my cats and 1 dog are already on grain free diets, is there really that much of a difference?



Yes, IMO (due to personal experience) and that of my holistic vet (degree from Auburn vet school).

Gee, let's see if I can not go overboard... on why. Oh and the first replier who CLAIMS to be a DVM should be ASHAMED to say dog food is better, but then we know vets make a PROFIT on the foods they sell. Dogs are designed to manage meat with e.coli, samonella in it, but if feeding HUMAN grade meat, you are already feeding your animal BETTER than the: Dead, Diseased %26amp; Dying carcases that goes to pet food makers.

http://www.bornfreeusa.org/facts.php?p=3鈥?/a>

Recent dog food %26amp; treat recalls: http://www.dogfoodproject.com/



=First, you control the ingredients. Recall the melamine poisonings (in petfoods) that killed so many pets a year or two ago, not to mention periodic problems in a number of foods, due to TOXIC mold.

2) Your pets are still eating CARBOHYDRATE-heavy foods. Even if it isn't grain-based, that still is a problem. Dogs %26amp; cats are CARNIVORES, not Omnivorses. Their digestive system is set up differently from ours (shorter) %26amp; is DESIGNED to eat meat %26amp; bones (in 4 hours) not digest carbs (takes 12 hours) that turn into SUGARS, that require huge amounts of insulin %26amp; can cause or increase weight gain.

3) Sugars are INFLAMMATORY, they feed any inflammatory response in animals whether it is joint pain, food allergies, hot spots, kidney/bladder stones or cancer.

4) In the case of the oatmeal food - it is still a grain. Many grain sources have insecticides used on them etc. Grain allergies are the number 1 %26amp; 2 food allergies in dogs.

5) Cooking chemically changes meat 95% of dogs with a protein allergy can eat it raw, but not cooked. Coats are better on raw, teeth are cleaner if they chew on real bones, bloat is almost unheard of. There's more but that's a good start, IMO.

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Also, I am very busy (law student %26amp; dog trainer), so I wouldn't be able to feed them raw in the morning. My dogs eat twice a day and my cats eat sparingly. No one is overweight, but I was wondering if I can feed their kibble in the morning and raw at night, or would that throw them off?



=You could feed kibble in AM -but why would making up a week's worth of raw food be so hard on the weekend? You simply thaw a day or two in advance, %26amp; dish out what's needed in the AM sort of like pouring the food now, only everybody gets about the same thing rather than radically different diets (other than amounts). P.S. Freezing kills most paprasites, bacteria etc.

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Also, I know to feed them 2-3% of their body weight, but I have a 28lb corgi, a 100lb lab, and a 19lb corgi puppy. I can do the math, but I have yet to find recipes or examples besides just ingredients to give them. Anyone have any suggestions for exactly what to give at meals?

==YEP see links.



Also, I supplement my dogs with fish oil (omega 3 %26amp;6) every night, would I need to keep doing this if on raw? How much omega 3 %26amp;6 are in actual fish?

I like using NATURAL ingredients vs pills or supplements, less processed etc. You can feed all of them canned fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring or sardines. Most people do suggest a Vit E supplement to go with fish oil.
You are doing a great job of feeding your pets already. If you start to feed raw diets, you are risking giving your pets parasites and bacterial diseases and food poisoning. The negatives outweigh any positives, trust me. Your hunters are supplementing their diets with whole prey, which is vastly preferable to a purchased raw meat in that the animals are not intensively farmed and fed abnormal diets and given antibiotics and exposed to multiple diseases during their lifetimes from such close proximity to each other. You would be better off feeding your dogs fresh roadkill than a home-made raw diet. But what you are currently feeding is nutritionally good and it won't give them any diseases, so there is no reason for you to switch.