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We have information and suggestions about the increasingly popular Raw Food Diet for Dogs.See
our selection of some excellent and inexpensive E-Books
and Dog Food Suppliers giving advice
and suggestions about feeding your dog.
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Feeding
E-Books.
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Raw Diet for your Pet Dog
Feeding your pet dog on a raw food diet is becoming increasingly popular
(if somewhat controversial). Getting your dog to eat raw, fresh, organic,
whole foods will provide him/her with a healthy, natural diet.
Before commercial pet food inundated the market, dogs hunted for their
food, often as they became more domesticated their diet would be supplemented
with scraps and left-overs from the family table. Dogs would have hunted
for smaller animals, rats, mice, snakes, insects, lizards etc. These
would obviously have been eaten raw and the total body ingested, including
stomach content (often containing vegetables and grains), organ meats,
bones etc. Furthermore dogs often buried carcasses of their prey, digging
them up later to eat (this instinctive behaviour can still happen today).
A bad diet can lead to all kinds of health problems, which can include general weakness, low energy and fatigue, skin and coat disorders, arthritis, diabetes, allergies, weight problems, and increases in immune deficiency.
Much of the modern pet food
on sale, is based almost entirely on waste products from the human food
chain and other by-products. This results in low-grade, commercial,
cereal-style dog foods actually containing hair, feathers, hooves, tumorous
growths, and contaminated blood.
(In fairness, the industry has improved and the pet food industry has
improved many ingredients recently, and now companies offer healthy,
organic foods for pets)
It is easy to see why a Raw Diet is becoming more popular, the preparation of your dog’s food at home from a selection of fresh, organic ingredients is one way to know exactly what your dog is eating.
A well balanced raw diet should consist of at least half lean meat and bone. Dogs can easily eat raw chicken, includin the bones, which must be uncooked, also turkey, tripe, pork neck bones, lamb, beef heart, whole mackerel and various other meat products. These meats should be fed whole for maximum benefit.
Dogs are basically omnivores (they eat practically anything). However including vegetables and fruit in your dog’s new diet can be slightly more problematic. Dogs have a short small intestine so the best way to feed your dog food other than meat is to ensure they get the full benefit of these foods is to juice or puree them. This juice or puree can easily be mixed with oats and whole meat, or mixed with ground meat. Carrots are both appetising and of benefit to your dog, as they contain a large range of vitamins (A, B, C, D, E, G, and K, as well as potassium and calcium). Many other fruits and vegetables are of great value in your dog’s diet they include apples, pears, oranges, kale, parsley, celery, beets, turnips, broccoli, spinach and alfalfa sprouts. Eggs are also a great source of nutrition for your dog.
Some Benefits of a Raw Food Diet
• One of the important benefits of a raw diet is that it gives
your dog ”dental exercise” that helps cleans its teeth,
and prepares the digestive system for the food just eaten, this can
satisfy the dog both mentally and physically
• Raw bones are softer and less likely to cause problems with splintering when chewed.
• Raw food is how dogs would eat in the wild, and reflects what their bodies and digestive systems are built to eat.
• It is generally accepted that raw foods contain all the nutrients, food groups, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that your pet needs to stay healthy.
• Better weight control.
• Naturally cleaner teeth.
• Fresher breath
• Healthy skin and coat.
• Smaller, less odorous waste.
• Generally “doggy smell” is reduced
• Lower chance of diabetes.
• Strengthening of the immune system.
• Your pet will often have more energy.
Some disadvantages of a Raw Food Diet.
• Sourcing and preparing the necessary ingredients for a raw,
organic, fresh diet (meats and vegetables) to give to your pet can be
time consuming and possibly an expensive exercise.
• Caution should be
exercised when feeding animals a raw food diet because
Dogs these days are more prone to degenerative disease and are weaker
than their ancestors, mainly due to in-breeding and the highly processed
commercially supplied diet that has generally been fed to them in the
last few decades.
•
Some supermarket meats are often laced with hormones, antibiotics and
contaminates, making raw meat a potentially toxic option for dogs and
cats.
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