Why is feeding a raw food diet so important for my dog’s health and how do I do it?

There are so many stories I could share with you about how a dog’s health, behaviour and…well…even how their toilet habits have changed since eating a raw food diet.

From the west highland terrier who would be violently sick even if she had the smallest piece of food, to the malamute who had projectile diarrhoea; from the shy and anxious collie to the labrador with red, inflamed and itchy skin. All of these cases were resolved from a simple change in the dog’s diet – a change from processed food to raw!

Canines, which your dog is, have been eating raw food since their paws touched this earth. Yet, there is still much controversy, ill advice and reluctance to feed our dogs a food source that their body knows and has a deep acceptance of.  From what we see in the supermarkets, hear on the radio, watch on the television and see on the shelves at our local veterinary centre, everywhere we go we are sent clear messages that dog food in a bag or a can is what our dog needs and should be eating. But is it?

A recent news report told the story of a sixteen-year old boy who had gone deaf and blind because of his diet! This boy ate nothing but white bread, crisps and pasta – all processed food! In addition, there are hundreds of books, studies and reports on human nutrition and food stating the obvious – that processed food causes anything and everything from depression to digestion issues. You see, anything and everything you put in to or on to a dogs body is interacting with the body as a whole. So, diet can interfere with the external parts of your dog, like skin growth, as well as the internal parts of your dog, like hormone balance and chemical balance.  So, the food we feed our dogs affects the whole dog – from their skin to their cells.  

This is why feeding our dogs the right diet for their growth, health, behaviour and life is so important. Even if our dog looks good on the outside, we have no clue how it is affecting the dog on the inside and the damage it may be causing.

Ok, so lets break it down a little. Your dog is who s/he is from their nose to the tip of their tail due to cells. We are all made up of trillions of cells and cells become specialised to create different parts of an animal – nose, hair, teeth, organs, blood, muscles etc. Everything is made up of cells. In fact, you might want to see your dog as a walking, breathing, drooling mass of cells. The reason why I mention cells here is because the cells that make up your dog rely on the correct nutrition so that they can function and do the job they are supposed to do and do it well. Without the correct nutrition, the cells of the body can’t do their job as efficiently or effectively. Signs of this might include dry skin, poor coat condition, oily coat, drop in stamina over the day, poor hair growth, digestive discomfort, flatulence, heightened anxiety, over-wieght, loose and/or smelly stools to name but a few. Over time, this may lead to more serious issues such as IBS, skin sores, ear infections or even cancer. It is suggested that many diseases we see in our dogs today are partly a result of nutritional distress.

So, to provide a long and healthy life for our dogs and one where we can help in keeping visits to the vets at a minimum, it’s important that we know what we should be feeding our dogs so that they have happy cells! Happy cells make for happy dog guardians! Are you ready…

Quite simply, living beings need living food. Of course, this doesn’t mean encouraging your dog to chase a deer across a field and eat it there and then! What it does mean is that living beings, like your dog, require food sources that are fresh, wholesome, authentic (meaning they have not had anything added to them in any way) and unprocessed (they are in their natural form). Food that is processed and created for a long shelf life can be taxing for your dog’s body to recognise, break down, digest, absorb and be used in a way food should be – for fuel, repair, functioning and life. This means that your dog’s body has to work extra hard in not only recognising the food as food, but also how to use it in the body, meaning resources needed for growth and support are used up simply in just digesting and breaking down the food.

So, what is meant by living food? As has been previously mentioned, it’s food that is in its natural form – fresh, wholesome and raw. Yes! Raw! Our dogs have a long history and evolution of eating raw food and their mouth, teeth and digestive system are still replicable to that of a canine that would hunt and eat prey. Irrespective of this, we want to feed a dog a food source that supports their entire being – starting with their cells.

Feeding your dog a raw food diet is super easy and super fun. You can start by keeping it simple and, as you become more confident, begin to explore what you can add to your dog’s food! You won’t look at your dog’s food the same again and you will become creative in trying all manner of fresh foods to feed your dog. Just WAIT until you learn about self selection (but that’s for another time). Oh, and make sure you stay away from those food sources that can be toxic to some dogs, like raw onion, raisins, grapes, dark chocolate.

To get started all you really need is to find a raw dog food company that appeals to you and buy their complete food mixes. See, I told you it was easy! A complete food means that this can be the only food you feed your dog and his/her nutritional requirements are met. Although, complete foods do not contain fur, brain or eyeballs, which are all important for your dog to consume too, complete foods contain muscle meat, organ meat, bone and some companies also add vegetables and herbs to their food. There’ll be a separate post all about fruit, vegetables and herbs later. There is one important thing about starting your dog on a complete food created by a raw food company. That is, the food is coarsely minced.

When people hear or read about feeding their dog raw food they conjure up images of half a deer leg hanging out the side of their dog’s mouth and are inclined to visit their local supermarket or butcher and buy a meaty bone for their dog. This is not wrong, but for a dog that has been fed processed food for its life so far, the digestive system can have a bit of a shock in being activated in to doing what it does best – digesting raw food. You see, for dogs, digestion begins in the stomach. For humans, digestion begins in the mouth, as soon as we start to chew food. Where a dog has been fed a processed food, the activity of the digestive system can remain more dormant, stagnant and become sluggish – yet another reason why to avoid feeding your dog processed food. Then, when all of a sudden the dog’s digestive system is met with a raw meaty bone to digest, it can create a shock to the system and cause the body to simply abort the food – through vomiting or diarrhoea. After you have fed your dog a raw complete food for about 3-4.5 weeks you can begin to offer your dog’s raw meaty bones, such as lamb ribs, turkey necks, chicken carcass etc.

Feeding your dog a raw meaty bone is not classed as a complete or balanced meal. Don’t panic though, as Einstein said “time is nature’s way of making sure everything doesn’t happen all at once,” and it is the same with a balanced diet. So long as you are balancing your dog’s food over time, the food will be balanced. For example, you may want to feed your dog meaty bones 2-3 times a week and the rest of the week feed your dog a complete food from a raw dog food company.

What you don’t want to do is feed your dog too much bone. This can cause a problem for dogs that are fed chunks of bone on a daily or regular basis. Bone that has not been coarsely ground can take a few days to fully digest. Thus, if a dog is being fed chunks of bone on a regular basis, this can create compaction in the digestive system – something we certainly want to avoid. Sticking to rule of meaty bone 2-3 times a week will not create this risk.      

For some dogs that are already fed a processed food, or whose closet relatives had been (e.g. mother, father, grandparents), they may have food allergies or intolerances to certain prey or plant foods. There is a difference between allergies and intolerances and the most common ones for dogs include chicken, beef and grains. Unless you are certain that your dog can tolerate chicken or beef, or if you can get organic sources of this, then it might be best to avoid these in your dog’s diet.

All you need to know about feeding a complete food from a raw food company is that you want to feed 2-3% of your dog’s body weight. For example, a 30kg dog would be fed 600g a day in total if being fed 2% of it’s body weight and 900g a day if being fed 3% of its body weight. Begin with the 2% measure and if your dog begins to look underweight move up to feeding 3%. You don’t want to go too crazy with the recipe options to begin with, so starting with a simple turkey recipe is recommended. From there, you can then begin to add other recipes to your dog’s diet, such as duck, boar, venison, rabbit etc – all of which can be provided from a raw dog food company. 

So, how do you start to feed your dog raw food? You guessed it – it’s easy!

There are two routes to introducing your dog to raw food:

1. Slow transition.
2. Complete swap

SLOW TRANSITION.

If your dog is old (e.g. ten to twelve years of age, or older) or has been prone to digestive upsets, loose stools or has a sensitive stomach then a slow transition to raw food might be the best route.

Assuming your dog is fed twice a day, with a slow transition you feed your dog their normal food on a morning and the new raw food on an evening. You can do this for seven to ten days before feeding your dog just the raw food.

It is sometimes best to do a slow transition because when a dog is fed a processed food, their stomach remains largely inactive. For dogs, digestion begins in the stomach. When a dog is fed a processed food there is very little for the stomach to break down meaning the incorrect levels of digestive enzymes, gastric juices and stomach acids are created. It is often the reason why dogs that are fed processed food can develop sensitive stomachs and pick up bacterial infections within the digestive tract. Digestive health is imperative for your dog’s health and correct functioning of the immune system.

For some dogs, if they are not given a slow transition on to raw food, this can create a shock to the stomach and digestive system, causing a dog to have sickness and diarrhoea. This is not because the raw food has made your dog sick, or indeed that your dog is unwell, it is your dog’s digestive system being stimulated in to now having to create the correct enzymes, substances and performance to digest raw food – this is GREAT for your dog!

After seven to ten days of feeding your dog their usual food on a morning and raw food on an evening, you can begin to feed you dog just the raw food.

N.B. it is advised to not feed raw and processed food at the same meal because the biological requirements needed to digest raw compared to processed food are suggested to be different, although there remains some debate about this.

COMPLETE SWAP.

If your dog does not have a sensitive stomach or digestive issues then you can do a straight swap. Stop feeding your dog their normal food and begin to feed your dog the raw food. If your dog does have sickness and diarrhoea for more than their first feed of raw, go to feeding raw using the slow transition method.

Below are some steps about how to feed a raw diet to your dog using a complete food from a raw dog food company.

• Allow the food (per tub) to defrost completely before feeding to your dog. Store in the fridge when defrosted. 
• When fully feeding raw (i.e. your dog is not being fed a processed food) give your dog 2-3% of its body weight. When doing a slow transition feed half of what you would normally give (e.g. 1-1.5% of raw).
• When feeding the raw food to your dog, take it out of the fridge about 1.5 hours before feeding. This will allow the food to be at room temperature before you feed. Too much cold or chilled food can cause digestive disturbances.
• This means that a dog being fed 2% of its body weight and on a complete swap to raw would be fed 300g on a morning and 300g on an evening. For a dog that is having the slow transition, the dog would be fed its normal food on a morning and 300g of the raw on an evening.
• If your dog does not eat the raw at first you may need to quickly flash fry it in a pan or pour a little boiling water on the raw food (allow food to cool before giving it to your dog). This allows for the smell of the food to be released, which some dogs need to smell before they will eat it.
• NEVER feed COOKED BONES to your dog.
• Once your dog has been on the raw food FULLY for 4 to 6 weeks, you can begin to change the prey source (e.g. turkey, organic beef, venison etc) and also begin to add raw meaty bone (e.g. turkey neck, duck neck, lamb ribs, organic beef bones etc). When offering raw meaty bones it is advisable to hold part of the bone so your dog chews it rather than swallows it whole. Some dogs are so used to having processed food that they have to realise that the bone needs to be chewed.
• Feed raw meaty bones 2-3 times a week (more often than this may cause compaction unless you are feeding a fur or whole prey, but you would add miss feed days to this)
• Once your dog is eating raw meaty bones, has been on the raw food for four to six weeks and you are comfortable with what you are doing, you can begin to add DIY days to your dog’s meals. This is still raw food but where you may choose to buy your own to make a meal for your dog.
• For example, you can buy lamb bones, lamb heart, lamb liver, goat’s cheese, pomegranate, broccoli and cauliflower and this can be a meal for your dog. You would want an 80:10:10 or 70:20:10 split of raw meat, organs and bones (with some fruit and vegetable added). Your dog does not need to have a balanced meal every day, but if you do decide to feed a DIY diet every day you will have to ensure what you feed is balanced over time.
• On the days where you are feeding raw food you can add other food to your dog’s bowl. For example, you can take off 10g of your dog’s raw food and add melon, almonds, goat’s yogurt, goat’s cheese, half a tin of sardines, goji berries, cranberries, grated apple, grated vegetables, raspberries, blueberries etc. As an example, with the food my dogs get I always feed a little less of the raw food and add something to the bowl. Today I did sliced courgette, cucumber, chia seeds, blackberries and raspberries.

That’s it! You now have the basics of what you need to get started on feeding your dog a raw food diet and a knowing that with every mouthful you are feeding your dog and his/her cells another step (or paw) towards health, longevity and optimum functioning. Have fun!