Raw Dog Food

The Healthy Natural Dog Food Diet

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Good Examples of Raw Foods for Dogs and their Healthy Diet

Jun 17

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raw bones

Raw Bones

Some good examples of raw foods for dogs and their healthy diets would be the simplest form of foods that a dog would survive on in the wild. If you think about it, a dog that can find ample wild food is often found to be in a very healthy condition. Small animals, bone and all, are digested and used as the appropriate energy sources for a healthy dog.

But wait! Your vet told you that bones weren’t really good for your dog. Well, your vet was right, because what we humans tend to do is offer our dogs cooked chicken bones which break apart and get caught in their throat. Once a bone is cooked, it is no longer a good choice for your dog. It softens it up and might even break off into splinters in the dog’s mouth.

When trying to find examples of raw foods for dogs, bones are going to be in there. Most raw food diets contain the chicken rib cage, which entails both meat and bones. The small bones that are crushed up raw by your dog’s molars are the same sort of bones that he would be chomping on if he were living in the wild.

Dogs love bones, they consider it a delicacy.  It may be a delicacy that they were engineered to love.  Bones contain key essential nutrients and minerals that would be difficult for a dog to obtain from other sources of food.   Bones are rich in calcium, magnesium, zinc and even protein.  Another benefit of gnawing on a bone is that it helps the dog keep its teeth clean.  I recommend knuckle bones for this.  Why?  Because they are softer and easier for the teeth to scrape into the bone thus cleaning food residue and preventing tartar buildup.

You will notice that when you give a dog a bone, whether it is a real bone or a manufactured fake bone, they often run off and find a place to eat it in peace and quiet where they do not feel threatened by other animals or people. They don’t want to have to fight for their bone the way they would be expected to in the wild. Other dogs bury it or hide it because they know that other dogs would do just about anything for their precious bone. Burying it allows your dog to be sure the coast is clear before he indulges himself on the delicacy.

Raw vegetables like carrots, peas, green beans, and small amounts of garlic are good for your dog as well. Small amounts of garlic can help keep fleas away. Daily doses of garlic should be kept to a minimum and small dogs shouldn’t be included. Crushing up just a little fresh and raw garlic in their raw dog food can help your dog stay bug free while getting the same benefits from the garlic that humans often receive.

Raw meats, especially things like chicken parts, ox tail, straight up low to medium fat raw beef can be a good solid source of nutrition for your dog. Some raw diets include rice, but since rice is a starch, it often contributes to weight problems and obesity, the one element you are trying very hard to combat with a healthy raw food diet.  The other point to consider is that rice is a grain and dogs digestive system is not engineered to handle grains.

If you’re not sure if an example of raw food for dogs is on the good for him list, a quick call to your vet’s office can straighten out the question and give you proper guidance for feeding your Fido the best food possible.  Make sure you call a vet that is well versed in animal nutrition – yes its true, vets don’t cover much on animal nutrition at vet school! Progressive vets have taken the initiative to learn as post graduates.

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What is all the Fuss Over Raw Food Nutrition?

Jun 17

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happy dogs eat raw dog food

happy dogs

For some of us, raw food nutrition seems like just another marketing ploy to get you to spend even more money on your sweet little Fluffy and your nippy little Tiger. After all, back in the day a dog bed was a blanket shoved in the corner if he had one at all and dog food came from the grocery store, not the specialty store. A stick was his only dog toy unless he absconded with some kid’s baseball and of course a leash could be fashioned out of piece of rope. All of this designer stuff was just simply unheard of.  So is raw food nutrition just another way to get us to dig deeper into our wallets to keep on the pretense of keeping them healthy?

While perhaps puppy strollers and pink cashmere sweaters aren’t up there with daily dog necessities, good nutrition can only make his or her life better. After all, when we feed our dogs, our children, or ourselves, we are nourishing for the betterment of life. So the closer we get their diet to what their bodies are naturally designed to eat, digest, and make full use of, the healthier your dog is bound to be.

We don’t want to end up with sickly dogs, but often that happens sooner rather than later. Some blame over breeding and the population crisis, which is in part responsible for the sickly dogs of America, but not solely responsible – you can add lack of nourishment to the list.   The nourishment our dogs lack is what can be found in the raw food nutrition that has hit the market and can absolutely improve the overall health of any dog.

Raw food nutrition is based on the basic elements that a dog really likes to eat because his body is naturally designed to eat it. For instance, if you crawl back into the recesses of your pup’s cavernous mouth, you are bound to notice that his molars are quite different from yours. Yours are flat and are designed for grinding foods that have been somewhat processed by the front and middle teeth. Your dog’s molars, however, are pointy and sharp. This is nature’s way of making sure that he can readily eat the uncooked bones of small animals in the wild. When you look at your dog’s natural design, he is all carnivore, not herbivore. He isn’t interested in chewing on some grass because he thinks he needs more greens in his diet, but because it helps him regurgitate what he has eaten that isn’t agreeing with his natural body.

Thus, all the fuss over the raw food nutrition is really about giving your dog what his body is naturally designed for, will naturally digest, and will naturally keep him healthier than ever before.

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Switching Your Dog to a Raw Dog Food Diet

Jun 17

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dog waiting with bowl for raw food

can I have more chicken wings please

A raw dog food diet has already been scientifically and anecdotaly proven to be healthier for dogs, increasing their longevity and their state of health. But switching your dog over to a raw dog food diet should be done over a period of about a week, maybe nine days for larger dogs with larger food requirements. Suddenly switching his food, even to a much more nutritionally balanced diet, is bound to cause upset tummy and some indecent bowel movements. Going a little slower will help him digest the change without hang ups or hiccups. By the end of the switch to a raw dog food diet, you are most likely going to see a change in your dog for the better.

During the switch to a raw dog food diet, pay attention to any bowel abnormalities like runny or watery bowels. This could simply be an indication that your dog needs to be adjusted at a slower rate. Rarely does it mean that your dog is having any type of serious digestive problem. Almost every dog responds to a raw dog food diet with great improvements in looks, weight, energy, and even their ability to concentrate and obey commands.

The basic idea of any dog food switch is to introduce the food slowly by mixing it in with their original dog food. Start with a slightly reduced portion of their normal dog food and add in a small amount of the raw.  Check the bowel following the feeding and if they look normal proceed to step two. If they look irritated, runny, or bothersome, repeat the same proportion of regular to raw mixture  extra day or until the bowels look normal again.

The second step includes mixing equal parts  of the old food and raw. Again, checking the bowels will tell you if your dog needs you to slow down or if his digestive system is a little more sensitive. When normal bowels arrive, give him the reverse of the first mixture, that is a small amount of the old dog food and a larger portion  of the raw. Once the bowels look normal on this mixture, you can switch to a full serving of raw food during the following feeding.

While you want to take it rather slowly, don’t get into the habit of mixing the raw dog food with the old dog food indefinitely. Your dog will benefit from a slow but progressive transition. The raw dog food diet is chalk full of healthy nutrients for your guy, so the sooner you can finish switching him over, the better. While larger dogs might require a slower transition, the raw dog food diet is known to produce less waste since your dog’s body is actually using it all up as burnable energy instead of expelling it as waste.

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Feeding Dogs Raw Food is Good for Longevity

Jun 17

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huskies eat raw food

Huskies on a run

Feeding dogs raw food is the one thing that you can do as their human to help them live a very long and healthy life. Recent studies have shown that dogs in Australia (who live on raw food diets as the norm and receive dog food as a travel or emergency meal plan) live almost twice as long as some breeds in the United States. In fact, feeding dogs raw food is likely to increase any dog’s life span by at least five years. And we’re not just talking life span, but we’re also talking about a high quality of life that keeps them running on the beach, splashing in the water, and climbing those trails right next to their human for half a decade more. If you love your dog the way I love mine, those extra five years of good health and life loving buoyancy are enough to justify the additional costs of a raw food diet.

In recent studies, dogs also ate more appropriately when their human opted to feed them raw food. In fact, most dogs who perpetually overate on their traditional dog food cut down and ate only what they were hungry for, after an adjustment period. Dogs tend to eat what their bodies are craving. When their bodies are low on protein, the likelihood of overeating is rather high as the protein content of packaged dog food is quite low. Thus they keep eating to provide their bodies with as much essential protein as possible without noticing that their tummies are actually no longer hungry. Protein is also a blood sugar stabilizer which helps determine how hungry a dog gets. Diets rich in protein help keep dogs from over eating.

In the United States, almost every house dog over the age of five shows some sign of weight problem. Whether he is just a few pounds over the mark or is leaning heavily on the obese side, few dogs in the U.S. receive enough exercise to burn off the additional carbs that are ingested through a packaged dog food diet. Feeding dogs raw foods helps them maintain a healthy weight that, in the long, helps them trim down and live at a healthy body weight. Obese dogs run the risk of diseases just like their human counter parts. Heart problems, diabetes, breathing difficulties, and back problems can all often be completely attributed to the dog’s weight. Managing his weight is highly important for a long life.

When we bring a dog into our home, we are bringing him into our family on the basis of a promise to look after him, to care for him, to love him. Often the promises are hard to keep when we aren’t doing what is best for our additional family member. While we have the absolute best of intentions, our dogs need us to put their health first for a higher quality of life. Feeding dog raw foods is a strong and basic step to longevity coupled with good health.

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Why Dogs Like Raw Food

Jun 17

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sharpei with raw bone

Just me and my bone!

Of course dogs like raw food.  It is their natural diet and their bodies crave it.  Before dog and man formed a forever lasting friendship there was no one to throw the leg of lamb on the grill our pour a bag of kibbles into the dog bowl.  When dogs were wild and free and hunted for their survival, they ate raw.

When dogs are given byproducts and fillers, they are basically being given the nutritional equivalent of cardboard with a dusting of flavor. Dogs like raw food not just because it tastes the way a dog’s diet should taste, but because it gives them the proper balance of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals so that they can develop into the healthiest pup possible.

Dog food manufacturers run a business that has made our lives easier but has cost dogs their health in general. The dog food industry is not a regulated industry, which means there are very few rules that any dog food maker has to follow. Human foods like hot dogs, ground beef, and scrapple are regulated by the government and I am still not interested to know exactly what is allowed to go in there. An unregulated industry isn’t likely to provide a high level of nutritional value if they can get away with scrimping on the good stuff but charging premium prices.

But what about table scraps?

We tend to humanize our dogs. Their charming personality, their depth of love and devotion, not to mention their incredible sense of loyalty makes them seem ever more human to us. We dress them up, arrange play dates for them, and sometimes we have dogs instead of children or because of children. Our dogs are part of our family and while they don’t sit with us at the dinner table, they can often be found just beneath waiting for those yummy morsel of human food to fall into their open mouths.

We tend to forget that their bodies are not designed to live off the same nutritional requirements that we humans need. Feeding your dog a variety of table scraps might or might not be a good idea, depending on what you’ve been chomping on. Pasta might be tasty for them but it is not healthy while a rare piece of meat can go a long way toward helping them achieve optimal nutrition. What we all need to remember is that their needs are not human and are in fact canine in every way. Thus, feeding them a raw diet is a good way to get their bodies on the fast track to premium health while offering them a highly tasty way to chow down their nutrition.

As dog owners learn of  the benefits of feeding their precious pet a raw diet, demand for raw dog food has gone up.  Neighborhood pet stores are installing freezers and filling them with raw chicken, beef, elk, bison and other yummy food for Fido.  The meats are frozen and  are cryovac sealed in small portions for ease of storage in your own freezer and for convenience of portions.  It is as easy as taking out the desired package of beef, bison, chicken or venison, defrost over the day, and voila!  No cooking, no muss no fuss – just a deliciously natural and nutritional meal for your furry family member, food for your dog as it was meant to be and it’s good for your dog’s health.

There are many benefits to a raw food diet for your dog but it all boils down to the simple fact that it is the healthiest  nutrition for your dog.

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The Benefits of Raw Dog Food for Dogs

Jun 13

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dogs like raw food

dog waiting for dinner

There is a list of benefits of raw dog food for dogs that seems almost never ending. Consider this, dogs are carnivores and are organically designed to chow down on fresh raw meats, not graze in a wheat field. But if you check out the ingredients that most of the popular dog food brands sell these days, wheat is the number one ingredient. A raw dog food diet offers dogs a balanced meal that their bodies are designed for, which allows their bodies to process the nutrients the way that nature intended. This is better for every single functioning part of their body from their skin to their life span, even right down to their disposition

A dog on a raw dog food diet is more apt to be calm, friendly, learn new commands faster, and have a greater range of patience with his pack than a dog who is eating wheat and filler material. Just like a child who goes off to school with nothing but candy and hot dogs in their system, the brain isn’t apt to think as clearly. One of the most important benefits of the raw dog food for dogs is that it helps their brains function the way they are designed to and keeps them ultimately happier and healthier.

Of course, the raw diet is a bit more expensive than running out to the store and grabbing even a premium brand of dog food. But overall, the savings show up in fewer visits to the vet and a much longer healthy life span. The United States has the highest percentage of dogs on medication for long term illnesses not to mention the shortest life span of most developed countries. The American dog is generally overweight, suffers from at least one long term ailment or disease, and doesn’t live nearly as long. All of this has been scientifically traced back to the quality of their diet and the fact that the majority of dogs eat more wheat and filler than prime protein that their bodies crave and need for healthy, long term survival.

Humankind, for all kinds of reasons, decided to domesticate the dog, call it their own, and then failed to care for it properly. Perhaps we could call it a lack of information, but in the dawn of dog ownership, dogs were actually fed raw diets. Dog food didn’t exist. Humankind’s need for simplistic and easy shortcuts led to the prepackaged dog food. Of course, our lives became a little simpler, but the health and well being of the dogs under our care became detrimentally more complicated as more disease, obesity, and poor health became commonplace among the pets we love as our family. The benefits of raw dog food for dogs boils down to the benefits that we all share when we are properly nourished and our bodies are given the appropriate energy and nutrients.

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