The truth is finally out its time to stress less and take control. Start giving your pet the delicious, fresh wholesome raw pet food diet he deserves.
I get it! Taking the plunge to dig right into feeding a raw dog food diet is well kind of scary! Isn’t it? especially with all of these marketing experts from commercial dog food, plastering it everywhere DO NOT FEED A RAW DOG FOOD DIET! It’s unsafe! raw food has bacteria.
Are raw pet diets really unsafe?
Some veterinarians believe feeding commercial pet food is healthier than feeding a natural raw diet. Their main concern is that raw diets have bacteria, bones can be a choking hazard, can cause blockages, damage the digestive system, and the diet will be unbalanced. Now while all of these are valid points, raw food does have bacteria but it is healthy bacteria for your dog and cat, and their digestive system is designed to handle these bacteria. A dog’s digestive system is 100 times more acidic than that of a human’s digestive system. Cats have an even more acidic digestive system than both humans and dogs. Us humans need to stop thinking that our pets need to eat just like us (cooked and processed).
Bacteria, Bone, and Unbalanced raw pet diets
Now there is a rule to this healthy bacteria in meat, you must feed human-grade meat and not meat that is off. If you wouldn’t cook it up and eat it yourself, don’t give it to your dog raw or cooked, it’s time for the bin. Raw meaty bones should be the base of their diet. They clean your pet’s teeth, provide mental stimulation, have good bacteria, enzymes, vitamins, and raw meaty bones provide your pets with all of their mineral needs.
I couldn’t recommend giving your dog and cat bones enough, wild dogs and wolves thrived off bones, and theirs no exception just because your dog or cat is domesticated today. To avoid choking you need to feed the right size bone and ensure you are feeding an edible bone and not a weight-bearing recreational bone. Never feed cooked bones this is when the bones can damage the digestive system and cause blockages. Bones need to be raw for your dog to be able to digest the bone.
Another concerning factor for vets is that they are concerned that your pet’s diet will be unbalanced. It is ok to not have a complete and balanced meal every single day. With a raw diet, you can balance over time, over a period of 3-7 days. You just need to provide variety (variety is key) different fruits and vegetables, different meats, and different sources of offal and bones. You can have fun and get really creative!
Are you feeding your pets right?
I was skeptical to feed a raw pet diet at first. It can be overwhelming, to begin with. Questioning yourself if it’s safe? is the right thing to do for my pet? the doubts that come with it, am I doing it correctly? is my pet getting all the right nutritional requirements that she needs?
Veterinarians will most likely tell you that you should not put your pet on a raw diet and if you did, the raw diet will need to have a whole lot of supplements and that it is a very complicated process when it isn’t at all. If you have a biologically appropriate food that has lots of variety and has all the key components you can successfully feed your pet without any problems.
You can check out my complete guide to raw feeding here: Your complete guide to raw feeding
Remember this is a guide only, that is based around a healthy adult dog. This will show you the basics of what raw pet diet feeding is all about. To be safe and ensure that your pet is getting everything your pet needs I recommend getting a nutrition plan that is customized to your pet. You can easily successfully follow a nutritional plan that is designed for your pet’s individual needs. If you are concerned that you might not be doing it right, I am here to help! at the end of this blog post, you can join the waitlist for a complete customized nutrition plan or advice on your current feeding routine.
how to protect you and your pet from bacteria in raw pet food
- Wash all meats and vegetables. It’s a good idea to thoroughly wash all of those veggies and meat before feeding them to your pets. You can also take off the skins of vegetables to be even safer. This prevents your pet from pesticides and insecticides.
- Only buy quality meats from your local butcher, not from your supermarket. I know how easy it is to just pick out some ground mince from the supermarket while shopping but this is probably the worst place you can buy it. Supermarket meats harper bacteria in those plastic tubs. The chicken usually has salt added. The mince may have had a wash with bleach. Butchers, on the other hand, are fresh and you know you’re getting good quality meat. Plus it’s great to always support your local small businesses.
- Freeze your foods and defrost them when you need them. I usually prep all of my food into bags for my dog Merlee and freeze them straight away. This doesn’t always guarantee that the cold temps of a freezer will kill all bacteria, but this will definitely prevent parasites like tapeworms. Minimum of 3 days in a freezer, A deep freezer is best to kill all bacteria. Defrost once your dog is ready to eat.
- Only defrost in your fridge or microwave. I only defrost on a plate in the fridge or a microwave. Avoid defrosting on a bench or water in the sink. This can cause an overgrowth of bacteria.
- Wear gloves when handling food. It’s best to wear gloves when handling raw meats and food to avoid contamination and bacteria getting on your skin.
- Wash your hands. We should always wash our hands before and after handling food. Or whenever our lovely fur babies give a sloppy kiss on our hands and faces.
- Wash your pet’s bowls regularly. Washing out your pet bowls regularly is a must too. If bacteria are going to be anywhere it’s going to be here! Stainless steel bowl harper the least bacteria out of any bowls.
- Refrigerate or dispose of food after your pet is finished eating. Dispose of it thoughtfully, or place it in the fridge in an airtight container.
- Clean and disinfect all surfaces. No brainer keeps everything nice and clean! Spray and disinfect all those surfaces and kill those bacteria. Again you can find safe disinfectants for pets.
- Avoid your dog licking your face. Ok, I must admit I love a little smoochy here and there. If you do too, just try and avoid the kisses after eating times.
- Don’t have it raw, cook it instead. To kill all bacteria you can cook it but cooking your food robs the nutrients. I wouldn’t recommend overcooking them but cooking them to a nice clean light brown. You want to keep all those good nutrients, vitamins, and minerals as much as you can. You will need to add a supplement when cooking foods.
What are the benefits of feeding a raw pet diet?
- Cleaner teeth and hello fresher breath
- Healthy skin and coat
- Helps with anxiety, stress, and depression In dogs
- More energy
- Super strength immune system
- Helps with behavioral issues
- Better digestion
- excellent weight control
- Better smaller, less stinky poos
- Let’s just say all-around Better and BETTER for your animals!
Related: Your complete guide to raw feeding
Feeding your pets, a raw balanced diet the way nature intended them to eat will do your pet wonders. When you’re the one who is providing them and feeding them these foods. It is much easier to avoid deficiencies and excesses when you are feeding them instead of synthetic vitamins and minerals that are in processed pet foods.
Many recalls have been because of excess vitamins that cause harm and disease to our pets. Like vitamin D, this has caused dogs kidney disease by eating excess amounts. This is because natural vitamins are actually very complex with different components each contributing to the whole of the vitamin. Synthetic vitamins are chemical isolate, which is isolated or fractionated pieces of the whole vitamin.
When vitamins are manufactured to be synthetic, this can cause a real issue with how they are digested into the body and can act differently than the real natural vitamin. This is because synthetic vitamins are actually a mirror image of real vitamins.
These excesses are practically impossible to create when you are feeding them a correct balanced raw pet food diet. Especially when you know what you have put in it. Dogs didn’t evolve to eat processed foods. So why are we giving these foods to our pets, and why is it the norm?
Several experiments have been made on animals with synthetic vitamins versus natural vitamins. When these animals were given a diet deficient in certain vitamin(s), They developed disorders and health issues.
The experiment outcome
The animals were separated into two groups. Group A and Group B. One group got synthetic vitamins, the other group got a natural whole food source. in this case, it was a study on guinea pigs.
Firstly they feed them a diet deficient in vitamin C.
- Group A received synthetic vitamins and received ascorbic acid
- Group B received a natural whole food source and received orange or lemon juice.
Researchers found the guinea pigs that received the orange or lemon juice were much more protected against disease and health issues. Then those that received ascorbic acid.
In another study this time with rabbits. they were fed a diet deficient in vitamin B. The rabbits developed cirrhosis of the liver.
- Group A received synthetic B vitamins.
- Group B received yeast in their diet, which is a natural source of B vitamins
The research found the rabbits that received the natural yeast source did prevent cirrhosis of the liver.
You can find out more about these experiments here.
nevertheless, as you can see, whole food sources react better in the body.
Commercial Pet food Diets
SOOO I did a little digging ok well (a lot of digging), and guess what?
Well FUN FACT: Raw pet food diets promote health and are safer than commercial pet food
Modern veterinarians, commercial pet food manufacturers, and marketing experts will tell you that raw food is dangerous and that their highly processed food is the healthiest and will promote your dog’s health, it simply is not true. Why would these marketing experts come out and say this? Well, that’s it… their marketing experts! and well let’s just say they like to point the finger elsewhere! They are trying to sell you their product and hoax you into believing that anything other than their food is going to harm your dog.
Veterinarians, on the other hand, are not trying to sell you these products to harm your dog so that they can get more money off of you. They don’t know any better, they are taught in med school about nutrition from these premium commercial pet food and it is what they believe in. Veterinarians are fantastic in helping all of your dog and cat needs with diagnostics and diagnosing but when it comes to nutrition it is always best to consult a qualified animal nutritionist or holistic veterinarian that has done the extra nutrition training. The same rule applies to humans you go to your usual general practice doctor and they can run some tests, diagnose you, and recommend dietary changes but for a complete diet change, they will recommend you to a nutritionist for your diet needs.
The truth about pet food – Their history
Back in the day in 1980s pet owners started to buy and feed a cat food commercial pet food that stated it was 100% complete and balanced. Suddenly cats started to die after eating these cat food products. The cats had died from a heart condition called cardiomyopathy. The commercial pet food product was not complete and balanced at all. The pet food manufacturers didn’t realize that cats could not manufacture their own taurine like dogs can and they needed the amino acid taurine supplied in their diet.
Cats have 11 essential amino acids and taurine is one of them. The makers only provided 10 essential amino acids in these foods, leaving out the taurine. This went on for years until taurine was finally recognized to be an essential amino acid for cats. Once scientists finally figured that out, they started to put taurine into their pet food in 1987. Kibble makers then stated that it is now 100% complete and balanced.
20 years later this, unfortunately, happened again in 2007. In 2007 thousands of pet owners had reported their pets dying and others reported their pets becoming seriously ill and harmed by pet foods. kibble killed over 4000 cats and dogs, while, seriously harming thousands more.
How did this happen? Chinese manufacturers were putting melamine in their pre-mixes. Melamine is an organic-based, nitrogen-rich compound commonly used to manufacture cooking utensils, plates, and plastic products. When melamine is combined with saline acid it becomes toxic to animals who eat it. 1 in 6 of these pets died after consuming these commercial pet food diets.
Once everyone was aware of what was going on. Pet food manufacturers invested millions of dollars into marketing champagne. Sure enough, there was another recall made. This time it was chicken jerky imported from China. The jerky killed almost 400 dogs and over 2200 more suffered from serious health issues.
Despite all of these recalls, deaths, and serious health issues, for some reason, we are still told that raw dog food diets are dangerous but commercial food isn’t. Thousands of pets have died from commercial pet food and thousands of others have been harmed and are still suffering. Pets are aging more quickly, their quality of life is being reduced and their life expectancy is nowhere what it use to be. There are more vet visits, more health issues, and more dental issues than ever before.
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