raw dog food updated

If humans can't eat it, then why would we feed it to our dogs? If you are reading this article, you probably want to take the best care of your best four legged friend. Why would you want to feed old faithful pet foods that are laden with contaminated animal remains? Yup, all the "meaty goodness" that your dog is supposed to go wild for, in reality comes from dying and diseased animals. All parts are used in the frankenkibble produced by the commercial giants, including, "tongues, esophagi, nails, claws, feathers, beaks, tendons, lungs with pneumonia and other diseased and cancerous meat - nothing goes to waste in the name of profit. You may even find blood and fecal wastes. These are all listed on the label as byproducts which are found in moist as well as dry pet foods." Can anyone say, gag me with a spoon?
Think about it for a second: a wolf in the wild gets hungry, goes hunting, catches and eats a rabbit. The most obvious difference in the wolf's meal and my dog's kibbles n' bits is that the rabbit is not cooked or processed in any way. For all intents and purposes the food the wolf is eating is living when the wolf eats it, the realization of which at first might make you a bit queasy. If you are anything like me, the thought of feeding your dog a live rabbit might freak you out a bit and make you wonder how safe it is to feed your dog raw meat, but that's just how nature intended your dog to eat. Not only would the wolf have eaten the rabbit, but also the contents of the rabbit's stomach, which would likely include a mix of grasses, leaves, fruit, nuts and other raw foods loaded with enzymes. My dog, Dingo, is an Australian Cattle Hound and I just know he would be overjoyed to chase a rabbit around, and would likely be able to stomach a Thumper happy meal, but I certainly wouldn't be able to. Very few of us are going to want to start feeding our dogs live rabbits! So what then? How can we feed our dogs in a way that is closer to the diet nature intended for our canine cohorts?
Quite possibly, the answer is the B.A.R.F. (Bones And Raw Food) diet for dogs, which was recently popularized in a book by Dr. Ian Billinghurst. While the name may seem unfortunate at first glance, the B.A.R.F. diet has nothing to do with puke and is being discussed in the most active dog related newsgroups and forums. Simply put, the diet consists of feeding your dog a diet of raw foods rich in protein, such as meat, dairy, and eggs, as well as raw bones with vegetable meal being added in to balance out the nutritional value of the meals. Not only will you be feeding your dog higher quality food, closer to the diet it evolved to eat, but you will also be helping your pet to restore and revitalize its health in countless ways! A raw food diet will help your pet better assimilate minerals, vitamins will be more bio-available for absorption by the body, natural antioxidants, amino acids, and natural digestive enzymes are all still present and not destroyed by heat or chemicals. All of these things will help your dog act younger and will help prolong Rover's lifespan.
But you might ask, will my dog possibly get sick from eating raw meat? Good hygiene is important when handling any raw meat for humans and dogs alike. So long as proper handling and storage techniques are used, most healthy dogs can tolerate small amounts of bacteria such as Salmonella or E. coli without any problems. It is important also to make sure that the meat and bones you purchase for your dog are organic and free of chemicals and preservatives. Remember, the goal is to provide a diet most similar to the diet your dog would have had thousands of years ago, the diet its body was designed for. It should be noted though, that while most dogs can tolerate a raw food diet, and in fact thrive on it, some dogs with compromised immune systems might do better just to switch to an all organic diet, rather than going totally raw.
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