Are Raw Diets Good for Dogs: Unleashing the Truth
Are raw diets good for dogs? No, most of the time… But occasionally, YES! In theory, giving a raw diet for your dog would always be good. Fresh foods, no processing, following a diet plan more aligned with their genetics.
Except, that is not usually the case. There are loads of situations, where giving a raw diet does WAYYY more harm than good.
As always, we strive to bring you up-to-date, research-based information on dog diet, health, and nutrition to give your best friend the long life they deserve.
This post is all about deciding whether or not a raw diet is good for your dog!
Questions About Your Dog
Here are some questions to ask yourself, before you put your dog on a raw food diet. Use these to help determine if a raw diet is more beneficial or detrimental to your dog’s health.
How Old is Your Dog?
If your dog is a puppy, senior, or severely immunocompromised, a raw food diet may not be the best choice. In their life stage, they do not have the right metabolism and energy to digest and fight against common bacteria, associated with raw foods.
In a normal, healthy adult dog, a raw food diet might make more sense. Due to the high levels of acidity, they are more able to fend off unwanted microbiological hazards such as Salmonella and E.coli.
In some cases, a dog who has been fed raw food all their life has to switch to cooked food as they are getting older. This is entirely possible, due to the nature of their immune system.
If you have a puppy, senior, or severely immunocompromised dog, we do NOT recommend starting your dog on a raw food diet.
Does Your Dog Have Any Specific Health Issues?
Does your dog have any health issues you are trying to address?
Giving your dog a raw diet can help with many health issues. Studies have shown that giving a homemade raw food diet can really help dogs with allergies to specific ingredients.
There have also been studies to show that giving a homemade raw food diet can help with gastrointestinal issues, in particular, stool quality and quantity (fewer poops and less diarrhea).
However, many raw feeders will personally attest that feeding a raw diet to your dog has many more benefits such as nicer, shinier teeth, a shiny coat, and more energy. Just to name a few. However, note that most of these have not been studied enough.
If your pup has a specific health issue like allergies or gastrointestinal issues, a raw food diet might be right for you. If you’re looking to start because of the other testimonial health benefits, trying a raw food diet could still be worth a shot.
There are many factors to consider before you start. If you’ve decided that a raw food diet can still be beneficial, after answering these two questions, continue reading to learn all of the other lifestyle considerations to take.
Questions for You and Your Lifestyle
To know if a raw diet is good for your dog, you must first understand why you want to start. There are loads of reasons to want to start your dog on a raw food diet. The majority of the time, it’s because we want to start feeding our dogs the best food for them. The food that will help them live the longest, most love-filled life. I think that’s something we all have in common, as dog owners, veterinarians, raw feeders, and non-raw feeders.
However, knowing that, giving a raw food diet could severely harm your dog’s diet, is extremely important. Therefore, figuring out if it is fit for you and your dog’s lifestyle is necessary, for everyone’s safety! You do not want to do more harm than good!
Are You Willing to Put in the Time?
Whatever time you think you need to get started, double that. It’s easy to start, but for you to create a sustainable diet change, their daily meal needs to be considered complete and balanced. Therefore, you will need to learn about each nutrient, and how much of each your dog needs, and measure out each recipe for your dog’s daily nutrient requirements. In an analysis of 106 diets, every single diet had at least 1 nutrient deficiency. This proves that homemade diets are highly prone to nutrient deficiencies if done incorrectly. This is potentially worse than feeding a commercial-grade dry food that is considered complete and balanced. Malnutrition and nutrient deficiencies can become a huge issue down the line.
On top of that, finding secreting organ meats and other raw meats necessary for your dog’s diet can be tiresome. Finding markets that have them or knowing that you might need to shop in 1,2 or even, 3 markets to find the specific ingredients, are common occurrences.
If you are willing to put in that initial research, time, and effort to do it correctly, a raw food diet might be worth it! If your schedule is more packed, now might not be the best time to start.
Are You Willing to Put in the Money?
Raw food diets can get expensive, especially if you’re raising a big dog like mine! Trying to figure out what meats you need and what foods to add, can get extremely expensive. Oftentimes, I will buy 3 lbs of just muscle meat each week for a week-long meal prep.
Expect to spend much more per week, compounded by the size of your dog. However, the more experienced you get with making recipes, you learn to portion better… and ultimately save a few more dollars each week.
Are you willing to continuously learn?
Just like how we are always on the lookout for what we should and shouldn’t eat, our dog’s diet is not different. You will need to look for new recipes with new ingredients to ensure they are always complete and balanced.
Furthermore, new research is coming out every day about how you should structure raw food diets and how to do them properly. What works for your dog now might not work in 3 years.
Moreover, learning the symptoms and signs of Salmonella or other harmful bacteria sickness symptoms is equally as important.
You must dedicate time to continuously learn. It is not a one-and-done situation. If you are willing to continuously learn throughout your dog’s life, feeding a raw food diet might be a good option.
Are you willing to follow safe raw food handling practices?
The FDA has a very detailed guide on how to safely handle raw foods, but here are some things that you will need to do often:
- Wash hands with soap and water after handling and touching surfaces or objects that have come in contact with raw food
- Cleaning AND disinfecting any and all contaminated objects and surfaces
- Freeze raw meat products at least for a week before feeding them
- Store raw foods away from all other foods
- Don’t kiss your pet around their mouth and don’t let your pet lick your face, especially right after eating
- Wash your hands after touching, petting or being licked
- Wash your hands after handling pet feces
The bacteria can spread extremely easily and should be dealt with caution.
Are you or anyone in your family immunocompromised, and/or might not be able to follow safe raw food handling protocols?
In certain dogs, Salmonella shedding is also very common. This means you must wash your hands after touching your dogs, and clean your house often.
This can become an issue if you have small children or immunocompromised family members. Consider if there is anyone in your life who might not be able to follow safe raw food handling protocols or might be affected by the shedding.
If there are, a raw food diet is NOT recommended, for your safety and the safety of those around you.
Do you have enough space for all this raw food?
One realistic, and quite boring, thing to consider is if you have the space and storage for all these raw foods. Raw foods should be separated from all other foods in the fridge.
If you don’t have a large fridge or extra space to store another fridge just for the pounds of meat you will need to buy, you will need to plan accordingly when starting a raw food diet.
Your Responses to These Questions Matter
This article is by no means trying to deter you from starting a raw food diet. I just wished that I had been more informed about the real health risks before I started. Everyone talks about the benefits, yet not enough people talk about how this might not work for every dog and every family.
If you answered YES to the majority of these questions, consider giving a raw food diet a good shot! We recommend starting with a commercial packaged food brand like We Feed Raw. This is the perfect way to slowly change your dog’s diet without worrying about maintaining a complete and balanced meal. It also gives you the opportunity to see how your dog will react. If there is some diarrhea, try adding a probiotic supplement, or kefir or yogurt into each meal.
From there, if all things go well, you can choose to work your way towards a balanced homemade raw diet.
If you answered NO to any of these, now might not be the right time to start a raw food diet. This doesn’t mean that that won’t change in the future or that you are not giving your dog the best nutrition possible.
There are so many other ways to ensure your pup is getting the best optimal nutrition. You can start by giving homemade fresh cooked food, maybe half fresh and half kibble. You can work on changing your dog’s kibble to a high-quality, good-ingredient dry dog food brand. Moreover, you can try freeze-dried dog food brands or freeze-dried meats as treats, snacks, and enrichment toys.
Conclusion
So… are raw diets good for dogs? Most of the time, they are not good. There are so many factors that you must consider in making sure you are doing a raw food diet properly. If not done properly, it can be more detrimental than helpful. However, if you are willing to put in the energy, time, and money, and take all the steps necessary, feeding your dog raw foods can be wonderful for their health.
Whether you make the switch to a raw food diet or just up the high-quality ingredients in their food now, you will see such a drastic change in your dog’s energy, skin coat, and so much more. They will thank you for giving them the best nutrition possible, in their own special way. <3
