In this post, we will be looking at the advantages and disadvantages of feeding your dog a home made raw diet. Keep in mind that if you intend on buying pre-prepared raw pet food for your dogs, then this would be slightly different.
Pros Of Raw Diet
- You know all of the ingredients in the food
If you’re a diligent dog owner, then rest assured knowing that a home made diet is the best that you can feed your dog. You can even get free range and organic ingredients if you want to feed your dog the absolute best.
With this diet, there isn’t any guesswork. It is a fantastic diet that is good for dogs that have specific medical issues that are impacted by diet, allergies, dogs with specific food intolerances etc. It is also good for owners who are concerned about the ethics of various dog foods.
- Simple to customize
Another great benefit of making your own dog food is that you can easily adjust and customize the food according to your specific dog and their needs.
Once you have a good understanding of food science, you can easily increase the various macronutrients in the food so that your dog is well supported during different times as needed. For example, during the winter season, various high impact sporting events etc. With that said, this type of knowledge is typically beyond most people.
- Mental and physical benefits
The biggest advantage of feeding your dogs a raw diet is the mental and physical benefits.
There are numerous stories of how raw diets have helped cure aggression, cancer, made dogs change from being shy and withdrawn to confident, improved sight and more. There are so many stories that you’ll likely think that a raw diet is a cure-all!
Now, it is important to not believe everything you read, however, these stories are undoubtedly quite inspiring.
You should definitely look into optimizing diet, training as well as the environment in order to handle behavioral or physical issues. If you only intend on changing your dogs diet to achieve this, then it is quite naive to do so.
Cons Of Raw Diet
- Costly
If you want to feed your dog a raw diet, it will be quite expensive.
When it came to feeding my dog, Barley, a raw diet, it was quite expensive even when freeze dried and frozen meats were used. It was a lot more preferable to spend that money on dog walking during the day, herding lessons etc.
However, if you know butchers, hunters and even farmers, it is possible to get raw meat at an affordable price so that it costs almost similar to kibble. With that said, this is far from being convenient.
Unfortunately, you will have to determine your financial and time limitations when it comes to your pets. Each pet owner will have different capabilities.
- Contagion risk
It is no secret that raw meats contain a variety of parasites and bacteria. This includes listeria, salmonella etc. Exposure to this type of bacteria is quite dangerous, especially if other people in your household are immunocompromised, old or young.
Now, keep in mind that processed dog foods also contains E.Coli as well as the raw meat that you likely handle to prepare your own meals.
I have a best friend that unfortunately has Lyme disease that is in the late stage. Also, I work with unvaccinated puppies quite regularly. This means that the risk of contagion is quite high and something that worries me a great deal. There is a lot of scientific research that that is highlighted by the American Veterinary Medicine Association which clearly shows the dangers of raw food and contagion which means it is something you need to pay attention to.
