How to Bend the Rules of Raw Feeding

• If you cannot bear to feed raw meat, very quick cooking in olive oil to ‘seal’ the juices is ok. Meat should be rare when served.
• Liquidised raw vegetables will last for forty-eight hours in the fridge, so you need only do the blending three times weekly, although it does begin to lose its goodness pretty soon after liquidising. Rice is fine in small amounts, but pasta is not good as it is made from wheat. If you cannot give a variety of vegetables and fruit, feed what variety you can get. A very good supplement is called Missing Link – available from pet shops, on the net or from my office (08700 111 340).
• An oven-baked mixer biscuit can be used to fill out the diet once or twice weekly: feed one-third meat, one-third vegetables and one-third high-quality biscuit, such as the Natures Menu Oven Baked Biscuits. Do not use any cereals if you are trying to avoid allergy due to grains.
• If you really can’t bring yourself to feed raw bones, Natures Menu / AMP (0800 0183 770) offer minces in our Prize Choice range which contain 4% finely ground bone and thus provide valuable calcium. Chews could be given to clean the teeth if no bones are fed. AMP do supply turkey necks — these are very good to start dogs on to help clean teeth.

Further Reading

The best book on the subject is ‘The Barf Diet’ (ISBN 0 958 592 1 9) by Dr Ian Billinghurst, an Australian vet with more than twenty years’ practice experience. It can be purchased from the Natures Menu Bookshop along with lots of books, DVDs and training toys. This sheet is basically a concise simplification of Dr Billinghurst's book.

Scares

Certain authorities are concerned about feeding dogs raw food. They claim, without substantial supporting evidence, that such a diet can lead to the dogs becoming infected with pathogens, some that can be passed to people. In my experience, dogs are naturally able to cope well with the level of contamination that is present in uncooked food. I believe that they can eat such food and be no more of a threat to human health than dogs fed a commercial diet; indeed, my experience leads me to believe that, if a dog is fed a raw-food diet, it will be healthier and better able to cope with bugs that are transmissible to people. If you have any concerns, or you have very young, very old, or immuno-deficient people in your household, then you would be best advised to talk with your doctor or other health professional.

It may appear difficult at first, but many people pick up the basics of natural feeding very soon after starting.

Give it a try; with the positive difference it will make to the health of your dog, they will thank you – for years and years to come.

 

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