William Cusick: Dangers of feeding raw.

Workingdoglover

I mean seriously, how many people who feed something like that are even going to look into feeding raw or even know it is a possiblity???

That's a good point. I think Shadow's previous owner was probably feeding Ol Roy or something equally cheap. So, I added insult to injury by switching him to Nutro. Tried Innova one time for two weeks and had a bad reaction with that and switched back to Nutro. But I think he gets raw once in a while. I have seen him eat a cotton rat (the wild rodent native to our area.) And he's chewed on a few birds though it was more for just chewing than a meal.

Sounds like a person with an ulterior motive to me.

All I am going to say is that that Cusick guy is a nut-job. 

sandra_slayton

That is very intereting.  my golden retriever, honey, won't touch raw meat.  guess she takes after me and wants it cvooked.  i tried giving mine raw tidbit, but they didn't care for them. 

Two of my three dogs won't touch raw meat either. They feel that since they are required to suffer the drawbacks of domestication such as leashes and fences, they want the advantages like beds, couches, and cooked meals.

Stacita

Two of my three dogs won't touch raw meat either. They feel that since they are required to suffer the drawbacks of domestication such as leashes and fences, they want the advantages like beds, couches, and cooked meals.

 

  A lot of adult dogs are hesitant to try raw food and I suspect it is because raw meat has such little odor to it than cooked meat does (except tripe - ick!). If the dog is used to eating kibble or homecooked, raw meat just does not smell like food to them. Of course some dogs take right to it but the ones who don't can still be switched and do quite well on raw food. When I switched to raw years ago my oldest dog was about 8 and while he loved food, he wouldn't touch the raw meat. It lasted a couple days and then he decided to try it - in about a week he loved RMBs.

My husband's dog Gus, when he first came to us a year and a half ago, thought anything but kibble was Not Food.  Since we were actually trying to get him to lose weight, it was fine, but he really needed the raw bones to clean up his mouth - he had some major bad breath.

For a couple weeks I'd lightly saute the chicken quarters he was eating - over the course of that time slowly backing off on the amount of browning I was doing.  Note, even when cooked the most just the outside would be carmelized - the inside was still cold and raw.

He was happily eating them with no cooking at the end of the week and by the next week was leaping for joy at mealtime just like the rest of them. 

Hey Becca, Kane's been all raw for 2 months now but his breath's still stinky. How long did it take for Gus's breath to freshen up after the switch?

It took several months of regular bone feeding and even then he'll get icky breath every so often still.  Some dogs have a more difficult time with teeth than others.  A cleaning is in the works for him at some point, I'm afraid - he's a very prissy gnawer and I'm not sure whether his teeth bug him so he doesn't really attack the bones, or if the way he gnaws tends not to clean well and so his teeth stay ickier than most raw-fed dogs.  

Check his teeth - look in the very back (use a flashlight or have someone else shine the light if you don't have enough hands).  Push back his gums gently on the canines, middle teeth, and then the back if you can.  That's the trouble spot for dogs that chew bones.  If a dog has a tendency to build tartar on those areas, no amount of chewing will knock it all back.  Gus gets buildup there very fast though the rest of his tooth is very white and shiny.  He's the first dog I've ever had like that - healthy dog, I mean - I had a dog who was on seizure meds and it softened his enamel. 

Bad breath can also come from improper digestion.  Food sits in the stomach a long time for a dog, so often they are more likely to have smelly indigestion out the -er- front end.  If the teeth aren't obviously a problem, experiment with probiotics, then digestive enzymes.  Be sure to use a probiotic product with at least a billion CFUs guaranteed.

Good luck!

 

jenns

Wow, there is a lot of misinformation and wild claims made in this article. 

What exactly are these 72,000 "chemicals" that meat is exposed to?  And how does cooking "break them down"?  And the writer of this article clearly demonstrates his ignorance when he states that chimpanzees eat nothing but bananas and leaves.  They in fact eat an omnivorous diet consisting of many types of fruits, plants, roots and some animal protein.  Why does it matter whether the dog is more closely related to wolves or jackals or coyotes?  Don't they all eat raw meat?  Was the cooked meat that domestic dogs have eaten for  all these years fresh, prime cuts of meat?  They have been scavenging through garbage, eating their own poop, licking their rear ends and hunting and eating vermin all this time as well, yet their systems can no longer handle bacteria? What exactly are the digestive and glandular changes that he claims have been caused by dogs eating cooked food?

 I'm wondering on these chemicals to? Without being specific or citing anything it is hard to believe. That is also generalizing anyway. If there are some commercial meats exposed to chemicals those still don't effect the self grown meat stock or the meat/meat animals bought from farmers and ranchers who do not process the meats for commercial resale.