Do raw fed dogs live longer?

It would be interesting to me to know which dogs lived well beyond their life expectancy no matter what they ate--raw or not.

There are so many other factors though besides the fact that they eat raw (or not, for that matter) that could have allowed them to enjoy such a long life. 

I agree with willowchow

Working in the veterinary field and the many nutritional courses I have taken I have never seen any kind of proven litterature suggestion a dog to live past his life expectancy because of raw food.

The total opposite is to be said in a sense. Raw food has little to no nutritional value in it. Although some people may feed it to their dog's because it seems more natural I guess there is close to no nutritional value. Although you may not like the added nutrients in packaged k9 food, in reality your dog needs these. He needs the added vitamin supplements, the omegas and whatever else may be added.

Raw diets or BARF diet, from research and training have not helped any animal out in the long run !!

Raw diets or BARF diet, from research and training have not helped any animal out in the long run !!

I appreciate the observations but the purpose of this thread is for raw feeders to comment about the longevity of dogs being fed a raw diet. 

Alright let me re-phrase that then. There has been no research or testing done that has proven that dog's being fed a raw diet will live longer.

I mean if this was true I am sure we would all be feeding this. Sorry you took it the wrong way !!!

Sorry you took it the wrong way !!!

No need to apologize and I understand and appreciate your point of view but the idea of this thread is to take a survey among raw feeders concerning the longevity of their dogs and other raw fed dogs that they have personal knowledge of through other forums, etc. In order to avoid a contentious debate I would appreciate it if those who do not feed raw do not express opinions concerning raw diets; thanks.

It'll be interesting to see who comments. I'm not old enough to have raised a dog to live to an extended age, but....

What would you consider, "Beyond the life expectancy"? Like... generally.... Maybe over 15 for toys, over 12 for small, over 10 for medium, over 8 for large, over 7 for giant? Maybe not, b/c those sound young, but..... What is it that is generally expected for breeds? I think all of the i-dogs will live longer, because they have excellent care, but.... It'll be interesting to hear what a difference feeding styles make, if any.

Sasha0999 I hope you don't mind my moving that statement of yours to a new thread!  That should make some interesting discussion!  []

On this, I've had numerous direct and indirect experiences with dogs that were experiencing serious health problems on even the best premium food available, make turnarounds that MAY have added years to their lives.  I have a friend, also, with working BCs, who had littermates who were 12 and looking pretty old (average lifespan on a BC maybe 13-15).  She switched them to raw (prey model) and a few months later you wouldn't think they were the same dogs.  They went back to working, and one lived to be 16 and the other is still around, I believe, though too deaf to work now.  These dogs had littermates who all died before they were 14.

I have another friend, also very hard working BCs.  For 25 years, she's fed her dogs nothing but "bull nuts", cull chickens, and a little cheap dog food when the chickens are scarce.  She laughs that she was the first raw feeder and sure did have a giggle when our other friend mentioned above, decided to give it a try (she's a research biologist and seeing was NOT believing for her - research was believing).  Anyway, her dogs all live into their late teens - she had to put her darling Harvey down at the "young" age of 17 and now fears the chicken companies are screwing around with her chickens so that they are harming her dogs.  Because Harvey was "only" 17!

The BC breed itself was developed to thrive on "farm trash" so you have to consider that.  In the old days, they were considered to be in their prime between 8 and 11 - this is well recorded through trial records and the memoirs of trainers and breeders.  The farm diet was not exactly raw feeding but there was a large raw component to it similiar to my chicken farming friend - culls and scraps, plus plenty of fish, both scraps and "shares".  Milk, cheese, oatmeal, and barley meal all completed the typical diet.  There are many historical references remarking on the amazing good health of this "poor man's dog".  The beauty of the working sheepdog is what caught Queen Victoria's eye and her subsequent sponsoring of certain specimens of the breed as a show dog is what gave us the rough collie.

I've switched numerous rescues over to raw and I've never had a time that I said, "Oh shoot, I shouldn't have done that."  Quite the opposite, actually.  That's short term and doesn't really apply here, but it's hard to imagine that the short term improvements I see don't translate to some advantage over the life of the dog.

I'm rambling but there's no science to bring to the table here, so rambling you will get.  There never will be any science to address this question, either, because you could never truly seperate the diet from the other factors a dog brings to the longevity table - genetics, condition, living environment, even lifetime activities (an active dog versus a couch potato).

Thanks for letting me ramble, though!

What would you consider, "Beyond the life expectancy

 
 I'll leave that up to those who post and I agree that all i-dogs probably will live longer.

I dont think this totally answers your question, but it relates.

My father had a dog on their very rural farm when he was a teen. It was actually a coyote mixed with dog, not sure about the proportions though, or the breed. He looked sorta like a small golden retrieverish fox. My dad said he was excellent for herding, and worked wonderfully in controlling the livestock. Very bright dog, apparently.

Anyways, he was fed basically your regular farm dog diet - raw bones (cows & chickens) from butchering, along with lots of the not-so-prime meat cuts. When this wasn't available, he ate whatever they ate (onions and all...). He was also better at catching mice & birds than any of their cats, so he ate small animals too.

He lived to the ripe old age of 17, and even then he was put down mainly because of his recent (last 5 years of his life or so) hatred and intolerance of smaller children. They could usually control him verbally, but he growled a lot whenever a child came into view. It was dangerous having a dog like that around, with lots of grandkids coming to visit.

The reason this may be an odd case is because he was part coyote. So doesn't quite relate to the full dogs that are fed raw. But 17 years is a heck of a long time. I'd be amazed if Sierra made it that long.

Another interesting note though, he never recieved any veterinary care (shots, etc) throughout his life.

I'm rambling but there's no science to bring to the table here, so rambling you will get. There never will be any science to address this question, either, because you could never truly seperate the diet from the other factors a dog brings to the longevity table -

 
 A long carefully controlled scientific study may be possible but it would be hard to get the funding for such a study. Thanks for your comments; they're along the lines of what I was hoping for.
 

When my cousin turned 7 yrs old, he was given a Great Dane puppy.  His name was Charlie and he was breathtaking, he looked like a horse, jet black coat and when he walked, it was poetry in motion.  Charlie died when my cousin turned 23 yrs old, instead of having a party, we had a funeral for him.  His vet could not believe Charlie was 16 yrs old, never suffered not even from a cold and went to sleep one day and did not wake up in the morning.  He lived a full happy life, down to his last day, my cousin would take him walking all the time, they had a lap pool in the house and he used to swim next to him for as long as my cousin did. 
 
Oh yes, he was food cooked meats, veggies, fruits and raw bones.  

The Great Dane story is neat.

I forgot my own dogs.  Don't know why.  My vet is constantly underestimating their ages.  I'll tell this story here again.  One day some vets were visiting ad they were all gabbing in the waiting room .   I was there with Ben getting some meds and they made goo-goo noises and coaxed him over (ok, like he ever needs coaxing).  They wanted to know how old my  PUPPY was. Dr. rolled her eyes and said, "I can never remember how old her dogs are - I think Ben is six, seven?"  He's closer to ten, in fact, and really has a lot of health problems as most of you know.

They couldn't believe it and all had to look in his mouth, eyes, ruffled his coat and looked at his skin, etc (Ben ate up the attention).  I'm thinking there might be something to it when my dogs appear younger to a professional eye.  I'm hoping that holds true for his inside, too, and I've got another good bit of a decade with him.

My Maggie will be 13 this year.  She just went in for her yearly exam and as usual Dr. had to keep referring to her chart to refresh her memory on her age, when figuring out shot schedules and testing and whatnot.  She says every year that she can't believe Maggie is any older than six or seven.  That's the age she went on raw.  Coincidence?  I dunno.  Maggie has been with this vet since she was a six week old pup and has never been to her for anything except two accidents, outside regular yearly exams.  Maggie is probably a comination of two or three very long lived breeds (Finnish spitz, fiest, Border collie - and a particular local line that is really long lived) so I'm not too surprised - and I wouldn't be surprised if she lived to be 18 or so - even the BC I think she is a grandpup of, lived to be 16 and was still siring pups the year before he died.  I'm getting another grandpup (purebred) of that dog, I think. We'll see how long she or he lives on raw only from day one.  Of course, by then we'll be I-dogging in space or something. [sm=wink2.gif]  I need a little spaceship smiley here . . .