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Feeding real meat?

2K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  MustLoveGSDs 
#1 ·
What are the downside and upsides of feeding a dog real meat (steak, chicken, etc) instead of the dog food that has those nutrients in it?
 
#5 ·
The downside is that your dog might not want to go back to eating kibble. :)

Seriously, there really is NO downside. I have been feeding raw (meat and bones) to my dogs for over 15 years. In that time I have fed over 2 TONS (that's 4 THOUSAND POUNDS) of raw meat with (and without) bones to my dogs. Never had one get sick from eating it, never had bones puncture their insides either.

What I have had are German Shepherd that shed very little, Chinese Cresteds with great skin (a serious problem in the breed), a Cocker Spaniel that NEVER had ear problems and so on.
 
#10 ·
I'm all for feeding raw and my dog loves it. I'm just saying there are still risks involved even with a properly balanced diet. Choking, obstruction, perforation, parasites etc.
Again, I've been feeding raw for over 15 years and in that time I've fed over 2 TONS of raw meat with bones to over a dozen dogs of my own and many foster dogs. I've fed raw to my pregnant bitches, my puppies are weaned to raw and the very old and sick Husky I adopted years ago was switched right to raw and thrived.

Choking - once (my Corgi mix tried to inhale a turkey neck)
Obstruction - Never
Perforation - Never
Parasites - Never

An unbalanced diet can cause problems but there is little risk in a proper raw diet.
 
#11 ·
Raw meat will not make a dog aggressive but it COULD cause them to become possessive.

Think of it this way. I give you $5 and then I decide I'm going to fight you to get it back. How much of an effort are you going to put into keeping me away from that $5?? Now what if I give you $50,000 and try to take it away? You would probably put up a BIG fight to protect that, wouldn't you?

To dogs that have been fed kibble all their lives, raw meat can seem like that $50,000. They might try to guard it - something known a food aggression. It is a problem that can easily be fixed with proper training.

This is an old picture but one I always bring out when people ask this question. This was my boy Remi, eating his chicken leg quarter next to a baby chicken I was raising, who was eating his chicken food!

 
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