| FACT. |
[May. 7th, 2008|07:20 pm] |
From: Bailey
Date: May 7, 2008 1:44 AM
The most tangible evidence - in regards to feeding your dog raw - is the numerous results of feeding trials. Those trials show dogs fed raw foods are much healthier than dogs fed cooked or commercial foods.
Modern dogs fed on processed food and home cooked foods have weaker immune systems, and they age much more quickly.
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Dogs Eat Bones
Most people know almost instinctively that dogs love bones. Some believe bones are dangerous. Others find them inconvenient, either because dogs fight over them, or because they ruin the garden with ceaseless burying of and searching for ...bones.
***As a result, dogs, which for tens of thousands of years have relied on bones as the most important part of their diet are suffering health problems at all stages of life, in innumerable ways.
Are Bones Dangerous?
The answer is yes... but only if they are cooked.
***Dogs are NOT designed to deal with cooked bones!
Cooked bones are harder, more brittle and more splintery than raw bones. They are the ones to get caught in the mouth, to pierce the intestines, to set like concrete in the large bowel, or to stick like fish hooks into the rectum. All those events are bad news for dogs.
The long and the short of it is... Don't feed cooked bones. They are unnatural and a danger to dogs.
Raw Bones are Completely Different!
Whilst cooked bones are potentially fatal to dogs, raw bones, in my experience, and in the experience of numerous dog owners, dog breeders and veterinary surgeons, have been the only single food item that guarantees a dog will have excellent health. This is hardly surprising. It's a dog heritage.
***The vast majority of healthy dogs that I have known profesionally and otherwise, were bone eaters. No matter what else they ate, the central theme of their diet was raw meaty bones. By contrast, most of the sick dogs I have known, rarely if ever ate bones.
A dog's whole system is designed for and in fact needs bones to function properly. That desire and ability has not been removed from any breed of dog, no matter age, and no matter how "non-dog-like" it may look.
And how is the dog's whole system designed for bones in order to properly function?
**Bones are nature's storehouse of minerals for your dog. They contain calcium and phosphorus in perfect balance, together with all other minerals essential for your dog's normal functioning.
No need for any mineral supplements - just feed raw meaty bones!
Bones and Dental Health
It isn't difficult to pick the dogs that eat bones. They look and act healthy. The true test, however, is to look in their mouth and smell their breath... A clean set of teeth! No tartar, nice and healthy gums, and a breath that does not smell like a sewer.
Bones are Nature's Toothbrush
As dogs chew on bones, rip the flesh off bones, crush bones, that very action cleans the teeth, and massages the gums, stopping tartar and gum infection, tooth root decay, dental abscesses, and a whole dog poisoned by a grossly infected mouth.
Commercial foods do the opposite.
For those who still feed commercial and/or cooked food to your dog: left untreated that mouth infection, spreads via the blood-stream, and may lodge in organs such as the heart, lungs, prostate, uterus etc...
Bones = Incredible Exercise, Health and Fun for your Dog
Meat left on the bone means your dog will have to rip, tear and chew at it. This is the way nature intended your dog to eat, and keeps your dog healthy. All that exercise of devouring raw meaty bones is of benefit to dogs of all ages.
The dog is exercising its whole body. It's jaws, it's neck, it's shoulders, and it's front legs. It is also exercising the back and hind legs which are braced to resist all of the activity up front.
**Young dogs deprived of bones, NEVER have the correct development of their jaws, neck, shoulder, front legs, chest, back, hips, in fact their whole body!
Meaty Bones and Digestion
All of that ripping and tearing at big lumps of meat - on or off the bone - help with the dog's digestion.
A soft and soggy dollop of mushy commercial canned food requires one or two gulps and then it's gone.
There is very little time for messages to be sent to alert the digestive systom which remains unprepared. Therefore, this mass of mush slides past tartar coated teeth which have not had to chew for year, arriving as a leaden, lifeless lump in an unprepared stomach. Common results are poor digestion, indigestion and diarrhoea. Dogs fed raw meaty bones rarely if ever suffer from the indigestion and diarrhoea.
**Raw meaty bones reduce worms and anal sac issues, saving you a lot of money!
Dogs Eat Organ Meat, Yes
Liver is the most important organ meat fed to dogs. Liver holds a vast range of important nutrients: Vitamin A is the most prominent nutrient, but liver also contains vitamins E,D and K in substantial quantities. Liver is an excellent source of zinc, magnesium, selenum and iron. Most commercially fed dogs are very deficient in all of these. All dogs do require liver for its selenium content (selenium is part of a major body of anti-oxidant called glutathione peroxidase). Liver is also a great source of all B vitamins, particularly B2, B3, B5, B6, biotin, folacin, B12, choline (aka lecithin) and inositol; it contains B1 (aka thiamin) in adequate yet smaller amounts. Liver is also a good source of vitamin C.
**The bottom line on liveris that by feeding it on a regular basis, you are supplying your dog with an excellent balance of a wide range of nutrientsessential for health, including healthy skin, reproduction and temperament.
**Other beneficial organs that your dog can consume are kidney (has essential fatty acids and fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K; rich source of iron and all B vitamins including B12; good levels of zinc; cholestoral level is a bit lower than in eggs), brains (supplies protein, fat and water; cholestoral content is about three times as much as is found in eggs; good source of most of the B vitamins except folacin and biotin; good levels of vitamin C; no vitamin A and a very small amount of vitamin E; brains do wonders for skin), hearts (great source of protein, B vitamins and iron; some essential fatty acids and a little vitamin A; cholesterol level is about half as much as as eggs), tongues (source of protein fat and water; supply some B vitamins; probably not too much better than muscle meat; reasonable levels of zinc) and tripe (not highly recommended; protein, water and few B vitamins).
Dogs Have Always Eaten Vegetables
Surprisingly enough, while dogs cannot thrive successfully on primarily a meat diet, all dogs will thrive on a properly constructed vegetarian (though I am not promoting canine vegetarianism). This point is made because many people believe that dogs are strictly carnivores. And nothing could be further from the truth.
Dogs need vegetables because they contain many important health promoting nutrients. There is one nutrient in particular that only vegetables can supply: Fibre. Dogs which do not eat vegetables will miss out completely on raw vegetable fibre, which has it's own unique set of health promoting properties.
More on Fibre
Fibre obtained from raw vegetables includes both soluble and insoluble fibre. This fibre is very different from insoluble fibre derived from cooked grain, as abundantly found in commercial dog food. That insoluble fibre is much less valuable nutritionally.
Fibre in raw vegetables is important to both preventing and treating certain diseases of the digestive tract - so called "fibre responsive" diseases (including obesity, diseases involving the lining of the intestines, diseases of pancreas, plus other pancreatic problems such as sugar Diabetes and Pancreatitis.
What Else Do Vegetables Supply?
Many things, including the difficult to obtain omega 3 group of essential fatty acids, most of a dog's vitamin needs, masses of enzymes and various anti-aging factors, including anti-oxidants.
**Wild dogs receive the omega 3 group of fatty acids in abundance. Our modern dogs do not. This results in skin problems, growth issues, reproductive problems and problems of degeneration.
Green leafy vegetables contain most of a dog's vitamin needs, only lacking vitamin B12. Leafy veggies are also low in thiamin and choline, but otherwise they supply most of a dog's essential vitamins.
**Unfortunately, most people who feed raw veggies to their dog, feed a product that passes through undigested, making it even more useless than cooked vegetables. Most raw vegetable matter is fed to dogs in large chunks and has not been broken up or crushed. Grated veggies are not even of much value to dogs.
If you are going to feed raw vegetables to your dog, for any value at all to be obtained from them, they must be properly prepared! That is, totally crushed.
When a herbivore eats grass or any other vegetable matter, they chew it into tiny pieces and they crush it.
It is only when the vegetation is "processed" in this way, that it is suitable for a wild dog.
Similarly, unless the modern dog owner physically crushes or breaks down the raw vegetable materials fed to modern dogs, they are unable to digest them.
They are also rarely appetising in "chunky" form, anyway.
Why is Crushing Veggies so Important?
Plants, like animals are composed of millions upon millions of cells. The major difference is, plant cells are each surrounded by a cellulose cell wall.
YOUR DOG CANNOT DIGEST CELLULOSE.
This means, when you feed lumps of raw carrot or celery, or broccoli, etc. 99% of the veggie material, even if it is very finely grated, is unavailable to your dog. Most of it passes all the way through, completely unchanged.
**The contents of each and every cell has to be released from the cellulose cell wall that surrounds it. Every cell must be crushed and split open.
YOUR DOG'S RAW VEGGIES SHOULD RESEMBLE THE CONTENTS OF SHEEP INTESTINES! A food processor works very well to do this, but the best way is to use a juicer.
Example Recipe:
*E.g. one of the vegetable oils such as soyabean or safflower oilf for energy and more essential fatty acids and anti-oxidants (vitamin E).
*Some brewer's yeast for more B vitamins, including B1 (thiamin), high class protein, selenium, and glucose tolerance factor.
*Some KELP for iodine.
*A raw egg yolk for extra protein, for choline and more essential fatty acids.
*Some apple cider vinegar, for its acidity and other healthful purposes.
*Some yoghurt for the healthy bacteria it contains together with compounds called "pro-biotics" - which promote your dog's health. Pro-biotics can be thought of as acting like natural antibiotics.
What Veggies Can be Used This Way?
Whatever vegetables are in season!
ie. spinach, broccoli, pumpkin, cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, carrots, green lettuce, red or green peppers, chives, sweet potatoes, celery, parsnip, peas, beans ... whatever.
The greater the variety, the better!
NOTE: Do not give your dogs excessive amounts of the cabbage family - raw. Large amounts of cabbage, cauliflowers, broccoli and brussel sprouts etc. over a long period, can depress functioning of the thyroid gland. Similarly, beans and peas should only be fed raw in limited amounts.
NOTE: Green potatoes are poisonous, to both humans and dogs.
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