Why Should You Feed Your Pet Raw Meaty Bones?

Dogs, cats and ferrets are carnivores. Dogs are directly descended from the Wolf, cats are directly descended from the African Wild Cat and ferrets are directly descended from the Polecat.

Mankind has domesticated these animals, and, especially with dogs and cats, has changed their outward appearance and size. Internally though, their digestive systems have not changed - and one of the biggest indications as to how carnivores eat and how pet carnivores should be fed is found inside their mouths - they have all the perfectly designed teeth to shear through meat and crunch down on bone.

From nose to tail tip, our domesticated carnivores are designed, both physiologically and psychologically, to eat, digest and thrive on a diet of whole herbivorous prey animals or parts thereof.

What’s Wrong With Canned and Dried Food?

So, what’s so bad about feeding ready prepared canned or dried food - it’s easy, approved by the veterinary profession and “scientifically proven” to be the very best for our beloved pets - or at least that’s what the advertising says!

For the full reasons why processed food is SO bad for your pet, we would strongly recommend that you read the book Raw Meaty Bones, written by enlightened veterinarian Tom Lonsdale. (ordering details here).

Briefly, processed pet food contains grains and vegetables - totally unnatural food for dogs, cats and ferrets. It contains additives and preservatives. It is cooked, which alters and in some cases destroys the availability of any nutrients that were present in the food before the cooking process.

Although our pets do manage to digest these unnatural forms of food, their digestive systems have to work flat out to derive any benefit that this unnatural food may bestow on their health. That puts a huge strain on the pet.

One of the MOST important facets of a processed food diet is the effect on the pet’s teeth. Processed food sits like sludge on the teeth - and pets don’t have access to a toothbrush after every meal, as we do.

Uncleaned teeth can lead to infection and eventually to periodontal disease. As with human health, inflammation from dirty teeth enters into the bloodstream via the gums, carrying infection into the body. This in turn facilitates diseases such as general urinary tract disease, renal failure, obesity, diabetes, irritable bowel disease, 'allergies,' etc, etc.

Advice from the majority of the veterinary profession is to clean the pet’s teeth yourself as often as possible (have you ever actually tried to do this?) and have regular dental cleanings every six months, under anaesthetic.

Apart from the risk to the pet and the expense for you, your dog, cat or ferret will then have clean teeth for two days out of 365! Just imagine what your teeth would be like, and what state your mouth would be in, if you only cleaned your teeth twice a year!

Why Do Vets & Breeders Recommend Processed Food?

When the breeder and the vet recommend feeding your dog, cat or ferret on commercial pet food, why should you ignore such advice? When they, and the information on the can or packet tells you that this food is nutritionally balanced, and made for optimum health, why should you disbelieve them? After all, they know best, surely! So why would they be giving you such advice if it is incorrect?

As far as the breeders are concerned, it may simply be because they don’t have any knowledge of the alternative. They may have been supplied with some free samples of branded food to not only feed their own breeding stock, but also to encourage their new puppy owners to do the same.

Nutritional teaching in all veterinary schools is given by lecturers sponsored or provided by pet food companies. Right from the start of their training, all vet students hear about nutrition is delivered from a very biased perspective and they receive little, if any, information about any alternative to processed food.

It would be wrong to blame the vet students and, ultimately, the qualified vets for their lack of education concerning feeding a raw food diet. It is down to the influence and money of the pet food companies. Once the young vets graduate, they continue to be influenced by reps visiting their practices, by the same biased advice delivered from their own veterinary associations - and by the enormous influence that the pet food companies have over the veterinary profession in general.

Human health care professionals ALL advocate that we eat fresh and natural foods whenever possible - why should it be SO different for our pets?

Pet food companies sponsor dog shows and television programmes. They advertise in your vet’s waiting room. They sponsor a variety of events, including veterinary conferences. Then there is all the information on the can or packet - surely they can’t make all those claims if they are untrue!

We are not trying to sell you a product - we don’t make anything to sell. The many raw feeding web sites available (see links) are not trying to sell you anything either. So why should we want you to feed raw to your pets? Because we know it works! Evolution has proved that, without any interference from mankind. Carnivorous pets and their ancestors have eaten raw food for millions of years.

Processed food has been around for only about 100 years. The diet we are advocating is not a processed, manufactured food, but just normal food, fit for human consumption, which you can buy from your butcher or supermarket.

Be prepared to have to argue your corner with vets - and sometimes other pet owners. Some people will tell you you’re mad, or cruel, to feed your pet on raw meaty bones - especially if you feed them chicken.

The myth about chicken bones continues to perpetuate but it is the COOKED bones which can be dangerous, because they can splinter. To explode the chicken bone myths, and others regarding raw feeding, have a look at:
www.rawfed.com

For more detail about WHAT and HOW to feed your particular pet, click on one of the links below.

Dietary recommendations for DOGS
Dietary recommendations for CATS
Dietary recommendations for FERRETS