The following is an introductory guide on raw feeding adult dogs. We’ll go over benefits of raw food diet and provide, outline of how to create a balanced raw meal, how and how frequently to feed and go over a few other things to keep in mind when raw feeding.
If you have a puppy, confer reading Raw Feeding Puppies - quick guide to getting started
I’m not a veterinarian or a pet nutritionist. This is not advice on what you should do but rather general information on raw feeding. As with any big changes like these, it’s important that you do what is right of you and your dog, and consult your local experts/vets.
A raw food diet may not be ideal for every dog or every owner.
Let's get started!
In Photo: ground chicken with bone and organs, chicken neck, lamb kidney, mackerel, egg and eggshell membrane, sweet potato, broccoli, frozen berries, plain yogurt, wheatgrass powder and kelp powder
Benefits of Raw Food Diet for Dogs
What are the benefits of feeding your dog a raw food diet that is nutritionally balanced and appropriate for their species?
After switching to a raw food diet, many dogs experience improvements in their health and appearance, even if they seemed perfectly healthy eating kibble. Some positive results of a raw food diet include a healthier, fuller and shinier coat, reduced shedding, improved energy, cleaner teeth, reduced inflammation, reduced or eliminated of skin allergies, improved weight control, and overall improved health. Other positive side effects also include smaller, firmer and less smelly poop. Dogs on a raw food diet may also poop less frequently as they are able to digest and absorb more of the food that they consume.
Kibble is a highly processed food. It frequently is high in carbs, has added colours and other toxins. As with humans, consumption of highly processed foods lowers immune function, causes inflammation and is generally not good for optimal health.
Switching to a whole food raw diet can help reduce inflammation which can lead to many of the positive changes listed above. It also provides them with food that has natural, non synthetic nutrients.
Raw feeding may not be for every dog or every owner. However, given its benefits, I feel that it is at least worth a serious consideration.
Raw Food Diet
When creating a raw food diet plan or meal, the goal is to mimic a whole pray animal.. A nutritionally balanced food that a dog might eat in the wild.
Ensuring that the diet contains all required nutrients is important for long term health of dogs. A poorly constructed, unbalanced raw diet is likely to be worse for your dog in the long term than keeping them on kibble.
Muscle meats by themselves do not contain all nutrients a dog requires. However, if ease is what you are looking for, there are many available pre-made raw grinds that contain all nutrients your dog needs, including organs, bones, muscle meats, etc. This is by far the easiest way to feed raw.
If this is the approach that is best for you, consider also adding some raw meaty bones for your dog as treats. Getting them to chew on these bones will provide your dog with mental stimulation as well as help clean their teeth. Meaty bones can include things like chicken or duck necks and feet.
Next available option, and one that I personally incorporate into my dogs meals, is raw grind that only include meat, bone and organ(s). Mixes like these are usually not nutritionally balanced as they frequently contain only one organ (e.g. liver) and don’t contain any fibre. Adding other organs, meats, veggies and seafood is required in order to make it a nutritionally complete meal. Keep on reading for ideas on what might need to be added to this mix.
Third way to approach raw feeding is to put all the pieces together yourself to create a balanced meal. This is not difficult, but depending on what meats can be sourced in your area challenges can arise. I found that availability of variety organ meats is one of the main challenges.
Ideally, meals should include a variety (or rotation) of different animal protein sources.
As the goal is to mimic whole pray, adding a whole pray animal occasionally will also help in filling certain nutritional gaps. To learn more about whole pray feeding, check out Whole Prey Feeding - Benefits And How To Start
In Photo: ground chicken with bone and organs, chicken wing tips, whole chick, steamed mussel, sweet potato,
frozen berries, plain goat kefir
Composing a Balanced Meal
Most available guides on raw feeding suggest providing a mix of:
80% muscle meat
10% bone
10% organs (5% liver and 5% other secreting organ)
This mix is totally fine. However, the proportions of meat to bone to organs can be adjusted in order to more accurately reflect an average animal composition.
More accurate representation of a animal body composition is:
50% muscle meat
12% bone
25% muscular organs (heart, lungs, green tripe)
2-5% liver
10-8% other excreting organs (kidney, pancreas, spleen, brain, testicles, ovaries and eyes)
If a large variety of secreting organ meats are not available, serving more liver (5%) and less other organs (8%) is likely the optimal choice.
At this point the meal plan is almost complete. Since it’s unlikely that full range of secreting organs is available, a few more foods should be added to fill in gaps in nutrition.
These include:
Seafood such as salmon, steamed or cooked mussels, canned oysters, and
Supplements like kelp powder, wheatgrass powder, and vitamin E oil.
Adding fruit and vegetables is also recommended in order to add fibre to the diet (as well as some nutritional content). Steaming or cooking vegetables will make them easier for your dog to digest. Consider adding things like spinach, kale, chard, carrot, sweet potato, pumpkin, apple, berry mix.
Plain kefir and yogurt can also be added for their probiotic content.
How Much To Feed
How much to feed depends on the dogs activity level and weight goal. Below is a general guide on how much to feed in a day, expressed as a percentage of the dogs weight. When starting raw feeding it’s a good idea to monitor the dog’s weight over a course of several weeks in order to make sure right amount of food is being served.
Daily food intake (% of dog’s weight) | Activity level |
1.5% | sedentary |
2% | low activity |
2.5% | moderately active |
3% | active |
3.5% | more active |
4% | very active |
As an example, my dog weighs 30 lbs and is active. Here’s how I calculated how much food he needs on daily basis:
30 lb x 0.03 = 0.9 lb
My dog requires 0.9 lb of food per day. As this is a small number, it may be a good idea to express this in ounces or grams. To convert pounds to ounces, multiply by 16. To convert pounds to grams, multiply by 453.6.
0.9 lb x 16 oz/lb = 14.4 oz
0.9 lb x 453.6 g/lb = 408.2 g
Personally, I prefer to work in grams. This means, on average, my dog will get about 408g of food per day.
How Frequently to Feed
Adult dogs should be fed once or twice per day. What works, depends on the dog and their handler, you!. My dog prefers to eat twice per day getting about 204 g of food per meal.
Things to Keep In Mind
As you’re dealing with raw meat, it is important to keep food safety in mind. Meat should be stored in the freezer and thawed our over night in the fridge. This ensures that meat temperature does not exceed 4C (or 40F) before it is ready to be served. Keeping food at this temperature slows down growth of bacteria. After thawing, meat can be kept in the fridge for 3 days. Personally, I try to be extra careful and only thaw out about two days worth of food at one time.
Few other common sense things to remember are:
always was your dog’s bowl after each meal
Always was your hands or wear disposable gloves
Wash any surfaces that were touched by the raw meat
Summary
Ensure meals are nutritionally balanced
Amount of food should be based on dogs activity level and weight goal
Feed once or twice per day
Wash hands all surfaces thoroughly with soap and warm water
Keep meat frozen until night before serving
Keep meat refrigerated at 4c (40F) for 3 days maximum
Don’t kiss the dog’s face right after the meal :)
Happy Raw Doggin
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