Letters to the Editor
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Good article
I'm a pre-vet student, but for now that means I'm more concerned with hydrogen bonding than veterinary science, but that aside... I thought I had read somewhere that dogs rarely contract salmonella, so they are freer to rummage for roadkill and bones they buried a month ago. On another note, some people are getting fanatical about this - especially comparing their wild cousins - just about any wild animal has a life expectancy half that of a domesticated, and many problems such as cancer, diabetes and weight problems occur because that's what happens to organisms with age, it's a tit for tat that we humans know all too well as we live longer and longer. Cancer wasn't happening when we were hoping to live to 30. If you go by nature, wild dogs, coyotes, ect. eat a lot of scavanged but 'natural' crap... goose eggs, rats, mice, left over rotting kill. Cats are just killing machines, what they eat and what they just feel like clawing are not always the same.
But canines and felines are carnivores, they do not process grains and cellulose products - a little wheat grass may help digestion, but why people feed dogs vegies is beyond reason to me. There is a lot of room for speculation here, I mean scientists have stated our brains grew with the consumption of raw meat - hunting was probably the first thing that really catalized our brain capacity and spurred technology - so for dogs and cats then perhaps there could be health benefits too on a biochemical level with animals not just eating raw flesh, but killing it... I mean animals may feel as much accomplishment killing a rabbit as we do making money or designing a nanotube.
The weird thing is, is that I eat more raw meat than my dogs or cats... sushi, steak tar-tar, oysters, and why did I always get hungry after disection class? hmmm..?
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I think it's funny...
that a lot of the people who do raw diets have purebred dogs.
I'm personally suspicious of anyone who is dogmatic and self-righteous about their choice to feed their dog better than many people eat. It's pretty twisted.
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Beg to disagree
Actually for most of their domestic evolution dogs have been feed raw untreated meat and whatever else they could scavenge, they most certainly have *not* been fed mostly table scraps. You might want to reconsider your professors qualifications.
I also talked to my vet. She said she has had several dogs come in over the years who have been sick or hurt by eating raw meat
And how many has she seen choke or with lously teeth/gum problems due to kibble over the past few years ?
As I was remined off list "While choking episodes of raw dogs and cats are being carefully noted, there seem to be no stats at all on the number of animals who choke or bloat on kibble"
Animals have a number of kibble related problems which are usually ignored for comparison purposes.
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RAW is cheaper and better
Mister Buck, my pitbull mix, has been on raw food ever since he was a puppy, when I started reading about the crap they put into dog food - the fillers and grains. I began cooking my own mixes, but then I discovered BARF - and it's been raw for the last five years. One of my dogs, an ancient golden mix, perked up so noticeable for the last years of her life when she switched to raw, they my sceptic brother was completely sold (we shared this dog between us). I don't trust the vets - you walk into their offices and all you see are posters and ads for commercial dog food. Read a few books on BARF and you'll be sold, though, leave it to San Francisco to make it look foolish and evangelical: my dog also gets table scraps, commercial dog treats (such a Livasnaps), vitamin supplements (as well as oils for his fur) - his basic diet consists of chicken necks, backs,legs and wings: I like to buy a whole chicken, quarter it with a shear, give Buck the livers, gizzards and stuff like that, and then prepare a few days worth by divvying up the raw meat into freezer bags - he's fed raw once a day. In the morning, I prepare a raw egg, with some high-potency GreensPlus (which I also take for myself), a bit of milk and a vitamin supplement which I crush into this mix: I think it all comes in at less than $2 a day, but I've never really done the math because it's so cheap. You can't cook the bones because they become brittle - raw bones are soft, and Buck has never been made ill by raw feeding. It is true that you have to find the right balance - sometimes I overfeed and Buck gets a bit heavy, but then I cut back his chow and he slims back down: I'll never go to commercial food again for any pet that I own.
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I'm confused
First of all, I by organic beef, but for the humans in my family. I have two dogs and a cat, I and feel it's decadent enough to be feeding them some premium kibble, fifty Canadian bucks a month -when all they want is to eat what we eat, tofu burgar, steak or Pad Thai, what Alpha Dog eats must be best in their eyes.
. I often think back to a relative I knew, who fed his dog in the OLD FASHIONED WAY, leftovers, big slabs of pizza,etc. The dog lived until old age. But I have these over bred dogs, a Standard Poodle and Boston. Many purebreds have stomach problems, related to inbreeding. These dogs aren't natural,in themselves, why feed them like dogs in the wild, who were scavengers, no, picking the marrow out of bones etc. Am I right? I know the vets see me coming, I know the pet industry is pig, but this raw meat diet trend seems ridiculous, like so many things human beings get into and so expensive.
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Would you eat kibble every day?
I started feeding my dog a raw diet based on Dr. Pitcairn's book in 1998. Over the years, I experimented with a few different diets, including Sojos and Steve's Real Food, until I found one that was easy, healthy and inexpensive. You don't need a meat grinder or an extra $500/month to spend on organic ground quail or whatever. My dog was a 3-yr-old shelter mutt with a bunch of health problems when I adopted her, and a year on Hill's Prescription Diet made her worse. The raw diet turned her into a puppy again, I'm not kidding. She died at age 11, and people often assumed she was still a pup -- clear eyes, shiny fur, lots of energy.
Our cats eat raw (Sojos) and are sleek and lean with boundless energy. The vet scolds us for feeding raw when we bring them in for their annual checkups (the only time they need to go to the doctor, I might add), but he has yet to find any health problems with them.
I mean, look -- If you've got an outdoor cat, odds are Kitty's hunting and eating birds, rodents and other uncooked meats. Most people understand that this is normal and natural. Vets might say our pets are "privileged" to eat processed food, but we know that fresh, whole foods are healthier for humans than processed foods. Why would they be less healthy for our pets? Just like eating an apple is healthier than eating an apple-flavored snack for humans, eating real chicken is healthier than eating a chicken-flavored grain pellet for animals.
Processed kibbles are full of preservatives, sugars and grains that many animals can't digest and are allergic to. Read the ingredient list on your next bag of dog food. Do you even know what half of that stuff is? It's the nutritional equivalent of Cheetos.
One thing Mieszkowski neglected to mention: The Association of American Feed Control Officials, the organization that supposedly supervises pet food quality, is a voluntary, unregulated body. There is no government or independent oversight of what goes into processed pet foods.