raw food

[ohmai]

Is it better to feed a puppy cooked [chicken] meat or raw meat?

Also, I just got my puppy a new food; Nutro Natural Choice LARGE BREED PUPPY
Lamb Meal & Rice Formula. Is that an OK dog food? If you need a link to the ingredients I'd be glad to get it up here.

[Blaze]

In my opinion it is better to give cooked chicken and meats because that way there is less chance of bacteria, food poisoning etc.
If you give your dog bones then they are better given raw than cooked though.

I'm not really sure about how good Nutro is but I'm sure it's fine. Any high quality dog food is good and if you aren't sure just ask your vet what he recommends.

[Dobified]

I feed a totally raw diet to my dogs. A BARF diet to be exact.

Raw is better, dogs are designed and built to handle raw foods.

Here are some informative websites to help with your descision.

www.mountaindogfood.com

http://www.barfworld.com/

http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm


http://www.touchmoon.com/dotters/raw/index.shtml


and this is why you may decide to feed it. This is a true documentation of what is actually in that bag of commercial food.
http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/petfood2.html

Any more questions feel free to ask. I have been feeding a BARF diet for years now and my dogs look excellent and are healthy and happy.

[eXile]

Good info Dobified! How much you say you spend on feeding the raw diets? You have 2 so mine would be like half the cost.

[lou3]

puppies eat puppy food. Even if you plan to feed a raw diet eventually (which i dont recommend for a number of reasons but i wont go into that here, no point repeating old posts) you should feed regular puppy food until your dog is old enough to be fed adult food or your dog will be deficient in certain amino acids and phosphorus as puppies need very high levels of both and feeding anything not specifically formulated for puppies can be disastrous.

[koni]

Nutro Natural Large Breed is a good selection. That is what I am feeding Koni. You will eventually notice your pups coat will become shiny.

[eXile]

Yeah there are many natural alternatives to feeding an actual BARF diet. Like Koni mentioned Nutro for one is an all natural dog food. There are quite a few more on the market. Ask your vet.

[ohmai]

Okay, so I'll stick with Nutro from now on. As for some raw food.. I want to feed him raw bones, but I'm not sure which is good for him. What kind of raw bones do you feed your pet ?

[lou3]

bones should not be fed under any circumstances. A dog fed bones is a vet's worst nightmare they can cause all sorts of horrible problems. I'm not even fully qualified yet and i have already seen a dozen or more dogs have to go through unnecessary operations and two dogs DIE from eating bones. And thats only the ones fed raw bones i've seen dozens more accidentally fed cooked bones go through the same thing.

[Dobified]

BARF is a healthy diet for your dog. Dont' let anyone tell you different. If you do your research and homework you will find it is much healthier then commerical dog food. My dogs are proof of that.

Raw bones are excellent for your dog, don't let anyone tell you different. It is the cooked bones you find in the store or even ones you cook at home that are bad. They change in structure when cooked. They become brittle and they can cause terrible damage to your dog. Raw bones are soft and the dog can easily digest them. Only feed the big knuckle bones( Beef ) or the harder bigger bones, never the rib bones( Beef ), although many people who feed BARF say you can. I don't.

I feed raw chicken necks and wings with graet success, I do strip the meat off of the legs bones, and you can feed the softer rib bones of chicken. Our dogs eat mostly raw chicken with other meats and protiens on occasion. They get raw veggies, flax, kelp, oils, vitamins and otehr assorted good foods. They eat better then we do !!!!!