[Britster]

I'm someone that has kind of 'come from the other side'. You'd see posts from me not too long ago similar to Teegy. Now that I've made myself more knowledgeable and done more research, I've become very in the middle.

Tbh, I don't think raw is all it's cracked up to be. I used to think it was "the best" even though I never fed it. But really, I've come to the conclusion that all dogs are going to be different and do better/worse on different things.

I've seen some very gorgeous athletic on Purina, RC, and Eukanuba. I've also seen some really crappy looking dogs on Orijen and EVO and vice versa. And I am sure and know that some dogs do amazing on raw. But I've browsed enough dog forums through the years and I have seen some very scary advice regarding raw. People who come on and complain of their dogs hair falling out, hotspots, losing weight rapidly, loose bloody stool and told it's 'normal at first'. And 'oh, it's just a detox'. And basically just scary stuff in general. To be honest, salmonella is the least of my worries. I know that dogs can get it, but they can from kibble as well. It's other things that concern me (such as properly balancing, choking hazards, teeth hazards, etc). Not to mention, I'm pretty certain dogs of the past weren't eating raw the way raw is being fed today. They probably weren't eating kibble either but I doubt they were all getting 100% raw meat diets. Meat is expensive and has been a bit of a luxury for human consumption. The dogs were probably getting the crap that was leftover. And a lot of that was definitely corn mush and whatever other scraps were leftover.

Raw (PMR or BARF) is just not something I'm comfortable with, and have no desire to feed, and I used to feel bad about it, once I joined internet forums -- it just seemed this was "THE BEST" and you were inferior if you did not feed raw. A lot of things are spoken repeatedly like a gospel and then people just start to believe it, including myself. It USED to be as simple to me as suggesting to folks: "look for no by-products, first 3-4 ingredients being meat, no corn, wheat, or soy" without ever even paying attention to where the food was being manufactured, company history, quality control, testing involved, etc.

I do think fresh foods are important and going to be healthier. I think, in general, eating the same kibble day by day is maybe not ideal, and if you have a healthy dog, I would always recommend adding some fresh meats now and then, or even the 95% canned foods. I always give Jackson some fresh meat a few times a week, chicken leftovers, or even eggs, etc. But certainly don't think eating kibble is "death nuggets" either.

So yeah, I'm kind of 'meh' about the whole thing. I don't care if people feed raw or don't, I think it will work well for some dogs and not others, just as certain kibbles work better for dogs than others. In the end, I think more importantly is genetics, lifestyle, exercise, physical condition, when or if you spay/neuter, and vaccinations (less of them). I would never judge those who feel raw is best, I think it's great if you have a dog that does wonderful on it and it's what you feel is best. I think some advice that is spouted around on the internet is VERY scary though. That's my biggest fear is people that don't know what they're doing and messing their dog up unnecessarily.