I'm a huge fan of Dr. Becker and Dr. Dodds, who is doing some great research, as well as many other lower profile holistic vets who support home cooking and raw feeding.
If you educate yourself you will see that either a well prepared home cooked meal or a raw diet are actually the best thing for your dogs. The proof is in the pudding.
I think a lot of fear and misconceptions are out there in regard to handling and dealing with raw meats, but it's no different than if you were making yourself a rack of lamb or a prime rib, use safe hygiene practices.
I certainly wouldn't recommend someone home cook or raw feed without first learning what they are doing and the means to do so are readily available.
I have several friends who as instructed by breeders fed their dogs RC Yorkie, they ended up ill with allergies, hives and skin lesions, hair loss, ear infections, pancreatitis, liver issues and bad digestion causing them to go to the vet to have the anal glands expressed on a regular basis.
They finally after thousands of dollars at the vets made the switch to a raw. Itching stopped within a day, hives started to clear up within a few days, ear infections gone within a week, new hair growth within a week and the anal glands no longer needed expressing as their digestive system began to function properly.
On Friday my friends Yorkie died. She had been home cooking and feeding the occasional raw meal to for him for 6 years and when she went back to work it was recommended she go on RC Yorkie as she didn't have the time for preparing his meals. The dogs health started to fail after almost a year on this and her vets couldn't find anything wrong running test after test and spending lashings of cash. She finally went went to another vet for a second opinion, he had severe necrotic pancreatitis, his liver was severely damaged, fluid had developed on his lungs and a secondary bacteria had kicked in. His body went into shock and they couldn't save him. |