I have been feeding RAW (yes, UNcooked meat and meaty bones)for four years, now. The switch from what the industry labels as "food" saved the life of my senior dog, Mozart.

The reason this is being recognized as THE #1 diet for canines is that dogs are carnivores. They are neither herbivores, nor omnivores as we have tried to squish them into our human perception. They are WOLVES, and their systems are created to process a prey model diet.

Yes, of course dogs can subsist on carbohydrates and veggies with a smattering of real protein thrown in - it's called survival. But, it is NOT easily digested and is NOT what's best for his system.Yes. RAW, UNcooked meat and bones. Cooking makes bones brittle and dangerous, and kills all the nutrients that the dog's system is designed to extract in it's RAW form. Whatever "bad stuff" (I'm assuming you are concerned about salmonella and parasites?) that is in raw meat, the dog is equipped to handle. They have enzymes in their mouth and digestive tract that kill such nasties, whereas, humans are NOT equipped to handle those things, so it would be foolish for us to lick a RAW chicken leg.

I read so much about how much trouble people have getting their "picky eaters" to eat, and how bad their pets teeth are. I must say, I actually ache when I read such posts from folks who won't even try RAW as a solution. Neither of my dogs smell "doggy", and their breathe never smells bad. My vet is in awe of Mozart's teeth. He is in his 13th year, and never has teeth cleanings. They are white and strong. The RMBs (Raw Meaty Bones) he eats, naturally clean them up! Abigail has been on RAW (not ground, either) RAW meat and bones from the age of 9 weeks. She's happy, strong, energetic and looks forward to mealtime.

Duke loves veggies, carrots, corn, peas, all of them. He also get some of my supper from time to time. I hope it won't hurt him any.

I never watch Oprah. I work during that time. But it's nice to know they use real peoples dogs. how did you get them to use Henry's photo?

maggie doesnt like much of anything in dog food. I am throwing out perfectly good table food I could give her but i've heard so much about dont feed them our foods and they need the dog foods and I'm beginning to think some of that is a bunch of bunk. I know for a fact, maggie eats our food lots better when she is allowed to have a few bites and loves it. I wouldnt feed her pork tho. I even have added just a teaspoon of milk in her dry dog food a few times and she loved it. I think i'm just gonna start feeding her some of our left over supper and maybe and egg or something for breakfast. I feel so bad when we throw out good food and she hasnt eaten anything all day and some days she just wont. But i've found also once she has a little bit of our food if i leave out some dry food all day, she will eat it late at night sometimes when she wont hardly eat it other wise and so far, i've never found a dry food she really ate well. she likes cottage cheese or any kind or cheese really, thats how i give her, her allergie med, in a peice of cheese balled up around the tiny pill. no problem, she eats it right up.

another thing, seems to me we're just making the dog food companies rich and they do not fix the best foods for our babies while we throwing out good food they would love to have.

Yep! Though COOKED food is not optimum for the canine, it's certainly better than the *c*-in-a-bag the industry has been passing off as "food" for the past 5 decades.

Yes, the ground chicken & turkey is w/the regular meat.:)

What type of Raw Meaty Bones are you giving them? This is very interesting to me.

Depending on the dog's size: Chicken leg quarters, Beef ribs (NOT weight-bearing bones of larger animals. Weight-bearing bones of larger animals are too dense and will damage teeth or jaws), Pork blades or ribs.

You should join a RAWfeeding egroup and watch the conversation for awhile. Ask questions - no question is too "silly" for your dog's health and happiness.

Please, do not mix RAW meat and bones with commercial dog "food", thinking a little bit of good is better than nothing, at least. Any commercial kibble or canned foods going into your pet has the same end: empty calories, no nutrition and a quicker route to disease, arthritis, and a plethora of maladies they need not suffer.

That was a great informational show Oprah had. My Rocky and Daisy have just recovered from having loose bowels from Natural Balance Venison & Rice. Saw that Oprah feeds her dogs brown rice, chicken, and carrots. I made this for my 2 and they just love it.

Question I have is how much of each of those ingredients should I give? I assume it's gaged based on the weight of the dog (per pound). Want to make sure I give enough but yet no too much of one ingredient.

Appreciate any feedback you can give me.

Girltime, you should get a book on natural dog health. Dr. Pitcairn has a wonderful book (the third edition is the newest one). You will absolutely love it, and there are lots of recipes in the book. You can get it on amazon.com. It also tells you what kind of supplements and how much to feed. It's very important to understand the supplements and nutrients that your dogs needs if you're going to feed a cooked diet on a long-term basis so that it's a balanced meal. I guarantee you will never go back to "dog food" again.

Thanks YorkieLuv,

I appreciate the book recommendation and yes that's exactly the information I'm needing to find out. Short term I plan to provide cooked brown rice, ground chicken or ground beef w/raw veggies...For long term I'm researching Raw Diet with Bravo or Nature's Variety. Both of these are recommended by Oprah's vet Dr. Marty at. http://www.drmarty.com/feeding.htm

Right now my 2 are still in recovery mode and I'm going to keep them on cooked for at least a month before introducing raw. Have to say both Bravo and Nature's Variety websites have a nice interactive approach that allows you to put in your dogs weight to know how much to feed daily.

Dogs can't digest veggies like we can, so it's best to at least lightly steam the veggies or juice them or puree them or something like that.

"Dogs have difficulty with fermenting and breaking down of vegetables, so we try to prepare vegetables to allow them to be utilized as fully as possible. This is achieved by several methods, including cooking, steaming, pulverizing (as in a juicer or grinder) or freezing and then fully mashing when thawed."
http://b-naturals.com/Jul2005.php

Also, here's an article on raw feeding that you might find helpful too :)
http://b-naturals.com/Jun2002.php

This website is super helpful...towards the top right of the page, there's a little thing where you can click on the arrow and a bunch of little links will pull up...look at all the different topics they cover. They're all great!