Nothing in life is risk free. However healthy (i.e not immune compromised) Dogs posess completly different digestive enzymes in their stomach and saliva than the ones we have. They also have a much shorter digestive tract to the ones humans have, which means food passes through their system alot faster than it does ours. This allows them to thrive on bacteria that could be harmful to us. Dogs are more likely to get salmonella, e-coli, camplobacter etc from eating other animals faeces whilst on walks. As kitt said freezing for 48 hours or more kills the neosporum caninum. Since the pet food recalls there has been a huge amount of people switching to RAW as it was a reality check as to the fact that we should be more concerned about what is in commercial pet food that whats in raw food.

Just some light reading ;)

http://www.ruffkutz.co.uk/page4.htm
http://www.rawdogranch.com/
http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm
http://rawfeddogs.net/
http://www.naturalpetcare.co.uk/nutrition/dogdiet.htm
http://www.holisticvet.co.uk/nutrition.htm
http://www.ukbarfclub.co.uk/
http://www.rawlearning.com/
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/
http://www.ukrmb.co.uk/showcontent.toy?contentnid=7232
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/diet/exp-diet-guide.pdf

....the enzymes that are natural in raw food provide rapid chemical digestion while in the stomach.....so the pancreas does not have to produce as much digestive juice and the digestion is soon complete......however, COOKED meat kills these important enzymes in the meat so the pancreas has a much bigger job to do....this tends to damage the bowel lining and that's when other organs begin to be affected.......................you made my day Kitt....I wish you all the best!!...........it brings back memories when I only had Millee and we just started raw and I would hold onto the chicken pedal and she would pull the meat off..........sigh........

Again, my friends dog was fed raw chicken and died of salmonella poisoning. Please do a lot of research and talk to your Vet. AND a nutritionalist before deciding on what to feed your dog.

http://www.secondchanceranch.org/tra...eat/index.html

.....I agree.........totally do your research on both sides..........you cannot leave it to your vet to do all the necessary research for you....they go to school to learn medicine not nutrition.....so it is up to us if we want to give our pets a healthy start at preventing illnesses.........a suggestion would be to go to all your friends who have dogs 5 years old and over.....see what state of health they are in then ask them what their health regiment is for their pets......I see too many pets over the age of 10 w tongues hanging out, poor skin, horrible coats, no energy, overweight............our pets count on us to do the BEST we can for them..........so research, research and more research.....and don't take anyone's word for it............look for documentation and photos not just hearsay!!.....just like everyone else on this site I wake up in the morning and can't believe God has blessed me with such awesome little babies.......I will do whatever it takes to give them the care God intended and to help others to the same!.........love you guys!

Would be good to have more information on the said dog and the chicken fed. There are alot of vets AND nutritionists who support RAW.

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/

Interesting, and odd too. So they did an autopsy then? Or, they assumed it was salmonella bc of the recent feeding? If it was assumed, then it'd be totally inconclusive. I'm sorry for your friend's loss.

Okay, I noticed "chicken" and "bones". Are the dogs eating chicken bones? I thought those splintered and were to be kept away from dogs. Am I just misinformed? Sugar stole my daughters chicken leg off the table a couple of weeks ago and I chased her down and took it away from her. Maybe I could have just let her have a little snack...except I don't want her stealing food off the table. I'm interested in what types of bones are okay. Also, Sugar takes her food out of her dish & carries it into the living room. How do you prevent this? I don't want raw meat on my carpet...ugh. I am interested though. I'm going to find some time to read some of these articles. Oh, is there any breed of dog that shouldn't be fed the RAW diet? Thanks & good luck w/ the switch!

Dogs should not eat cooked chicken bones (or any cooked bones for that matter), those are the ones that are dangerous, raw chicken bones are soft, pliable and are simply crunched up and eaten.

All raw bones are fine apart from beef bones (these are too hard to be consumed), you do of course have to taylor which raw meaty bones you feed to the particular dog, with reference to wether they like to scarf their food down and how big they are.

You can simply limit where they have to eat, for example shut the kitchen door so that she cannot carry it onto the carpet. I let my dogs eat them on the floors that can be mopped afterwards. You could also hand feed the rmb (and then wash your hands!) so that it doesn't get on the floor at all.

Thank you so much. This is totally opposite from what I had always heard. That's why I love this place...I learn something new every day!

I think for SOME dogs a raw diet is great, and I do believe that for those dogs it has amazing benefits...I do not think it is right for every dog however. Thus it should be thoroughly researched before it is fed, and if it appears to adversly impact the dog they should be taken off the diet...

I have always had problems with Bruce having a sensitive stomach, I surmise this is just another side effect of his poor breeding, and so after it seemed he was doing great on Innova but his coat seemed dull I consulted a caninine nutritionist. She suggested I feed raw, and worked out what seemed like a great diet plan. Bruce LOVED it!!! After a few days he started not to eat very much...Then came the explosive and bloody diherrea, then the vomiting and skin rash. I took him to the vet and he had colitis and seemed to be irritated by the diet, the nutritionist told me this was just detox from all the bad food he had before, eventually it got worse...I went back to the vet I told him what the nutritionist had explained...What he explained to me is that some dogs thrive others do not on the raw diet just like any other...I removed Bruce and got him back in his Innova and just started throwing a little cowboy magic in his hair and he could not be better!

I have noticed a lot of proponents of the raw diet really push it (no one here) on others, but if it doesn't work for your pooch, don't keep it up for long!

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with raw. Raw is not for every owner, or every dog.

Some dogs do experience detox, its the body naturally shedding what has built up in their system over time. I helped to coach an owner through 4 weeks of detox, it was really hard and if the owner had wanted to give up at any time she could of but she made the decision to continue and he (the dog) is now the heathiest boy you could know, he is thriving and problems he experienced on kibble have disappeared. She knows now that she did the right thing. Many owners would not have been brave enough and that is ok because we are all different.

There are certain precautions to take when switching to RAW, especially when a sensitive dog is concerned. The first is only one food at a time, you should choose one meat source only and introduce each part from that animal (i.e meat, rmb's and offal) at a time, only introduce the next food once you are certain that they are fine on the previous one. When people first switch to raw they tend to want to do everything at once, unfortunately this can have an adverse effect on a dog. After you have the meat and bones sorted you can add other things if you like. You should also feed live yogurt or another digestive support food to help them at the start. If they have eaten that same food for weeks, months or even years and then suddenly their owner is giving them several different foods a week it is a recipe for disaster. Switching to raw takes time and you have to be gentle about it.

Also its worth mentioning that the whole point of RAW is that you can taylor the diet to suit your particular dog. Some dogs need more meat to bone, some more bone to meat, some do well on white meat, some red, some both. Some dogs do great on fish, others can't stomach it. Just because one type or raw diet doesen't suit a dog, it doesen't mean that no type of raw diet will. There is no right way to feed raw, its all about know thy dog.

Its understandable that RAW feeders will promote it because they have seen the difference it has made in their dog. Much like a huge amount of people on here promote home cooking or certain brands of kibble.

Thanks for all your comments and concerns as well as the wonderful information. I am currently feeding raw to all 3 of my dogs and it is going well so far. I plan to keep a very close eye on them and make any changes that I feel are necessary. I took my yorkie Teddy to the vet today for his shots and he is not gaining enough weight, he has only gained 1oz in about 5 weeks but I can not attribute that to the raw food diet because he has only been on it for 5 days now. She did say he will be on the small side because he is just over 4 months and 2 1/2 lbs. I plan on increasing the amount I feed and seeing how that goes. I found that I need to cut his meat into small pieces because he has a hard time riping it from the bone and he tends to try to swallow pieces that he can't get down. I do plan to continue with the raw diet because I do feel it is what is best for my dogs.

Ok, this might sound little odd, but can someone post a picture of their furbabies eating chicken drumstick? I always think a drumstick is HUGE for Yorkie to eat??:confused:

Teddy could never eat a whole drumstick they are bigger then he is. I usually cut it into a smaller portion size making sure it includes meat and bone and feed the rest to one of my bigger dogs.