about raw feeding dogs, cats...

[Itoero]

What do you think about raw feeding for dogs, cats and other carnivores? It's a diet that exists primarily of uncooked meat, edible bones and organs.

 

I've been feeding my dog (West Siberian Laika) raw for maybe 5 years.

His teeth are more clean then when he ate dry food and he eats more.

He thinks raw food is a lot more tasty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_feeding

[StringJunky]

What do you think about raw feeding for dogs, cats and other carnivores? It's a diet that exists primarily of uncooked meat, edible bones and organs.

 

I've been feeding my dog (West Siberian Laika) raw for maybe 5 years.

His teeth are more clean then when he ate dry food and he eats more.

He thinks raw food is a lot more tasty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_feeding

In the wild carnivores will get their veggie portion from the stomachs of their prey.

[ecoli]

In the wild carnivores will get their veggie portion from the stomachs of their prey.

Do you have a citation for that?

[StringJunky]

Do you have a citation for that?

It came up in my searches when I was perusing about dogs eating grass.

 

In the wild Tigers will feed in the main on the meat of their prey but will also eat some of the internal organs, stomach contents as well as skin and bone. Within a zoo to offer something like this to tigers is not just natural but is life enriching as well. http://www.jukani.co.za/What-Do-Tigers-Eat_article_op_view_id_94

[Zinalu]

In the wild carnivores will get their veggie portion from the stomachs of their prey.

Some carnivores like cats can't draw nutritions from veggies, so whatever their pray has in their stomach is useless to them, they only need the preys own meat, the veggies are for the prey itself to live out of, not the carnivore.

[StringJunky]

Some carnivores like cats can't draw nutritions from veggies, so whatever their pray has in their stomach is useless to them, they only need the preys own meat, the veggies are for the prey itself to live out of, not the carnivore.

The veggies will be in some state of digestion by the prey before consumption, so I'm sure the predator will draw something useful from it.

[Bender]

Cats eat grass, so it must be of some use to them.

[Anthony Morris]

Cats and dogs both benefit from some forms of vegetable matter in their diets. Fiber being one item of importance for both. While they can get some of this from fur or feathers they will often supplement with grass. Raw food CAN be a source of parasites but healthy cats and dogs have strong stomachs evolved to handle the bulk of parasites. Reasonable caution and attention to your pet's health will usually be sufficient. My cats and dogs have always eaten a fair amount of leafy plants. These seem to be the only part they really want so including roots and fruits and grains is probably unnecessary. That said, domestic cats and dogs are actually quite capable of deriving more nourishment from carbohydrates than their wild kin can. Over multiple generations of living off of our ancestors table scraps has given them some adaptations to OUR diet.

[SFNQuestions]

With today's animals, there will always be some kind of vegetables or fruits that carnivorous can gain nutrition from, but those vegetables/fruits won't always be readily available to them it will take a lot of effort for their system to digest. Even sharks "can" eat fruits vegetables if they're forced to, it is only the case that given their physiology, individuals are much better off relying on eating meat and they have instinctual responses to supplement that lifestyle life responding to blood in the water. And sometimes it's the other way around, like for instance deer can eat meet to supplement their diets when the plants they eat aren't available even though they are more adapted to eating plants than meat. Specifically, dogs can directly digest a much wider variety of vegetables than wolves because they evolved that trait from being domesticated by humans as they followed us from continent to continent.

Edited February 22, 2017 by SFNQuestions