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Should Dogs Be Fed Raw Or Cooked Food?This topic is one of the biggest debates in the dog world today. Even though your opinion regarding this subject matter may point in one direction, there are strong arguments on both sides.
Raw dog food diets usually include a combination of uncooked meat from animals, fish, or poultry commonly used for food. These ingredients usually include flesh (muscle), internal organs, blended body parts, bones and uncooked eggs.
Supporters of raw feeding believe that the natural diet of raw meat, bones and organ meats is nutritionally superior to cooked meat and commercial pet food. They argue that a careful plan of a raw diet gives the animal numerous health benefits, including a healthier coat and cleaner teeth and elimination of bad breath.
They also reiterated the fact that dogs have been domesticated for about 15,000 years and up until the 1930s, they were never fed “kibble” or “canned” brands from a store.
Dog owners who support feeding raw food to their pets believe that it’s much more nutritious than processed commercial pet food. These supporters are opposed to commercial pet food because they believe it’s not good for their dog’s overall health.
Many of these supporters claim that when they feed their dogs raw food, they can start to see the benefits such as shinier coat, healthier skin, cleaner teeth, smaller stools, an overall increase in size, and better conformation.
On the other hand, many dog owners who support feeding cooked food to their pets believe that even though raw food has benefits, the risk of illness caused by the handling and feeding of raw food outweighs those benefits. Basically, they believe it’s not worth the risk to feed raw food to their dogs.
They say that raw meat can be contaminated with a variety of pathogens that can harm both animal and human. Most meats used in commercial raw diets may not be handled properly, thus they may acquire bacterial contamination from the hide, feathers, slaughter, evisceration, or processing and packing. Salmonella spp and E. coli are of particular concern.
Feeding raw bony meat to dogs can cause possible gastro intestinal injury if the bones splinter. According to some nutritionists, raw diets can contain bones that have been implicated in hazards to the pets that eat them, including tooth fracture, injury and perforation of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, or colon.
On the other hand, some disadvantages of feeding cooked food are:
Animal protein is made up of long chain amino acids. When a protein is cooked, the long chain amino acids which make up the protein are broken into short chain amino acids, and at this point, they become much more difficult for the carnivore stomach to digest, and their liver to metabolise into energy.
Protein amino acids in their raw form are far superior in quality and function than processed short chain amino acids.
Digestive enzymes are also essential for the conversion of protein to energy, and these digestive enzymes are present in food in its raw form.
They are destroyed in the presence of high heat or various other forms of processing. When digestive enzymes are destroyed, the body is called upon to find them in various other organs, particularly the liver, until enough enzymes are rallied to digest the food in the stomach and turn it into energy. This puts constant strain on the liver.
In addition, up to 50 per cent of vitamins and minerals are destroyed during the cooking process. Enzymes, which are used to facilitate and regulate chemical reactions in the dog’s body, are destroyed, and fats can become toxic when they’re cooked at high temperatures.
If you do decide to feed your dog raw meat, make sure it’s human grade. Cleaning hands, utensils and work surfaces is essential. Bacterial growth can be kept to a minimum by utilising fresh or frozen meats, and maintaining their chilled temperature during processing.
Excess food must be refrigerated or frozen for future use. Never leave raw meat outside in the heat for a long period of time because the meat will spoil and will make your dog very sick.
In addition to this, if you decide to feed your dog raw meat, you may need to de-worm more frequently than necessary because raw food may contain eggs of worms and other parasites. If the food was cooked, the heat would have denatured the eggs of these parasites.
In my own opinion, the best thing for dog owners to do is to feed their pet what they think is best for them, whether it be raw food, cooked food, or a combination of both. However, please ensure that you keep a close eye on your dog and feed it what it prefers to eat.
Keep in mind that not all dogs can tolerate raw foods. If your dog cannot fit into the raw food category, stick with cooked foods only.
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