Is a Raw Diet a well balanced diet?

Answer: In order for dogs to have well balanced diet, it is recommended they have a large variety of meat, including all parts of the animal: head, feet, stomach and internal organs; as well as fruits and vegetables in small amounts. About 2, 3% of the gray wolf diet includes wild berries and plant matter. Even though some people believe that dogs don’t need anything else but meat , I thoroughly believe that since wolves need some plants in their diet, why not our dogs too? I am going to cover this in more detail in another topic. For larger breeds, to avoid a choking hazard with “gulpers”, give large pieces of meaty bones. As a rule of thumb, make sure the piece of bone/meat is as large as the dog’s head. .Later on, I will provide a calculator with meat-to-organs ratio and how much to feed. I will break the types of meat into two groups, domesticated and wild game.

Meat from Domesticated Animals

Chicken: Feed all parts. Avoid giving wings or necks to large and medium dogs if they are not attached to the carcass (to avoid choking with gulpers)

Duck: Feed all parts. In this case you can feed necks and wings detached of the carcass, but try to break the wings at the joint ( the anatomy of the wing could be a choking hazard for new and inexperienced dogs on raw)

Turkey: Feed all parts, but remove the skin. Turkey skin is not very well digested by some dogs. For small dogs, who are new on raw avoid giving the legs. Those are the only bones, I’ve seen actually splinter and even though I never had problem with those, nor most of the dogs owners I know, I will recommend giving them to your dog after he starts chewing the meat more thoroughly

Beef: Feed all parts with exception of the femur and vertebra bones. Ribs are perfectly fine, as long as you give them large pieces , connected together for the larger dogs. Avoid small butcher cut from the store, or ask the butcher to cut you larger pieces.

Pork: Pork is perfectly fine to give to your dogs as long as your deep freeze it for 2 or 3 of weeks to avoid trichinosis, which is caused by intestinal roundworm. Some people recommend never to feed pork, but I never had any problems with it and our dogs love it, and you will never do as long as you deep freeze it for the 2 weeks time. You can feed all parts and again - not femur bones, not vertebra bones. Pork is very rich meat and more fatty and might cause runny poops in some dogs with sensitive stomachs. You can start by trimming all fat and giving small amounts.  If your dog appears to handle the fat well enough then you can slowly increase the amount until you can give them the meat untrimmed.

Lamb: Feed all parts. Lamb is very rich also, so try starting with small amounts and gradually increase. One exception are lamb chops, which includes weight bearing bone, but lamb bones are not as dense as the bigger animals and you can feed it safely to the dogs

Goat: Feed all parts (no weight bearing bones as well)

Rabbit: rabbit meat is very good for your dogs, the bones are soft and you can feed all parts. If your dog is more experienced with raw food, you can feed the rabbit whole, including fur

In the next post will talk about feeding wild game.